Watts Cemetery Chapel

In the small village of Compton, not far from Farnham is the Watts Cemetery Chapel. This chapel and it's associate cemetery was built between 1896-98.



Wikipedia tells us:

When Compton Parish Council created a new cemetery, local resident artist Mary Fraser-Tytler, the wife of Victorian era painter and sculptor George Frederic Watts, offered to design and build a new mortuary chapel. The Wattses had recently build a house, "Limnerslease", a few hundred yards away, now part of the Watts Gallery. Tytler was a follower of the Home Arts and Industries Association, set up by Earl Brownlow in 1885 to encourage handicrafts among the lower classes, and the chapel was the Wattses' contribution to this characteristically Victorian preoccupation with social improvement through creative enlightenment.

Although the interior is dark and small, it is brightly painted with an interior that "interior that fuses art nouveau and Celtic influences".

Even the arch over the doorway is detailed  with celtic designs and figures. Wikipedia tells us that virtually all the villagers took part in the construction an decoration of this place; 74 of them in all.

Just as interesting as the chapel, from our perspective is the surrounding cemetery. The gravestones here are of a different style altogether from what one usually finds.

Thanks to our northern location and the low angle of the winter sun, we get dramatic views of the burial locations.

The art nouveau markers make this a special place to visit.

Many of the graves are outlined with bricks made for the purpose.

And there are sections of the cemetery that feel more like something out of the Hobbit than cemetery.

I was especially taken by the engravings on the gravestones. This is one I identify with.

And I was surprised that in a list of attributes for this woman, "actress" is listed first.

Mary, here, was clearly quite an active, creative person.

While we've seen lots of curious things in cemeteries around the world, I've never before seen a grave with a birdbath.

The most famous of the residents is Aldous Huxley. Only the best known in a gathering of writers, painters, poets, actors, and sculptors.

Along one side of the cemetery is a cloister, framed here with a winter tree and a Celtic cross.

The Celtic cross was a pretty common motif in the cemetery.

But, like sections of cemeteries everywhere, there are places that signal that haunted, not-welcome-to-the-living vibe. If I find such sights in the early afternoon, just imagine this place at night!