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Search for lost plans of historic cemetery gates

Alexandra BassinghamWest of England
Bristol Archives Pamphlet/1179 An historic image of the gates in black and white. The gates are central with the gatehouses either side and the cemetery behind, with trees and grass there. At the front of the picture, it is paved.Bristol Archives Pamphlet/1179
Arnos Vale Cemetery Grade II listed gates were recently added to Historic England's At Risk Register

An appeal to find the architectural plans of a cemetery's Victorian gates is under way almost 200 years after they would have been drawn.

Staff at Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust are searching for the plans for its Bath Road gates, in Bristol, drawn by architect Charles Underwood in 1837.

Ann Fiddler, CEO of Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust said although they know rough details, "the detailed architectural drawings showing exactly how Underwood designed them have never surfaced".

The search is part of a wider fundraising campaign to restore the Grade II-listed gates with £11,500 raised towards a £40,000 target.

Fiddler said the gates are an "iconic entrance" to Arnos Vale cemetery where more than 300,000 people are buried or remembered.

"As we restore them, we'd love to uncover the original 19th Century plans and better understand how Charles Underwood intended them to be built.

"They could still exist in a family archive, among old workshop papers, or within a local collection. Even the smallest clue could help us piece together this missing part of Bristol's history," she added.

Fiddler sitting by the Arnos Vale Cemetery gates. She is wearing a blue and white triangular patterned dress with a green-grey shawl and brown boots. She has shoulder length brown hair and is smiling at the camera with her hands held together on her lap. The black metal gates are directly behind her and there is a green sign sayign 'welcome to Arnos Vale Cemetery'. Behind the gates is a walkway and a ramp up onto a side bit. In the background there are trees and grass.
Ann Fiddler said the detailed plans "have never surfaced"

Underwood designed Arnos Vale as part of a new movement that transformed burial grounds. Inspired by cemeteries such as Père Lachaise and Kensal Green, his design included terraces, chapels, and a grand entrance through the Bath Road gates.

Fiddler said in the 19th Century that architectural plans were often kept by the craftsmen who carried out the work rather than formally archived.

So, the drawings may have been passed down through families or stored in business records when workshops closed.

"We are particularly interested in hearing from anyone who may have historic papers connected to Bristol ironworks such as Room, Grazebrook and Company, or masons including Godwin & Higgs, who helped manufacture the gates," Fiddler added.

The Grade II-listed gates were recently added to Historic England's At Risk Register.

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