We have 4 Images Above Photograph(s)
Copyright of Janet Kirk

'B' (Berrister) Winning Methodist Church,
New Street, DE55 5HU,
Hilcote, Blackwell, Alfreton, Derbyshire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Church does 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 1877, and we understand it is still open.

The Church is located in a little cul-de-sac off New Street, opposite Hilcote Miners' Welfare & Community Centre. In the background to them both (to the south) is a bridge formerly spanning the Blackwell Branch of the Midland Railway line, but now the Blackwell Trail. It was known on the circuit as "Berrister Winning Chapel", or more recently, "'B' Winning".

At the time of White's Directory of 1857, Hilcote was a small village quarter of a mile south of Blackwell, with a few farm houses and the hall - "an ancient mansion ... overgrown with ivy", but owes its present expansion to a seam of coal developed by the Blackwell Colliery Company Ltd in the late 19th century to the east of the Hall. The pit was named 'B' Winning. A Primitive Methodist Chapel in the village is mentioned as early as 1857 by White, but does not seem to appear on the earliest Old Maps available in the 1880s.

This is probably because prior to the present chapel being built, the miners used to worship in the Colliery yard. Even so, a dedicated building does not show on Maps until the 1970s. Prior to that, its location is labelled as a School, although the schoolroom extension was added at a later date. The chapel was the smaller of the two, nearest the bridge (the lower roof in the photographs). Kelly's Directory of 1895 said the chapel had 250 sittings, so possibly in its heyday, this would have included the schoolroom as well.

According to information available at the Derbyshire Record Office, Berrister Methodist Chapel was part of the Ripley Methodist Circuit (D2192/JMM/14). Records of a Berrister County Infants School, 1953-1960 (ED 161/2561) also exist - in use until the 1960's. Both were, probably, built by the Blackwell Colliery Co. to serve the housing built for its workers in New Street. The latter are quite substantial - three-storey semi-detached, with a good-size back gardens, rather than the usual small terraces. The miners' families in the 1800s must have thought they were in Heaven! The top floors were reserved for weaving looms, where the wives and children would work in the daytime, whilst the miners went "down t'pit".

My thanks to Janet Kirk, and a lady connected with 'B' Winning Church for the above information.

Denomination

Now or formerly Primitive 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 is located at OS grid reference SK4523057805. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• 'B' (Berrister) Winning Methodist Church, Hilcote, Blackwell, Alfreton shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Alfreton 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)