Monument to John Urpeth Rastrick
| Browse information by: Location Makers General Information Classification Object Parts Object Condition History References Photographs |  Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright for Photograph: Creative Commons |
Location
| Street: | Lewes Road |
| Town: | Brighton |
| Parish: | Brighton |
| Council: | Brighton & Hove City Council |
| County: | East Sussex |
| Postcode: | BN2 |
| Location on Google Map | |
| Access is: | Public |
| Location note: | Extra-Mural Cemetery, north side on high bank towards Bear Road. |
| In the AZ book: | East Sussex |
| Page: | 132 |
| Grid reference: | D5 |
| The A-Z books used are A-Z East Sussex and A-Z West Sussex (Editions 1A 2005). Geographers' A-Z Map Company Ltd. Sevenoaks. | |
| OS Reference: | TQ3205 |
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Makers
| Company/Group : | W&J Freeman |
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General Information
| Construction period: | c1856 |
| Installation date: | 1856 |
| Work is: | Extant |
| Owner custodian: | Rastrick family |
| Description: | Imposing, large granite monument facing south. Large table tomb atop a circular, buttressed base. The largest monument in the cemetery. |
| Signatures: | Upper aspect of lower part of table tomb:
W & J FREEMAN PENRYN |
| Inscription: | JOHN URPETH RASTRICK ENGINEER OF AMONGST NUMEROUS OTHER WORKS THE LONDON BRIGHTON AND SOUTH COAST RAILWAYS DIED AT SAYES COURT NEAR CHERTSEY SURREY NOVEMBER 1 1856 AGED 77 East face of table-tomb, incised, black painted letters: H.S.E. IOANNES URPETH RASTRICK VIR INGENIC PERQUAM SUBTILI QUI VIAPUM FERRATARUM APUD ANGLOS PRIMUS FERE AUCTOR ID QUOQUE EFFECIT UT ILLA LONDINIO USQUE AD UPBEM BRIGHTONENSEM ET INDE PER ORAM MERIDIONALEM -MUNIRETUR- OBIIT APUD SAYES COURT IN COM. SURR. KAL. NOV. A. S. MDCCCLVI ÆTAT. LXXVII. |
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Classification
| Categories: | Free Standing, Commemorative, Architectural, Funerary |
| Object type1: | Building |
| Object subtype1: | Mausoleum |
| Subject type1: | Non-figurative |
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Object Parts
| Part 1: | Table tomb |
| Material: | Cornish grey granite |
| Height (cm): | 185 |
| Width (cm): | 305 |
| Depth (cm): | 430 |
| Part 2: | Circular buttressed base |
| Material: | Cornish grey granite |
| Height (cm): | 100 |
| Width (cm): | 620 |
| Depth (cm): | 620 |
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Object Condition
| Overall condition: | Good |
| Risk assessment: | No known risk |
| Condition 1 of type: | Surface |
| Condition 1: | Corrosion, deterioration |
| More details: | Inscriptions to north face illegible due to weather wearing |
| Condition 2 of type: | Structural |
| Condition 1: | Broken or missing parts |
| Condition 2: | Cracks, splits, breaks, holes |
| More details: | The buttresses appear to have had metal staves set into them at some stage, now all missing, possibly for an enclosing metal railing. The top of the table tomb is cracked and corroded. |
| Date of on-site inspection: | 01/05/2008 |
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History
| History: | The Extra-Mural Cemetery covers land formerly the open arable field of Scabe's Castle, a late-eighteenth-century farm with buildings in Hartington Road. These were demolished in the 1900s when Hartington Place and Hartington Terrace were developed. The Extra-Mural cemetery is the oldest of the three cemeteries on the land. It was originally a private burial ground, laid out on 28 acres in 1850 by the Brighton Extra-Mural Company, 6 acres being the gift of the Marquess of Bristol. The entrance was a castellated gateway with a round tower in Lewes Road, and there were two mortuary chapels designed by A.H.Wilds of which only the Anglican chapel remains.
The cemetery was a favourite resort in the nineteenth century and even had a guide book published, but in 1956 the now redundant cemetery was purchased by the corporation and restored as an interesting and picturesque garden of remembrance which contains many impressive Victorian tombs, including those of several important figures in Brighton's history. In the driveway is the borough mortuary which opened in August 1962 and has between 600 and 700 admissions a year. (Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder). The Woodvale Cemetery was opened in 1857. The Woodvale crematorium and chapels are located in this cemetery. The burial ground is Grade II listed and until 1902 was known as the Brighton 'Parochial' cemetery. (Brighton and Hove City Council) John Urpeth Rastrick (1780–1856) was a civil engineer, born in Morpeth, Northumberland, on 26 January 1780. His early background was in iron and mechanical engineering. He was involved in the building of bridges, construction of machinery and steam engines. In 1825 Rastrick was employed by the promoters of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, along with George Stephenson and others and was called before the parliamentary committee in support of the railway company, which was opposed by the canal companies. He was subsequently employed to support, in parliament, many of the principal railway lines in the United Kingdom. He constructed lines between Stratford upon Avon and Moreton in Marsh, opened the Shutt End Colliery Railway from Kingswinford to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Rastrick also manufactured locomotives such as the Stourbridge Lion shipped to New York in August 1829. In 1830 Rastrick worked with George Stephenson in surveying the line from Birmingham to join the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, afterwards called the Grand Junction. He also marked out a line from Manchester to Crewe, thereby paving the way for the Manchester and Cheshire Junction Railway project, which was brought forward in 1835, with Rastrick as the engineer. With Sir John Rennie, in 1837, Rastrick carried the direct Brighton line against several competing projects. Towards the close of that year he was appointed superintendent of the line, with responsibility for the Shoreham branch, and also for the heavy works, comprising the Merstham, Balcombe, and Clayton tunnels, and the Ouse Viaduct of thirty-seven arches at an elevation of 100 feet. These works were completed by the autumn of 1840. Rastrick later constructed extensions, which eventually were to form the series of lines known as the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway. Rastrick was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers from 1827, and a fellow of the Royal Society from 1837. He retired from active work in 1847, and died at his residence, Sayes Court, near Chertsey, Surrey, on 1 November 1856 (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography) The cemetery was consecrated on 14 November 1857 by the then Bishop of Chichester, Dr. A.T. Gilbert ‘The stone for the monument weighs 15 tons and required 20 horses to drag it to the site. The entrance gates were too narrow to admit it, so a part of the wall had to be taken down to let it pass. The London to Brighton railway was designed by Sir John Rennie in 1841. John Rastrick was the engineer who actually executed the design.’ (Brighton Cemeteries) |
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References
| Source 1 : | |
| Title: | 'Brighton Cemeteries' |
| Type: | Book |
| Author: | Dale, Antony. |
| Edition: | 1995 Reprint |
| Page: | 18-19 |
| Publisher: | Brighton Borough Council. Brighton. |
| Source 2 : | |
| Title: | 'Encyclopaedia OF Brighton' |
| Type: | Book |
| Author: | Carder, Timothy |
| Publisher: | East Sussex County Libraries. Lewes. |
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Photographs
Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |  Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |
 Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |  Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |
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