Cemetery Chapel - Upper Bucklebury
ACCESS TO THE CHAPEL BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
The building, which is of rendered concrete, is in reasonable condition, and maintained by the Parish Council. There are attractive Victorian metal wall grates set round the building, mostly low down where they probably aerate the underfloor area. At the rear of the building, and visible externally, there appears to be the remains of a star shape, high on the wall but its origin is unknown (it may represent a lost window). The window frames on the existing windows are original and the glass is sympathetically restored where it had been destroyed by vandalism. The chapel rendering is unpainted. There is some cracking and peeling to the structure above and below the windows in the sides of the building which has been mended in the past and will be mended sympathetically again this spring (2017) . It has altered little since it was built The original fixtures and fittings remain, including the bell. The surrounding wall is also of concrete, and of mainly Victorian date, having been breached at one point when the cemetery was extended.
The church yard of St. Mary’s being full, the cemetery with its surrounding concrete wall and chapel were built on common land purchased from the Bucklebury estate in 1884? The chapel was funded by a mortgage taken out by the parish council recorded in the Minutes of the Burial Board. The chapel was used for services and Sunday School until 1962 when a new bigger church (All Saints) was built in Broad Lane. Upper Bucklebury. (The church yard was extended in 1902.)
