Photographs Of Newcastle: St. Nicholas Cemetery

Five acre cemetery opened in 1857. When built it was accessed from the Newcastle-Carlisle turnpike down a minor road between the workhouse and Wingrove House. This is now the back lane of Wingrove Avenue. Nearly 23,600 people are buried here.

Notable graves - Rev. Clement Moody (1811-1871) last vicar to occupy the vicarage in Westgate Street, Dr Joseph Collingwood Stewart (1881-1958) surgeon at Coxlodge Hospital during World War One and first consultant at Wingrove Hospital (NGH) in 1921.

Contains two chapels, a gatehouse and west and south entrances. The west entrance is Gothic in style, supporting octagonal piers of the vehicle gate, and low relief carving of ships on a shield held by seahorses. The ships refer to St Nicholas, patron saint of sailors, and the seahorses to the Newcastle coat of arms.

The gate piers, gateway, walls and gates are Grade II listed by A.M Dunn. The chapels are also by Dunn.

Description courtesy of Sitelines.

15th June 2024

19th August 2023

St. Nicholas Cemetery, chapels.

1857 by A.M Dunn. Two chapels, a gatehouse and west and south entrances. St. Nicholas Cemetery chapels act as a large and impressive sandstone entrance to the site. The entrance consists of an archway and two identical single storey, double height, chapels on either side of it. It was probably built around 1857 as a mortuary.

Chapel on east was Church of England, chapel on west was nonconformist. The east wing contained a vestry and two utility rooms/workshops, the west wing was converted into a groundskeeper's lodge with a dining room, living room, kitchen, bathroom and three bedrooms.

The chapel buildings were recorded in 2013. They were described to be functional and unremarkable. The label stops, corbels and grotesques and gargoyles are their redeeming features.

Source: Sitelines

My first visit here for some time and it looks like the conversion of the building is nearly finished.

St. Nicholas Cemetery, gateway, walls and gates.

Gate piers, gateway, walls and gates of cemetery. Dated 1857 above pedestrian entrance. Sandstone ashlar piers, snecked sandstone walls with ashlar coping; wrought iron gates.

Vehicle entrance piers flanked by quadrant wall at left containing pedestrian entrance; serpentine wall at right. Gothic style.

2 tall octagonal piers have 4 gabled side buttresses with cusped panels; steeply-sloped overlapping coping with top quatrefoil band; large seahorse finials support shields facing across gate, that at left: with low relief of ship wrecked on rocks, that at right with low relief of ship in full sail.

Shouldered head to gateway at left has carved flowers in spandrels and date panel above under raised brattished panel. Walls have steeply- sloped overlapping coping continuous with that of piers. Gothic arcaded gates with fleur-de-lis finials.

Grade 2 Listed. Source: Sitelines