Kirkley Cemetery

A fine view of part of Kirkley Cemetery, with mature Scots Pine trees showing to good advantage and also indicating that the underlying soil is of a light, acidic nature rather than a heavier loam. Also to be noted as a feature are the matching pair of chapels created (along with the entry lych-gate) by local architect J.L. Clemence in 1880 - with all three buildings having Grade II listed status, granted by Historic England. 

The chapels’ design is revived Gothic, in the 13th century Early English style, with tall, slender lancet windows and excellent blind arcading on the eastern elevations. The expansion of Lowestoft during the second half of the 19th century - following on from Samuel Morton Peto’s harbour improvements, his introduction of railway links to Norwich (1847) and Ipswich (1859), and his creation of the South Lowestoft seaside resort area - was rapid and pronounced, with an ever-increasing population not only needing houses to live in but ground-space for burials. The demand for graves was beyond the capacity of the local parish churchyards to satisfy and, so, the Normanston and Kirkley cemeteries were created as municipal burial-grounds. 

J.L. Clemence was Peto’s architect “on the ground” for a good deal of Lowestoft’s growth, being responsible (among other things) for St. John’s Church, Marine Parade, the so-called Harbour Village (Selby Street, Stevens Street & Clemence Street) and the new Town Hall of 1860 - the last named having a much altered facade following High Street road-widening during the 1890s. Clemence had done his training as an architect in London, in the office of C.R. Cockerell during the 1840s, and it is possible that he came to Peto’s attention at this time, with the latter’s company Grissell & Peto being involved in a wide range of building projects in the capital. 

Another interesting link in the web of acquaintance created by local urban development and architecture, at this time, is that Edward Boardman (an important Norwich architect) - who did much of the Colman mustard family’s design work in the Carrow-Lakenham sector of the city, as well as the various estate buildings in Corton where Jeremiah James Colman had a summer residence (1869-98) - did part of his training with Lucas Brothers, the builder-contractors closely linked with Peto, and then became articled with J.L.Clemence. Clemence himself lived at No. 14 Marine Parade in one of the houses he had designed, while the Colman family had No. 8 for a considerable length of time for use as a seaside residence and as a home for the widowed Mrs. Mary Colman - mother of the famous Jeremiah James.