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Copyright of Geoff Bradley/Alf Beard/Peter & Janet Kirk

Holy Trinity Church,
Fennel Street / Court Lane,
Ashford in the Water, Derbyshire.

Cemeteries

This Church has (or had) 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 before 1205, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1932 describes Ashford, or Ashford-in-the-Water, as a parish formed in 1840 from the parish of Bakewell, 1½ miles north-west from Bakewell and 1 from Longstone station on the Midland section of the London, Midland and Scottish railway. "The village is on the north bank of the Wye, and surrounded by lofty hills, in which variously coloured marbles have been quarried". The Church of the Holy Trinity, now chiefly in the Decorated style, consists of chancel, nave, north aisle, south porch and a low embattled tower at the west end containing 3 bells, one of which is dated 1612, and there is also a sanctus bell: the curfew may still be heard here, as well as the pancake bell, rung at 11 a.m. on Shrove Tuesday". The tower is probably in part of the 13th century, although its battlements and pinnacles are of a much later date.

A chantry was founded in this church on the feast of the Purification, 1257, by Griffin, son of Wenunwyn, who then held this manor. The once almost universal custom in English villages of hanging up funeral garlands in the church for deceased maidens is still preserved here, and (in 1932) five of these still hang from the beams of the north aisle, one to Anne Howard, being dated 1747, and another to Ann Swindel, 1798.

The parish records date from 1688. The living was (in 1932) a vicarage, with that of Sheldon annexed, in the gift of the vicar of Bakewell, and had been held since 1912 by the Rev. Harry Ernest Sherlock M.A. of Selwyn College, Cambridge.

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/449/1/9/13) for "Holy Trinity Church of an ancient Chapelry" recording an estimated congregation on March 30th of 98 in the morning, none in the afternoon, and 134 in the evening, with 94 and 83 Sunday Scholars respectively, was completed by W.J. Boyd, who styled himself "Minister". He remarked that "Sunday March 30th was a very unfavourable day. These numbers represent as nearly as possible the average numbers of attendants, morning and evening".

Interested researchers may also wish to know that a transcription of Churchyard Memorials is available on the website of a former vicar, the Rev. Clive Thrower

There may be more information available by by selecting one or more of the accompanying images on the right.

Denomination

Now or formerly Church of England.

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 is located at OS grid reference SK1950569710. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Holy Trinity Church, Ashford in the Water shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Ashford in the Water 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 Ashford in the Water, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Transcriptions of Memorials in Ashford, Sheldon, Great Longstone, Wardlow Churchyards, by courtesy of a former vicar - Rev. Clive Thrower (null) (verified 2018-12-08)

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.