The listing of Bourne’s Victorian cemetery chapel
The cemetery chapel, situated at the front of Bourne cemetery, sits guarding the final resting place of over 10,000 previous inhabitants of our town and the surrounding area, and is a building of great meaning to the lives of many people. As is typical of the times in which we now live, indifference and neglect was the order of the day for many years, resulting in a building which is now in need of some care.
The start of that care was to come in the shape of Mr Rex Needle, celebrated local historian, and holder of the keys to much of Bourne’s history, who, in 2005, applied for listing of the building, this was granted in 2007 by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, shortly after a decision was taken by our town council to demolish it.
Since 2007, members of the local community have been trying to find a way to restore the building, and in early 2008 Bourne Preservation Society was formed, with the primary intention of restoring the building, and details relating to our progress can be found elsewhere on this website.
We are grateful to Mr Needle, for successfully achieving a listed status of Grade
II, for the chapel, this has ensured that the future of the building is safe, giving
us time to work in achieving our aim of re-
Rex has very kindly provided us with a booklet, in pdf format, telling the story of the chapel and it’s listing, you can read, or download it, by clicking on the picture below.