Milltown Cemetery

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A High Victorian Romanesque arched sandstone gate screen dating from 1869 by architect Timothy Hevey forms the entrance to the Milltown Cemetery fronting onto the east side of Falls Road. The site is enclosed by stone walling and gateway to west, a hedge to north and east and a wall to south. To the south of the gateway is the modern one-storey cemetery office building (of little interest). The cemetery contains another two structures designed by Timothy Hevey, also listed, the Clark Canavan Celtic cross (HB26.22.002B) and teh Bowen vault (HB26.22.002C).

Walling to gateway laid to un-coursed rock-faced Scrabo sandstone with cut-stone Giffnock sandstone coping and details in a combination of Dungannon, Giffnock and Corsehill ashlar sandstone. Recent stone replacement of Dungannon sandstone using Peak Moor sandstone.

The arched gate screen has side gablets, buttresses and cross finial to apex. The arch on the outer face has a carved inscription from the Nicene Creed: “et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen.” The inner face has a rosette to tympanum with unfinished carving. Gate piers have octagonal caps with carved finials and are joined to main archway by a balustrated gate screen with painted metal inserts and Corsehill sandstone caping. Remainder of walling to west of gate screen consists of similarly detailed dwarf wall topped with painted metal railings.

The plots are covered with grass and separated by concrete paved paths.

Historical information

In the nineteenth century Belfast was a rapidly expanding industrial city. Its Catholic population, which had been hitherto relatively small, began to grow substantially as thousands of workers poured into the city from Ulster counties and further afield. The principal Catholic burial place in Belfast was Friar’s Bush graveyard in Stranmillis which, partly as a result of cholera epidemics and the Famine, was becoming increasingly overcrowded. In 1866, Belfast Corporation purchased a site on the Falls Road as a municipal cemetery. Fifteen acres of this would be set aside for Catholic burials – 10 acres for public graves, and 5 acres for proprietary graves and a mortuary chapel.

The development of this cemetery was well advanced when a dispute arose between the Catholic bishop, Dr Dorrian, and the Corporation. The bishop wished to have exclusive control over the Catholic section so that he could consecrate it according to the rites of his Church. He also felt that the Catholic section was not sufficiently large for the city’s Catholic population. With no local resolution, the matter was brought before the Irish Privy Council in Dublin with the famous lawyer, Isaac Butt, representing Belfast’s Catholics. However, no satisfactory settlement could be reached with regard to the Catholic portion of the Corporation’s new cemetery.

Even while the dispute was ongoing, Dorrian had, on 4 April 1869, won the support of his parishioners for purchasing land for a Catholic cemetery in the city. Dorrian then approached James Ross who agreed to sell 15 acres on Falls Road, almost opposite to the municipal cemetery, as a place of interment. The land was bought by Dorrian and two others and the purchase price was £4,100. Dorrian was satisfied that this site was actually superior as a place of interment than the location of the municipal cemetery because it had formerly been a brickyard from which much of the clay had already been removed.

The first burial in this cemetery, which would become generally known as Milltown Cemetery, took place in November 1869. This was the funeral of Rev. Patrick Clarke, administrator of St Mary’s Catholic Church in Belfast, who died suddenly on the 15th of that month. The Belfast Morning News reported that there were around 20,000 in the funeral procession that made its way to the ‘New Catholic Cemetery’ on the Falls Road.

It was to be a further ten months before the cemetery was consecrated on 18 September 1880. On this occasion the attendance was estimated to be over 20,000. The ceremony was performed by Bishop Dorrian with the assistance of Dr Grimley, Bishop of the Cape of Good Hope. Mass was afterwards celebrated in a marquee constructed near the centre of the cemetery.

The Belfast Morning News of 19 September 1870 provided a detailed description of the entrance front of the cemetery. The entrance arch was 11½ wide and 18 feet high to the soffit of the arch. The arch itself was:

enriched with deeply cut and effective mouldings, and the jambs are relieved with beautifully-polished shafts of Tullamore limestone. The imposts and the capitals under the arch are splendidly carved by local carvers, under the architect’s directions and from drawings made by him. Over the main arch is a tympanum at present left rough for a future carving of the Resurrection. Around the arch on the outer face runs the inscription from the Nicene Creed – Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum et vitam venture saeculi – in well relieved and legible characters. The kneelers at the four angles under the coping will have angels carved on them, and they are now left in a rough state for that purpose. The whole arch is surmounted by a cross at an elevation of 35 feet from the ground.

