Kibworth Cemetery lych gate and iron gate, Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire

Summary

An enclosed lych gate of 1894, attributed to Edward Mason.

Description

An enclosed lych gate of 1894, attributed to Edward Mason.

MATERIALS: brick base with stone coping to lower courses, timber framed superstructure with rendered panels and timber doors. Stained glass windows. Clay tile roof covering, iron gates.

PLAN: rectangular, orientated with the short ends bearing the double doors facing north-east into the cemetery and south-west to the Harborough Road.

EXTERIOR: the lych gate is a single-storey structure under a steeply pitched clay tile roof which flares out at the eaves forming a deep overhang. The barge boards to the gables are cusped with carved foliage in their spandrels with a post supporting a finial rising through the apex. A brick skirt of 10 courses surrounds the building, the bottom course is in blue brick, the rest red. A course of chamfered stone coping tops the brickwork and supports a timber framed superstructure.

The gable ends are both of the same design and hold the arched double doors; the south-west gable faces Harborough Road, with the north-east gable allowing entry to the cemetery. These pairs of doors are panelled timber and set in a stepped rectangular architrave with the spandrels between it and the arch of the door decorated with carved foliage. Above the doors the gable ends are set with six timber studs with rendered panels between them. Either side of the doors is a single ogee-headed panel.

The side elevations above the brick skirt consist of timber studs inset with four rendered panels with ogee-headed mouldings, these panels alternate with three stained glass windows, the central of which is a double window. The windows have floral designs within cusped tracery.

INTERIOR: narrow wood-strip panelled walls with herringbone brick floor. The sides are lined with benches divided by wooden columns with stylised capitals from which spring arched roof braces.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: three stone steps lead up from Harborough Road to an iron gate of simple post and rail design, decorated with scroll work and finials. It is in line with the doors to the lych gate and set within a modern metal fence.

History

Kibworth Cemetery was established in May 1893 on land east of the neighbouring villages of Kibworth Beauchamp and Kibworth Harcourt, immediately north of the Harborough Road. The site was purchased and administered by the burial board established by rate-payers from the joint Kibworth parishes. A clerk was appointed to administer the cemetery from 1 August 1893, and another person was employed as a grave digger and caretaker.

A lych gate is a ceremonial entrance to a cemetery through which the body of the deceased is taken en-route from their home to place of burial. The lych gate at Kibworth is thought to have been the work of an Edward Mason and was completed in 1894. In 1895, a local land owner, R B Haymes, provided a wheeled bier for the free transport of corpses, sparing the parishioners the cost of this service which otherwise would have been 10 shillings. The bier is still kept within the lych gate.

Many cemeteries opened in the late-C19 had two chapels, each located in a separate area of the cemetery to accord with the respective beliefs of the Church of England and non-conformists; the former practiced burial in consecrated ground, and the latter did not. Newspaper reports contemporary with the opening of the cemetery at Kibworth suggest that the burial board decided on a large enclosed lych gate in which services could be conducted by all denominations to save the expense of two chapels. The area of the cemetery that was consecrated was done so by the Church of England rector of St Wilfrid’s in June 1893.

The lych gate was renovated and new lighting installed at the end of 2020. The lych gate is currently kept closed, but the cemetery is in use for residents of the two Kibworth parishes.

Reasons for Listing

The Kibworth Cemetery lych gate and iron gate is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural Interest:

* the building’s form is unusual as it fulfils the dual functions of lych gate and as a space for conducting funeral services;

* the design uses good quality materials and skilfully executed decoration in Gothic Revival style to successfully realise its functions.

Historic Interest:

* the building gives insight into how burial was provided for at parish level in the late-C19;

* it illustrates an expedient solution to accommodating the burial practices of both the Church of England and non-conformists at the same site.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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