History

The site was purchased by the Newport Burial Committee from Lord Tredegar in February 1854, the first burial being on 18th July of that year. The competition to design the Nonconformist and Anglican Chapels, together with the lodge and gates was won by Johnson and Purdue, architects of London, the buildings completed in November 1855. Towards the middle of the C19, growing urban populations coupled with increased cholera outbreaks meant that many parish churchyards became notoriously unsanitary. In 1850, the government passed the Metropolitan Burial Act, which was extended in 1853 to England and Wales. The purpose of the Acts, which spanned 1850-57 was to ensure that public cemeteries were laid out, bodies buried in a dignified fashion, and that all burials were recorded. The setting out of cemeteries with elaborate gates, lodges and chapels for various denominations had already been initiated by the London-based General Cemetery Company, a private enterprise, which laid out Kensal Green Cemetery 1831-37. Kensal Green received much publicity, fuelling the increasing sentimentality in commemorating the dead. Following the Act of 1853 came a boom in cemetery building, Newport being the first public cemetery in Wales. The use of contrasting styles for the Nonconformist and Anglican chapels is unusual among the early public cemeteries, reflecting the strength of Nonconformity in Newport.

The Roman Catholics after some difficulty, gained an area on the north side of the cemetery by 1855, but it was not until c. 1880 that they built their own chapel, by which time the Jews had a small separate burial ground immediately to the north of the cemetery. The cemetery was extended to the SW by c. 1880, demarcated by the avenue of pine trees towards the W end of the site, and again in the early C20. The cemetery remains in use, the chapels are now used for storage. The lodge is used as the cemetery office.

Exterior

Gothic style, matching entrance gate. Two storeys. Construction of red rubble sandstone with Bathstone detail. Clay-tiled roofs with deep eaves. Yellow brick chimney stack on ridge to NE. Glazing all replaced in plastic. Plan is roughly T-shaped. Gabled wings facing S and E, the former terminated by a small hip. Both wings have chamfered corners with broach stops above and below. S wing has canted bay window to ground floor. First floor has paired trefoiled lights with central colonette, set within trefoil-shaped Bathstone surround. Similar window to first floor of E wing: three trefoiled lights below. In angle between E and S wings, roof sweeps down over altered roughcast porch, which has C20 door facing E. W wing has slightly taller ridge-line, terminated by angled hips over canted end. Eaves-line of angled hips broken by two plain windows. Plain windows to N; also gabled dormer.

Reasons for Listing

Group value with cemetery gates and chapels. Despite alterations, the lodge is a prominent surviving feature of the first public cemetery in Wales.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29499568

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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