Photo-a-Day  (Friday, 28th January, 2022)

I can never understand, Brian, why these buildings are left to rot like this. There are a great many buildings like this one around Wigan and district. Surely someone must be responsible for their upkeep. It is very depressing to watch them deteriorate to the point where they can no longer be saved.

Doom and gloomy photo , but looking on the bright side just look at how well that tree is doing

Why don't the people of Ince get together and sort this historical building out.

A lot of these old chapels are reused as houses. I presume there is car access to this chapel? Or if it is not feasible or cost effective to convert to a house then pull it down and sell the stone glass and any interior fitments. The money could then be used to save another chapel and the land used for a extra burial site.

Even though the chapels are in a bad state I would hate to see them demolished; they have been such a feature of the cemetery for so long. My friend's Aunt Sarah used to clean them when they were still in use...I bet she'd be horrified to see them now. As for being re-used as houses, I wouldn't like to live in one! I would be perfectly happy to live in the gatehouse/lodge or whatever it's called just inside the cemetery gates...that wouldn't worry me at all, but not right in the centre amongst the old graves! And yet there's nothing in a cemetery at midnight that isn't there at mid-day, except our imagination.

I don't like the Ivy consuming the building - it makes everything worse. I certainly wouldn't like to live in that location. Imagine putting your bin out at night for collection in the morning. It's too spooky .... it could have been made into a small registry office perhaps ...I agree it should not be left in that condition.

As I looked out on the two decaying chapels in Ince Cemetery for 16 years - and had Waterhouse's Wikipaedia entry changed to reflect that the commission to design the Ince Cemetery was his first recorded contract for a public, as opposed to domestic, construction - I've often commented on their future. They are too hemmed in by graves and paths to allow for any useful development where they are - their best hope is that someone with money will be given them with a view to taking them down and re-erecting them elsewhere.
My dream project would be for them to be re-sited in the grounds of Waterhouse's Natural History Museum in London - where some of the architectural features from the chapels may be seen writ large in the Museum's structure. I've sometimes seen temporary exhibitions mounted in tents in the grounds - the chapels would make permanent extra space - and not look out of place.

I suppose it's all about how you see things . Dilapidated chapels and fallen headstones held a sublime gothic beauty to artists and writers centuries ago . They would have loved this .

' Ay , in the very temple of delight,
Viel'd melancholy has her sovran shrine '

Keats

I agree with you Veronica. Such a shame to see this old building in this state.

I had a look round the one in Hindley cemetery,thanks to Joannne,and the people involved are doing a good job to restore it.The ones in Atherton cemetery are also in a very poor state but not beyond repair but it is all about the cost.

It wouldn't cost that much to remove the tree/ivy and make the roof watertight.

I do think it would be a good idea to rebuild it somewhere else but I would rather it stay in Wigan itself. But where I don't know - because there's so many buildings in Wigan that have been left to rot.. it's a conundrum. I like Poet's 'romantic' image of graveyards and old buildings being a 'Godsend' for Writers and Artists....Charles Dickens novels definitely come to mind when created on film especially....

Cast your line into the past ,
Leave it there for long it lasts ,
Shelter not the modern day ,
Its thread of coat don’t fit my way .
I’d sooner be in time now spent ,
Texture, feel , earned not lent ,
Values written into hand cut stone ,
Not a feeble pastry from a faceless clone ...

Is this not the chapel that Wigan Metro received, or allocated a £300,000 grant to refurbish some 2-3 years ago, but nothing has happened yet?

Rev, it would be a good idea to re-erecting them in the grounds of Waterhouse's Natural History Museum in London
Have you tried getting a lottery grant to pay for the move.

fedup. If you google it, it was a £100,000 grant in 2019.

Your right Brian, it is such a shame to see this.I think that, every time I pass it, while going to my mother in laws grave.Its very sad.

When you think that they have change Wigan and the Galleries so many times. They should be restoring peoples history.