Default Image Place of Worship has been
Demolished.
Image by courtesy of
openclipart.org

Free United ("Top") Methodist Church (Demolished),
Belper Road (south side),
Stanley (Smalley) Common, Derbyshire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Church did NOT have a graveyard.

Note: any church within an urban environment may have had its graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853. Any new church built after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all.

Church History

This Place of Worship was founded in 1903, but we understand it was closed in 2003.

The Kelly's Directory of 1932 entry for Smalley records a United Methodist Chapel on Smalley Common, built in 1903; however earlier Old Maps, for instance OS 1881 1:2,500, show a "Methodist Chapel (Free United)" already in existence. It seems to me that the most probable explanation for this is that the chapel of 1903 was a rebuilding of an earlier chapel (at (SK4121542531), as later Maps, and more recent photographs show the chapel building a short distance to the south east of its original site.

The photographs referred to are available on the website of WSSM Churches Together - the Covenant Churches of West Hallam, Stanley, Stanley Common and Mapperley. The website records the closure of Stanley Common Methodist Church, after which its congregation joined that of Stanley, All Saints, one of the churches in the Covenant.

They show a substantial red-brick building with a large central porch, lancet windows either side, above which are plaques identifying it as "United Methodist", "Free Church 1903". Thus whilst the website refers to it as being at Stanley Common, it does nevertheless distinguish it from two other Methodist Chapels there, by the name "Top Chapel", and as situated near the boundary of Stanley Common and Smalley Common.

It was open for exactly 100 years, as the merger took place in 2003. Today, however, a block of apartments occupies its site.

Smalley parish was formed in 1877 from the parish of Morley. Stanley was originally a chapelry of Spondon that became a full parish in 1866. The settlements of Smalley Common and Stanley Common are both on the A609, the former to the west, and the latter to the east of All Saints Church.

Denomination

Now or formerly Free/United Methodist.

If more than one congregation has worshipped here, or its congregation has united with others, in most cases this will record its original dedication.

Maps

This Church was located at OS grid reference SK4123142527. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Free United ("Top") Methodist Church (Demolished), Stanley (Smalley) Common shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Stanley shown on a Google Map.
• Streetmap.co.uk (arrow on map shows the Place of Worship's location) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Bing (Ordnance Survey option) (verified 2018-10-13)
• Bing Maps ('Bird's Eye' View) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Ordnance Survey "getamap" (NB some of the 'Change Map' options may require a subscription) (verified 2018-10-15)
• OpenStreetMap (Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA) (verified 2018-10-15)
• A Vision of Britain Through Time - useful for Boundary Changes (verified 2018-10-15)
• www.magic.gov.uk (Modern Maps with various overlays) (verified 2018-10-15)

Resources

I have found many websites of use whilst compiling the information for this database. Here are some which deserve mention as being of special interest for Stanley (Smalley) Common, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Situated between Derby and Nottingham, and to the west of Ilkeston ~ the group of Covenant Churches of West Hallam, Stanley, Stanley Common and Mapperley (null) (verified 2018-10-09)

The above links were selected and reviewed at the time I prepared the information, but please be aware their content may vary, or disappear entirely. These factors are outside my control.