The account continued with a description of the front walling:

Two curved wing walls recede from two large circular piers on the road side, about 45 feet apart, right and left to the main gate. These circular walls are each divided into six panels by red stone shafts, curved caps and bases, the intermediate spaces being filled with appropriately-designed metalwork. Hung to these circular piers are two wickets, which, as well as the large gate, are framed of pitch pine, with panelling of wrought iron work.

The entrance walling was constructed on Scrabo stone, with dressings of Dungannon stone and red stone from Dumfries. The other walls were far simpler. That on the south side was a rubble wall, while on the north and east sides the cemetery was enclosed by a wooden paling.

The architect of this fine entrance – described by the First Survey as a ‘good High Victorian Romanesque arch gateway with bold detailing’ – was Timothy Hevey of Linenhall Street, Belfast, while the contractors were J. & J. Guiler of College Street, Belfast. Hevey was only 23 when he designed the entrance to Milltown Cemetery and had relatively recently returned from Dublin to his native Belfast. He became widely regarded as one of the leading Catholic architects in Ireland, designing a number of important Catholic churches, including St Eunan’s Cathedral in Letterkenny, County Donegal. He was a mere 32 years old when he died in 1878.

Larmour’s guide to Belfast’s architecture (p. 39) shows a perspective sketch by Hevey of the entrance to the cemetery with proposed, but not executed mortuary chapel in background within cemetery. Hevey is also credited with the cross to Reverends Clarke and Canavan in Milltown Cemetery. The drainage of the cemetery was carried out by John Smyth, Civil Engineer. The cemetery is first shown on the 1901 6-inch Ordnance Survey map. A lodge is shown near the entrance. On the 1920-31 Ordnance Survey map the lodge was now marked as a Constabulary Barrack. Over the years the graveyard has been extended and now covers 55 acres.

References

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1901 – OS/6/1/60/3
Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1920-39 – OS/6/1/60/4
Belfast Corporation records: Minute Book of the [City] Cemetery Committee, 1867-87 – LA/7/11/AB/2
Valuation Revision Books - VAL/12/B/5/4B (1865-79)

Northern Ireland Environment Agency
First Survey Record – HB/26/22/002A
HB Records – HB/26/22/002A

Published sources
Belfast Morning News, 19 November 1869, 19 September 1870
Belfast Newsletter, 19 September 1869
James O’Laverty, An Historical account of the diocese of Down and Connor, vol. 2 (Dublin, 1880)
Gravestone Inscriptions: Belfast, vol. 2 (Belfast, 1984)
Paul Larmour, Belfast: an illustrated architectural guide (Belfast, 1987)
Ambrose Macaulay, Patrick Dorrian: Bishop of Down and Connor, 1865-1885 (Dublin, 1987)
The Rushlight: The Belfast Magazine, vol. 23, no. 7 (no date)
Raymond Quinn and Joe Baker, Milltown Cemetery: a brief history (no date).

Online sources
Natural Stone Database: www.stonedatabase.com
Dictionary of Irish Architects: www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

A High Victorian Romanesque arched sandstone gate screen of fine proportions, dating from 1869 by the important architect Timothy Hevey forming the entrance to the Milltown Cemetery fronting onto the east side of Falls Road. This graveyard was built following a dispute between the Catholic bishop Dr Dorrian and the corporation, he felt that the Catholic section of the municipal cemetary was not sufficiently large and enlisted the help of James Ross, a local business man, who agreed to sell 15 acres of land on the Falls Road to build a Catholic cemetery for the city. The arched gate screen is of a high standard of design with much decorative detail evfident. It has group value with the listed Clark Canavan Celtic cross (HB26.22.002B) and Bowen vault (HB26.22.002C) also designed by Timothy Hevey and positioned nearby in the cemetery.