Call for urgent action to restore historic listed cemetery chapel
Scaffolding, put up for inspection purposes on a derelict Grade II-listed chapel in Bishopwearmouth Cemetery, is still there more than a year later.
In April 2021, the Echo reported that the cemetery’s council-owned 1856 South Chapel near Chester Road was in dangerously poor condition, fenced off and with scaffold erected.
Sunderland City Council saidatthetimeitwas“carrying out a detailed inspection of the steeple and is still in the early stages of evaluating the scope of the repair and maintenance works required.”
However, the condition of the chapel is clearly still dangerous and is also badly overgrown.
Now £600,000 has been set aside from the council. The Echo understands that match funding is needed from HeritageLottery,butthecouncilhas not said if or when it will apply for it.
No firm plans for the future of the chapel, one of nine listed structures in the cemetery, have been disclosed. Nor has a timescale, or its ultimate fate.
Historic England says the chapel has been listed since 1994. However, so too was the identical Central Chapel, which was demolished some yearsagoandsatabout100metres away.
TheEchoaskediftheSouth Chapel could also face demolition,butthecouncildidnotanswer. Nor would they say how longithadbeenfencedoff.The temporary fencing has been vandalised with spray paint.
Notable graves and memorials close to the South Chapel include that of George Maling, who received the Victoria Cross for helping save the lives of 300 men in the First World War, SAFC founder James Allen and members of the Vaux andDoxfordfamilies.Thecemetery’s Commonwealth war graves section is only about 50 metres away.
Martin Haswell, Lib Dem councillor for the Pallion ward which includes Bishopwearmouth Cemetery, said: “We want to see some urgent action from the council to restore the chapel.
“We were pleased to see
that the council had provisionally set aside £600,000 to go towards restoration of the chapel. But that is conditional upon match funding being gained from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
“To the best of our knowledge, no such application to the fund has been submitted. I and other councillors for the areameetmonthlywiththebereavement team and the chapel is on the agenda every single month.
“We are constantly chasing the council for action to get it restored and bring it back into use for any purpose that residents would like to see. Sadly the faith communities don’t appear to have further use for it.”
Astatementfromthecouncil said: “The council commissioned a specialist consultant report on the chapel that identified significant essential repair and restoration work is required. Based on this a funding requirement of £600,000 was included in the council’s capital programme but with a requirement for this to be funded from external sources.
“Thecouncilisconsidering options for the chapel that will determine future plans.”
The council recently installed bollards to prevent disrespectful motorists from using the cemetery as a shortcut while people were visiting graves.Thishasbeenasuccess.