Milton Road Cemetery Chapel
The charming neo-14th century Gothic Chapels and Upper Gate Lodge were built in pink Carboniferous limestone quarried on site, with buff Bath stone for mouldings. Originally there were two adjoining chapels for Church of England and non-Conformist services, though the latter was demolished in 1980. The tower surmounted by an octagonal spire houses the chapel bell and was deliberately aligned in front of the top entrance gate.
(The Lower Gate Lodge and entrance in Milton Road were part of the Ashcombe House estate becoming cemetery property only when burial facilities were extended downhill in the 1930s.)
The restoration of the Chapel's Bell Tower and the re-hanging of the Bell were completed in November 2010. The Chapel now houses small exhibitions which have been organised by the Friends of Milton Road Cemetery and provided by Worle Community School as part of their enrichment week..
The picture below was supplied to Weston-super-Mare Town Council after an article was published in the Weston Mercury asking for images of both the Church of England Chapel and the Non-Conformist Chapel together prior to 1980. The Town Council and the Friends would like to thank Mr Palmer for the picture.
Milton Road Cemetery History
The content below is a brief history on Milton Road Cemetery, but further investigation is being carried out so amendments may be made.
With the increasing number of residents, 4033 in the 1851 census, doubling to over 8000 by 1862, the old burial ground at St John's Church had been filled and a new site was required. The Town Commissioners chose the new site on the southern side of Bristol Road (this was then the outskirts of Weston) and the project was put out to tender. The design was won by Charles E Davis, who designed the cemetery to included two mortuary Chapels, one Church of England the other non-conformist, and an arboretum. The Diocese of Bath and Wells, on seeing the plans, insisted on the two separate chapels with at least a 6" gap and the bell tower to be central to the gate and path as most cemeteries of the time were arranged.
Both chapels were built in the English gothic style from 1300-1350, with the stone quarried from site. The limestone used is known as pink limestone, or Bed 21. The stone running along the bases of the chapel and around the edges is the harder and more durable Bath Stone. There is a vein of Pink Limestone which runs from Milton under the cemetery and crops out at Anchor Head Cove. The stone became this colour during the carboniferous period, a time of low sea level and mountain building, through the iron components which oxidised and turned the mud red.
Milton Church
The arboretum of native and exotic trees was planted by a Mr Maule of Bristol, no doubt under the guidance of Charles E Davis. Some of the trees planted in the cemetery at the time can still be seen today. The atlas cedar, stone pine, lucombe oak and two renowned monkey puzzle trees are a few of those still standing.
The site chosen by the Commissioners was, unbeknown to them, the same site in which the Bronze aged people used to bury their dead and broken remains of funerary urns have often been dug up - these urns have been of Cornish origin.
In 1917 the cemetery was extended down to Milton Road taking in the Gate Lodge of Ashcombe House, a detached mansion built by the Capel family, part of whose ground was used for the extension. The house was commandeered for use by the Red Cross as a hospital for wounded soldiers in the Second World War and local girls would help out there.
A walk through the cemetery
The Lodge at the entrance is built from the same pink limestone as the chapel, quarried from site. The Lodge was built by Frederick Lambert, the Eighth Earl of Cavan. Facing you is the mortuary chapel, which is now the only remaining chapel in the cemetery. The non-conformist chapel was demolished in 1980 at the same time the bell tower was in need of strengthening to hold the bell. Just behind the chapel is a memorial to Belgian refugees who fled to Weston during the First World War. The first group of refugees numbered 16 men women and children, that number grew to over 100, many of whom died as a result of the suffering they had endured before fleeing Belgium. In 1922 this memorial of Cornish Granite was installed to commemorate them. The survivors gradually returned to Belgium and by 1917 all had gone home.
On the ridge, close to the War memorial, there are no graves. This is because the ground is broken by caves or old underground mine shafts. Weston-super-Mare and the surrounding villages were once a thriving mining industry in search of iron, lead, zinc and iron ores. It is here that you can see part of the original limestone grassland flooring which supports a variety of plants and wildlife - one plant which grows here is the beautiful Autumn Ladies Tresses, a small and rare wild orchid.
The cemetery also supports such wildlife such as badgers, stoats, birds and a vast range of butterflies and bees.
The limestone flooring can be found at the top of this rise. Near the bottom is a group of Commonwealth war graves, together with those civilians killed in the Second World War. The Lodge and gate at the southern entrance were originally those for Ashcombe House before the drive was built.
Mr Charles Edward Davis
Born 1827 died 1902 Charles Davis was the Mayor of Bath and its city surveyor and architect in the mid to late 19th century. He not only designed Milton Road Cemetery but Trowbridge Cemetery and Lower Bristol Road Cemetery in Bath as well. He became a leading consultant in church restoration.
Charles Davis was responsible for finding the Roman Bath house in Bath in 1879. Worried by a leak from the medieval King's Bath in 1878, he decided to explore the ground around it and in doing so found Roman remains and the Roman Baths.
Charles Davis designed and built the Empire Hotel in Bath as a lasting legacy a year before his death.
The bell
The bell in the Chapel Tower stands at 2 ½ feet and was made by Lester and Pack of London in 1766. It was a gift from Ralph Ward to the Charlotte Chapel in London, which became the Westminster Theatre in 1931, before this, it was a cinema 1926. Investigation is ongoing as to how and when the bell arrived at the chapel. The bell would be tolled when the funeral procession arrived at the gates and again to inform visitors that the cemetery was due to close.
TO FIND THE CACHE:
None of the clues are on graves. So there is no need to walk on or very near any.
The Cache is a micro container, with a log book bring your own pen/pencil.
Start at - N 51° 21.033 W 002° 57.927
In which year did Christos Takis Demetriou pass away? Let the Year equal - ABCD
Stage 1 is at - N 51° 21.((A+B)-C)A(C/2) W 002° 58.(C-D)((A+B)/2))(C/2)
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Stage 1: Answer the following questons about a structure in the the cemetery grounds to work out the cache location:
A = Number of External Door(s)?
B = Number of Walls with a window in?
C = Colour of the door(s)? Take the first letter of the colour and use it's position in the alphabet as the answer, e.g. Green G = 7
Stage 2 is at - N 51° 21.(A-C)((A+B+C)+1)(A+B+C) W 002° 58.(A-C)((A+C)-B)(B+C)
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Stage 2: Look at All the monument, how many of the following letters are there calved into the stone?
E = ?
T = ?
A = ?
N = ?
D = ?
H = ?
O = ?
Now you have these values, use them to solve the next stage below:
Stage 3 is at - N 51° 21.(O-H)(D-1)(T-O) W 002° 58.((E-(O+N))(N-D)(T-N)
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Stage 3: In Memory of....What was the date of this operation?
Let the date equal:
Month as a number = A
Day of Month = BC
Year = DEFG
GZ is at N 51° 21.(B+D)FE W 002° 58.(G-F)(C-D)E
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If anybody would like to expand this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Sadexploration know first at churchmicro@gmail.com so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication.There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page found via the Bookmark list”