One of the glories of the Borough of Ipswich (and there aren't many, as much as I love the place) is the old municipal cemetery. A vast, rolling landscape of mainly Victorian graves and buildings, it cuts right in towards the centre of town, and stretches out to the 1930s ring road. An afternoon spent wandering around it is never wasted - there is always something extraordinary to discover.

Eventually, you will happen upon two little chapels, dwarfed by the immense spruce tree between them. They appear identical, except that the western chapel has a fat little copper spire; the eastern one doesn't. There are a few other distinguishing details. To cross the fifty metres or so between them, you go round by the circular carriage drive.

They were built together for the opening of the cemetery by Cooper and Peck, in 1855. The one with the spire was for Anglican use, the one without for the non-conformists. Catholics used the nearby church of St Mary for their funeral Masses before interment here. These chapels are not to be confused with the early 20th century crematorium chapel up by the ring road.

High Gothic in appearance, traditionally Suffolk in their use of buttressed flint, they are really rather splendid. Inside, encaustic tiles and coloured glass typify their age. The non-conformist chapel is now used for storage - it isn't clear when this happened. And, although the Anglican chapel is still used occasionally, there is now a vast new Millennium Cemetery, opened in 2000, to the north of the Borough. Although the old cemetery is still used occasionally, mostly the people here can rest in peace.

On all sides of this plateau, as though falling away from the drama of the spruce tree, the huge cemetery sprawls, a jungle of secret shaded corners and lichened grey stone.

The Ipswich cemetery chapels are a short walk from the Cemetery Road entrance. They are both kept locked.

You can view images of headstones in the Ipswich municipal cemetery at www.ipswichsuffolkengland.co.uk

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