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Description

504831 BOSTON HORNCASTLE ROAD Boston Cemetery Lodge Grade II Cemetery entrance lodge. Designed by James Pigott Pritchett Junior and built in 1855 with an extension added in the 1980s. MATERIALS: Built of brick, stone and slate. PLAN: The main part of the building is roughly rectangular in plan. EXTERIOR: Built in the gothic revival style, this entrance lodge (and office) spans what was once the main entrance into the cemetery. It is of one storey, plus attic, and three bays with a two-centred, arched carriageway to the central bay and a lean-to, with projecting gable, to the rear elevation of each of the end bays. Built of red brick, laid in Flemish bond, it has yellow brick quoins and stone dressings to the carriageway and window openings; and a steeply sloping, slate covered, cross-gable roof with decorated eavesboards and bargebaords and finials to the gables. The decorated bargeboards and finials are repeated on the projecting gables of each rear lean-to. There is a tall chimney stack on the western slope of the roofs to both end bays, with that to the north bay appearing to be a later replacement of an earlier stack that matched the one on the south bay. The front elevation, facing east onto Horncastle Road, has a bay window on a brick plinth with four lancet openings to each of the end bays; and a double lancet window opening with stone surround in the gable above the carriageway. The rear elevation, facing into the cemetery has a double lancet window opening above the carriageway, another on the west wall of the lean-to of the south bay and another on the south wall of the lean-to of the north bay. Similar double lancet window openings in the gables of the north and south elevations and in the west wall of the lean-to of the north bay have been replaced with rectangular window openings with stone surrounds. The gable to the lean-to of the north bay has a blocked single lancet window and that to the lean-to of the south bay has been partially bricked in arched window with a brick cill. All the windows have modern double glazing. Door openings on either side of the inside of the of the arched carriageway and to the side elevations of the lean-to of the south bay have brick arches and framed ledge-and-braced doors with strap hinges. A modern, single-storey, brick, flat roof extension has been added to the north elevation. Low, brick, curved, flanking walls have been replaced with railings, although the brick end pillars remains. The double gates to each end of the carriageway are later replacements. INTERIOR: Internally, the living accomodation was provided in the ground floor of the north bay and in ther attic space. The ground floor of the south bay originally housed the cemetery office and storage space but it is now used purely for storage. Many original features still survive including framed ledged-and-braced and four panelled doors, fire surrounds and skirting boards. HISTORY: The Burial Board Acts of 1854 authorised the setting up of burial boards outside London. In that year the newly formed Boston Burial Board agreed to create a cemetery on a twelve acre site to the north of the town. The cemetery, which was designed by James Pigott Pritchett Junior (1830-1911) of Darlington and laid out by Baker and Son of Sleaford, was opened for funerals in 1855. The original cemetery included the entrance lodge at its weatern end, on Horncastle Road; two chapels, one Anglican and the other Nonconformist, which were located on either side of a main avenue. The cemetery was extended to the west and south in 1885, at which time the mortuary was dismantled and rebuilt further westwards, but now on the extended main avenue and with the boundaries of the extended cemetery. The cemetery was extended again in 1928, 1940 and 1966. Ownership of the cemetery was transferred to Boston Borough Council in 1933. The main entrance is now from Marian Road to the south and the lodge on Horncastle Road is now used solely as a domestic residence. The Nonconformist Chapel was demolished in 1961 and the nortuary is now used for storage. REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION: The former cemetery entrance lodge and office is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons: * It is a well designed and largely intact example of a cemtery lodge in the gothic revival style. * It is by a distinguished architect, with a large number of listed buildings to his name; * It has group value with the designed landscape of the Grade II registered cemetery, which also contains a Grade II listed Cemetery Chapel and former mortuary.

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