Former mortuary chapel restored

The five-figure sum has been secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund to revamp the Dean Road and Manor Road Cemetery.

Work has now been finished on the mortuary chapel, which is known locally as the Dead House and was built in the 1850s to lay out bodies before they were buried in the cemetery.

The work included rebuilding large sections of the walls and stripping and reconstructing the roof with new purlins, rafters and reclaimed Welsh slates to match the originals.

Scarborough Borough Council stressed that all work has been carried out to conservation standards using reclaimed materials wherever possible.

Where required, West Yorkshire sandstone has been sourced to match the original stone and lime mortar has been used throughout.

The chair of the Friends of Dean Road and Manor Road Cemetery, Jan Cleary, said: “The Friends group is delighted with the restoration work on the mortuary chapel.

“The workmanship is first class and all the original design features such as the fish tail roof slates and unique buttresses have been restored using a mixture of reclaimed and new materials.”

The cash which was awarded by the Heritage Lottery Fund in August last year has also been used to carry out improvements to the Secret Garden in Manor Road Cemetery and introduce education facilities. The garden was laid out in 1872 as a place for quiet contemplation, but over the years the area had become overgrown.

The council’s environmental services operations manager, Paul Thompson, said: “The borough’s cemeteries contain a vast array of history and by working together on projects such as these we are able to preserve and restore Scarborough’s valuable heritage.”

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