Tomb of Bishop Hedley in Cathays Cemetery

Cadw's description

Location

On the NW side of the cemetery and on the SE side of the tree-planted island on the site of the former Roman Catholic chapel.

History

The tomb of John Cuthbert Hedley (1837-1915), energetic Roman Catholic bishop of Newport (a diocese then covering Glamorgan, Monmouthshire and Herefordshire) from 1880. The memorial stands close to the former Roman Catholic mortuary chapel, which was built in 1859 but was demolished in 1986.

Exterior

An ambitious freestone Gothic shrine-like memorial raised up on a plinth with steps to the E side. The plinth has square piers to the angles, capped by 4-way narrow gables with fleur-de-lis in relief, and broad crocket finials. The sides of the plinth have arcades of blind cusped arches. The steps on the E side have a plain parapet. Set back from the W end is a buttressed 3-bay reredos. The buttresses are gabled and have bishops' crook and mitre in relief and the monogram CH. The reredos has thin gabled buttresses in its W faces, the inner with crosses to the gabled caps, the outer with the initial 'H'. The E side of the reredos, behind the tomb chest, has a central crucifixion set against a background of 4-leaf flowers in relief, below which is a shield, mitre and crook, and ICH in relief. The outer bays have figures of Mary and John. In the opposite W face the outer bays have cusped transoms, above which are panels with shields bearing fleur-de-lis in relief, framing 2 narrow subsidiary arches. The central bay has a canopied figure of the Madonna and Child on a corbel.

The tomb chest has a saddleback coping with fish-scale moulding, a weathered memorial inscription to the E end, while the N and S sides each have 3 shields with heraldic relief mouldings, set between round columns with foliage caps.

Reason for designation

Listed as an original and distinctive architectural composition unusual in a municipal cemetery and with special historic interest.