The Form and Scope of the Gazetteer

The gazetteer is a database.  You can search for a mausoleum by name, location (city/town/village, London borough, county, region, cemetery), date, architect/designer, listed status and keyword.  The database is designed to be interactive; please tell us if you have further information on any of the buildings concerned.  Also, if you know of a mausoleum in England or Northern Ireland which is not in the gazetteer please send us details so that it may be included: mausolea@btconnect.com.

At the time of writing, there are some 330 detailed entries on English mausolea in the gazetteer, with a further 130 mausolea mentioned briefly in the supplementary cemetery lists.  This is the sum total of all the mausolea in England of which the Trust is currently aware.  In addition to this there are 95 entries on mausolea in County Down and County Antrim in Northern Ireland. 

All the entries provide the name, the location, the precise, or an approximate, date of the structure, its listed status and a comment on its condition.  Where known, we have also included the name of the architect or designer, the history of the mausoleum and something about the person for whom it was built.  But there are many gaps in our knowledge and if you have further information, please let the Editor know.  We intend to update and improve the entries as we learn more about the buildings.

We would also greatly appreciate your help in keeping our records on the condition of the mausolea up to date.  So if you are aware that the condition of a mausoleum near you has changed since the Trust visited it - either for the better or for the worse - please tell the Editor about that as well.

A Note about Architects/Designers

In cases where we are not sure that the architect or designer mentioned in a gazetteer entry is the correct one, the name will be preceded by the word 'probably' or, if less certain, 'possibly'.  Where the attribution is 'probable', the mausoleum will be included among the works which will come up if you search on the name of the architect concerned.  If the attribution is merely 'possible', it will not do so.  In this case, however, the name will come up, if you search by keyword.  But whichever method you use, we suggest you check the status of the information afterwards by reading the entries in the gazetteer.

The Date Range

The dates of the mausolea covered in our survey range from the mid 17th century (1656) until the start of the 2nd World War (1939).

Searching by Date

Although in some cases we know the precise date of a mausoleum in others we do not.  Where we are unsure we either put  'c.' ( circa, about) before the estimated date, or give a date range, such as '1835-1855'.  But the search engine cannot distinguish between a definite and an approximate date.  As a result it will treat an approximate date in the same way as a precise one.  If faced with a date range it cannot cope at all so, in order to get round the problem, a 'mid date' has to be chosen.  i.e. if the date range is 1835-1855 then the date in the search engine will be 1845. 

If you were to make a search for mausolea dated 1845, the buildings of this date would come up, along with any other mausoleum whose 'mid date' was 1845.  However, given the uncertain nature of a considerable number of the dates in the gazetteer, you may find it more satisfactory to widen the range of your search date.  You can do this by picking a date and then asking the database for all the mausolea built either 5, 10 or 20 years to either side of that date.  It is also possible to search by century.  But whichever method you adopt, it will be advisable to check the entries of the mausolea afterwards in order to gauge the accuracy or, in some cases, the degree of uncertainty, regarding the dates of the buildings concerned.

Note about Cemeteries and the Supplementary Cemetery Lists

You can search for mausolea by cemetery by clicking on the cemetery name in the list of cemeteries provided.  This will give you information on all the mausolea in that cemetery of which we have provided a detailed record.  However, in cemeteries with a large number of mausolea, rather than providing a detailed record of every one, we have made supplementary lists of those deemed of lesser architectural interest.  The Supplementary Cemetery Lists are located in the alphabetical list of mausolea.  Scroll down the list to find the one you want.

When is a mausoleum not a mausoleum?

This is a ticklish question.  The MMT has defined mausolea as 'house[s] for the dead...freestandinding roofed structures erected to receive coffins'.  But despite this we have included some funerary chapels attached to churches in our gazetteer.  Furthermore, the gazetteer also contains a number of buildings that are really no more than porches, small above-ground structures, sheltering steps leading down to a vault below.

The reason for our catholicism is that one type of mausoleum shades into another.  In many cases a freestanding mausoleum, built in the form of a chapel with a vault below, differs little from a funerary chapel attached to a church.  All that has happened is that, as the church crypt has become too crowded for further burials, the chapel has moved away from the church.   With regard to vaults in churchyards or cemeteries, the deciding factor with regard to inclusion in the gazetteer has been the existence of an above-ground structure with a door'; we have excluded those which are merely sealed with a slab.

Intended Future Expansion of the Gazetteer

At present the gazetteer only contains English mausolea and those in County Down and Greater Belfast, but the database has been designed in such a way that information on mausolea in other countries can be included at a later date.  We are looking forward to incorporating records of mausolea situated in the rest of the United Kingdom and perhaps, in years to come, those that are found even further afield.  We are also keen to add information on important mausolea that have been demolished, especially in cases where images of the buildings still survive.

Acknowledgement

The website design of the gazetteer has been funded by generous grants from the Marc Fitch Fund and a private donor.

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