Watts Cemetery Chapel

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Coordinates: 51°13′04″N 0°37′56″W / 51.21775°N 0.6321°W / 51.21775; -0.6321
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Watts Cemetery Chapel
Mary Fraser-Tytler
Listed Building – Grade I
Official nameWatts Memorial Chapel
Designated14 June 1967
Reference no.1029541

The Watts Cemetery Chapel or Watts Mortuary Chapel is a

Egyptian influence with Mary's own original style".[1]

Other responses have been less positive.

soporific rooms in England" and regretted "the intolerable torpor and weariness of the motifs".[2] It is a Grade I listed building.[3]

History

When

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.[1]

A group of local amateurs and enthusiasts, many of whom later went on with Mary Fraser-Tytler to found the

Italianate chapel. Local villagers were invited to decorate the chapel under Mary's guidance, resulting in an interior that fuses art nouveau and Celtic influences, combined with Mary's own original style.[4] Each member of Fraser-Tytler's evening class, led by Louis Deuchars, had a separate job, with 74 Compton villagers taking part. G. F. Watts paid for the project and also painted a version of The All-Pervading for the altar
only three months before he died.

The graves display sayings influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, including "The Morning Stars Sang Together" and, inside the chapel, "Their hope is full of immortality but the souls of the righteous are in the hands of God."[5]

Both Wattses have memorials in the "cloister" a few yards from the chapel, and a number of the memorials throughout the small cemetery use unglazed terracotta, even from dates after the Compton Pottery closed in the 1950s. Members of the Huxley family, including Julia Huxley[6] and her sons Aldous Huxley and Julian Huxley are buried within the cemetery.

The chapel is open Monday to Friday: 8am – 5pm, Saturday to Sunday and

bank holidays: 10am – 5:30pm and is managed by the nearby Watts Gallery, celebrating the architect and her husband. There is no charge.[7]

Gallery

  • The doorway
    The doorway
  • Chapel view showing campanile
    Chapel view showing
    campanile
  • Chapel and altar
    Chapel and altar
  • Tree of life
    Tree of life
  • Monument to the Wattses
    Monument to the Wattses
  • Detail of the exterior reliefs
    Detail of the exterior reliefs
  • Chapel, showing in foreground terracotta grave marker made in the Compton pottery
    Chapel, showing in foreground terracotta grave marker made in the Compton pottery
  • Watts mortuary chapel
    Watts mortuary chapel
  • The altar
    The altar
  • Chapel ceiling apex showing the 4 seraphs
    Chapel ceiling apex showing the 4 seraphs
  • The Cloister near the chapel
    The Cloister near the chapel

References

  1. ^ a b "Watts Chapel". Guildford Council. Archived from the original on 14 September 2007. Retrieved 19 December 2008.
  2. ^ Nairn, Pevsner & Cherry 1971, p. 170.
  3. ^ Historic England. "Watts Memorial Chapel (1029541)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  4. ^ "Watts Chapel". Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  5. ^ "Compton Potter's Arts Guild". meridiangallery.co.uk. Retrieved 19 December 2008.
  6. ^ "Julia Huxley, the campaign for women's suffrage and Prior's Field School". Exploring Surrey's Past. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  7. ^ "Watts Gallery". wattsgallery.org.uk. Retrieved 18 January 2015.

Sources

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Watts Mortuary Chapel.
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