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Broadleys / Thanet Street Methodist Church,
Broadleys / Thanet Street,
Clay Cross, 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 1851, but we understand it was closed in 1964.

This place of worship is marked on Old Maps of 1878-1884 as "Free United Methodist", and later as Methodist "New Connexion".

It is a small rectangular building, of brick, with a central doorway, and one window to its left, and another above it, both now blocked up. The sides are of 3 bays, each originally having a pointed-arched window, with a keystone. These are intact on the north side, but the one nearest the road on the south side has been replaced by a doorway. It certainly fits the description in a Clay Cross Character Statement ~ prepared for the North East Derbyshire District Council in 2010 ~ as "generally quite plain in form, brick-built with a simple pitched roof and perhaps a gable-frontage facing the street", as it would be easy to pass it by in the street, and remain unaware of its previous history.

It may have been replaced in later years by the building described in Derbyshire Record Office's Non-Conformist Register Guide as "Thanet Street Methodist Church", for which a register of baptisms for the period 1934-1955 exists. The building standing on the corner of Bradleys and Thanet Street, now the Salvation Army Hall, was built by 1917, and labelled initially as a United Methodist Chapel. The original Chapel may then have been converted into a Sunday School, or remained in existence as an independent Church. The latter seems more likely, as the above Guide also includes records for a Thanet Street Methodist Gospel Mission - of baptisms 1949-1964, and marriages 1941-1950, plus the information that it closed in 1964.

This ties in perfectly with the following notice in The London Gazette of 16th October 1964 (p.8763) indicating its closure:

The Registrar General, being satisfied that METHODIST GOSPEL MISSION, Thanet Street, Clay Cross, in the registration district of Chesterfield, in the county of Derby, is no longer used as a place of worship by the congregation on whose behalf it was on 19th September 1941, registered for marriages in accordance with the Marriage Act, 1836, has cancelled the registration.. Dated 9 October 1964.

A similar notice in the Gazette indicates the Salvation Army had moved to Thanet Street by 1968; but there are no notices relating to "Thanet Street Methodist Church".

By process of elimination, in comparison with other Chapels in Clay Cross, this Chapel (or Chapels) was probably started by the Wesleyan Reformers. White's Directory of 1897 records that their Chapel was built in 1851. The Reformers seceded (or were expelled) from the Wesleyan Movement in 1849, but most of them joined the United Methodist Free Churches in 1857.

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 SK3938963165. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Broadleys / Thanet Street Methodist Church, Clay Cross shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Clay Cross 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 Clay Cross, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• The Local Government website of North East Derbyshire District Council (null) (verified 2018-10-04)
• Notices of Civil Registration of Places of Worship for marriages are published in the London edition of The Gazette. Hint: search for registrations from 1998 by choosing 'Church' notices, and the option 'Registration for solemnising marriage'. (verified 2018-12-11)

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.