Great British Mausolea

Historically, the great majority of British mausolea have been built for members of the royal family, the nobility or the knighthood. Patriarchs of some of the wealthiest families would often erect a mausoleum at a suitably prominent location on their country estate, perhaps on the site of some ancient tumulus.

Rural estates with exceptional mausolea include Brocklesby Park in Lincolnshire and the National Trust’s Blickling Park in Norfolk. Another National Trust property, the combined chapel and mausoleum at Gibside, Tyne and Wear, is a Palladian classic designed by James Paine.

In some cases so much money was lavished on such sumptuous structures that they have since been characterised as ‘follies’ – especially if they are very tall, such as Peterson’s Tower in Hampshire. More affordably, an existing building such as a summerhouse was sometimes converted into a mausoleum.

The photograph above shows the mausoleum of the Constable family of Halsham and Burton, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Completed in 1802, the mausoleum stands east of Halsham’s medieval parish church of All Saints, at the end of an avenue of yew trees.

Among former mortuary chapels two outstanding early examples survive in fine condition and are open to the public. English Heritage’s De Grey Mausoleum at Flitton, Bedfordshire, has a sequence of 17 sculpted and effigied monuments, spanning nearly two and a half centuries from 1614. Situated near Inverness, the Lovat Mausoleum was built on the end of Wardlaw parish church in the early 1630s. It continued to be used for burials of the Lovat clan chiefs until the early 19th century.

Just a handful of freestanding mausolea survive from the 17th century, some as little more than a heap of stones, such as the Nobes Mausoleum in Berkshire. However, the Cabell Mausoleum has been maintained in good condition in the churchyard of Holy Trinity, Buckfastleigh, Devon. Known locally as ‘the Sepulchre’, it was built in 1656. Dating from the same year but radically remodelled in 1859, the Ailesbury Mausoleum stands in the churchyard of St Mary, Maulden, Bedfordshire.

The photograph above shows the Sinclair Mausoleum in Ulbster, near the eastern coast of Caithness in the Scottish Highlands. The mausoleum was built in 1700 on the site of an earlier chapel, probably using some of its stones.

Britain’s most impressive churchyard and cemetery mausolea include the Chandos Mausoleum in north London, the Phipps Mausoleum in Wiltshire and the Sacheverell-Bateman Mausoleum in Derbyshire. As one of the older British mausolea, the Guise Mausoleum – erected in 1733 at St John the Baptist, Elmore, Gloucestershire – is grade II* listed despite its ruinous condition. It may be reconstructed one day.

The photograph above shows the richly embellished, grade I listed Hopper Mausoleum in Shotley, Northumberland. It was built in 1752 in the graveyard of the now-redundant church of St Andrew.