Despite misgivings in some quarters that the Victorian chapel in the town cemetery might be left to fall down, Bourne Town Council has given an assurance that work is going ahead to ensure its survival.

The statement comes on the tenth anniversary of the chapel being listed as Grade II which was granted by English Heritage on 4th April 2007 to preserve it for the future after members had voted to pull it down.

Public awareness over the parlous state of the building had been raised in 2005 when it was realised that the town council had been discussing its demolition in private and on learning this I made an application to English Heritage under existing spot listing procedures available to the public to give the chapel the required status to protect it in the years to come.

The council had decided on demolition rather than pay for repairs and on 9th January 2007 members met in committee to determine its future with the following options: (1) to convert it for use as workshop and storage area (2) to renovate it fully (3) to remove it or (4) to do nothing and allow it to decline naturally.

Remedial work had been variously estimated at between £80,000 and £250,000 and two demolition tenders were received in the sums of £10,750 and £8,650, although it was anticipated that some of the stone and slate would be saleable as salvage. One councillor even suggested that some of the resulting rubble should be used to build rustic arches along the main paths and another proposed that the storage space for tools and equipment lost by the demolition of the chapel might be replaced by the purchase of two shipping containers although both ideas found little support and were quietly dropped.

In the event, members voted by nine votes to two to pull it down and this was subsequently ratified by the full council. I therefore warned English Heritage that the chapel was now under immediate threat and they sent a conservation expert to make a detailed inspection after which it recommended fast tracking the listing application to save the building from being demolished and this was granted by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on 4th April 2007.

While the inspector was in Bourne I also suggested that the 150-year-old Ostler memorial drinking fountain which had been moved to the cemetery from the town centre in 1962 because of the danger of damage by passing traffic, should be similarly protected and this was also given a Grade II listing at the same time. The town council has subsequently spent £9,000 on preserving the monument and to erect protective iron railings but there was no similar investment in the chapel.

The majority of those who voted for demolition are no longer members of the council and the prospect for the future now appears more optimistic. The clerk, Ian Sismey, said in a statement this week that the chapel was very much on their agenda and two surveys had been commissioned over the past eighteen months, one to check the structure of the building and the other to assess the chapel roof. He added: “A working party appointed to oversee its future will be considering the results at a forthcoming meeting and in the meantime, the council continues to commit resources on an ‘urgent need’ basis, most recently funding emergency repairs to the roof which was damaged by high winds.”

The town council has been responsible for the chapel since it was formed in 1974 when administration passed from Bourne Urban District Council and although surveys identified serious faults in the building, no major remedial work was carried out. Funeral services which had previously been held there ended in 2001 and in 2004 the chapel was closed to the public because it had become structurally unsafe although cemetery staff continued to use it for storing maintenance tools and machinery. The chapel was later deconsecrated by the Bishop of Lincoln at the request of the town council.

The chapel was built in 1855, designed by the architect Edward Browning (1816-82), and one of the first to be erected in England after the passing of the Burial Act in 1853 sanctioning interments outside the churchyard which was full and so four acres of land in South Road were purchased for a new cemetery.

In 1904, it was extended to 5½ acres and in 1999 when land for burials was exhausted, a further two acres were added beyond the original red brick boundary wall and this is known today as the new cemetery. More than 10,000 people are now buried there and staff continue to tend the grounds in the same efficient manner, keeping the grass, shrubbery, borders and trees in good order, and have been responsible for digging the graves although much of this work is now carried out by contractors.

The chapel has been an integral part of the cemetery since it opened and has become a major feature in two Best Kept Cemetery awards, in 2002 and again in 2006. When the certificate was presented in 2002, the judges commented: “This is everyone's ideal of a cemetery with a picture postcard entrance consisting of a lodge, a lavender and rose bed, chapel and entrance drive, and surrounded by old headstones and yew trees.”

A year after the chapel was listed, the conservation group Bourne Preservation Society was formed with the hope of taking over the building and converting it for use as a columbarium but after many years of negotiation with the town council, the society failed to get the key to the door and eventually pulled out in 2014, blaming the council for the impasse over the handover. BPS merged with Bourne Civic Society last year although members insist that they remain committed to the original restoration scheme if given the opportunity.

It is quite clear that the effort to save the chapel was motivated by voluntary endeavour and public goodwill which came to nought but it is now hoped that everyone interested in the future of the building can work together to achieve a common objective, that of ensuring the future of this fine example of Victorian Gothic for the benefit of the town.