Summary

Chantry chapel. c1860. By CF Hansom for Count John Eyre.

Description

MATERIALS: limestone coursed and squared, with some ashlar courses and Welsh slate roofs.

PLAN: rectangular vessel with apsed chancel, south spirelet and porch.

EXTERIOR: French Gothic style, rather more elaborate than adjacent cemetery chapel. The west wall has a three-light Decorated window with quatrefoils in the head. There are corner buttresses, and a coped gable with a cross. South wall has a large gabled porch with cross. There is a small hexagonal tower with open belfry and spirelet above. The tower in the centre bay is flanked by two-light windows with trefoils in the head tracery. There are three similar windows in the chancel and three more to the north wall. The bays are separated by gabled buttresses with off-sets. The roof is banded in plain and scalloped slates.

INTERIOR: not inspected but reported to be richly decorated, containing an ‘Elaborate altar in alabaster by Mr. Charles Hansom, executed by Bolton of Cheltenham'. (Tunstall, 1875, p.131): this includes a figure of the recumbent Christ, with the altar above forming a canopy, carried on shafts of Irish green Serpentine. Recessed arches with rich capitals are carried on shafts of Devonshire marble; the screen of hammered ironwork is by Hardman of Birmingham, which firm was also responsible for the stained glass. The floor of encaustic tiles is by Mintons.

History

The mortuary chapel (or mausoleum) was built for a recusant Eyre family of Derbyshire, by C F Hansom. It is believed that the chapel was built c. 1860 and an uncited cutting from a periodical, dated 21 October 1863, gives a full account of the lavish interior decoration and fittings.

Reasons for Listing

* Architectural interest: the exterior of the chapel retains its original form and the elaborate interior includes work by several of the foremost firms producing Gothic Revival church furnishings at this time;
* Group value: the mausoleum forms a group with the Wall, gatepiers and gates to Perrymead Cemetery (Grade II) and the Roan Cross, also within the Perrymead Cemetery (Grade II).

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q96196263

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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