Report on the opening of the cemetery

OPENING OF THE NEW CEMETERY AT HANLEY.

"On Monday last, one of the important public works which it is generally understood to be “the mission” of the Town Council of the recently-created borough of Hanley to accomplish, was brought to a satisfactory completion. On that day the new Cemetery was' opened, that portion set apart for members of the Established Church having been consecrated by the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Lichfield, and the remainder having been dedicated to the public by a formal resolution passed at the last meeting of the Town Council, in conformity with the Burial Act. The Cemetery will cost the town about £13,000, to be repaid in 30 years, but the requirements of the borough justified this outlay, and the ratepayers may congratulate themselves not only upon the public spirit honourably displayed by their representatives, but also upon the fact that the Council have jealously watched over the expenditure in discharge of the important trust confided to them by their fellow-townsmen.

The site of the Cemetery consists of a portion of the Shelton Hall estate, and is distant about one mile from the centre of the town. The land adjoins both the Stoke and the Newcastle roads, and slopes gently from the chapels, which occupy the highest ground, to the Trent and Mersey Canal, which forms the western boundary. The land itself is admirably adapted for the purposes to which it has been applied, the surface being pleasantly varied by gentle undulations, while a large number of full-grown trees; in some places scattered and in others clustered together, gave additional picturesqueness to the view.
The landscape is bounded by the rising ground on which stand the villages of Hartshill and Penkhull - in itself, the weather being favourable, forming a really beautiful picture. These attractions, combined with those afforded by lower beds and shrubberies studded over a verdant carpet of turf, traced, so to speak, with winding walks of carefully-rolled gravel, cannot fail of making the Cemetery a delightful and healthy promenade or retreat for the living, and a calm resting-place for those who are summoned to their “long home," and "are no more seen."
 

The principal entrance to the Cemetery is on the Stoke road, where two lodges have been erected - one for the registrar and the other for the head sexton. From the lodges, where costly iron gates and railings 'supplied by the Coalbrookdale Iron Company) have been erected, a broad road, with a footpath on either side, leads to the chapels, which are each about 40 feet long and 21 feet wide. Each chapel has a vestry, and the two buildings are connected by three open archways, the centre one of which is groined, and is intended for a carriage way, while the two side archways are intended for foot passengers.

The chapels are built in a uniform manner, and the tower, surmounted by a spirelet, springs from the centre of the group. They are constructed of Werrington stone, with dressings of Hollington stone. The roofs, which are of a high pitch, are internally of open stained woodwork, and externally are covered with coloured tiles, surmounted by ornamental iron ridges. The floors are paved with Minton and Co.'s encaustic tiles, and each chapel is supplied with a stove for warming in cold weather. Generally speaking, the style of the chapels may be considered as transitional from the Early English to the Decorated Gothic; but the numerous gables and the curiously truncated roofs show that the severe English Gothic has been modified by the introduction of a foreign element doubtless with the view of adding to the artistic effect of the pile generally, but whether it has not rather broken up the outline into too many portions, and so destroyed that unity of idea and that serene beauty which the pure English Gothic invariably creates is a question which will probably suggest itself to some more thoughtful observers. The lodges are of a style corresponding with the chapels;..........

The number of persons who assembled to witness the ceremony of consecration was very large, and probably exceeded 2,000. The Mayor of Hanley (E. J. Ridgway, Esq.) met the Bishop of Lichfield in his own carriage at Stoke Railway Station, and they at once proceeded to the principal lodge of the Cemetery, where his lordship was received by the clergy present........"
 

The Staffordshire Advertiser, 5 May 1860