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Somercotes Hill Methodist Church,
Somercotes Hill, DE55 4JS,
Somercotes, 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 1898, though it is now closed, but we don't yet know when.

Kelly's Directory of 1932 says Somercotes Primitive Methodist Chapel was built in 1898, and had 250 sittings. It was a replacement for an earlier Chapel, in Lower Somercotes, built in 1839, for which see the separate entry in this database.

The first chapel is shown on Old Maps of 1884, later Maps show only the "younger" chapel. It was first built close to the road, but was demolished, possibly in the 1960s, and replaced by the present building, set further back on the same site. The latter closed sometime between 2005 and 2010, as a consequence of needing repairs, and a dwindling, mostly elderly congregation.

There is a small, rectangular building to the right of the 1960s building - this is all that survives of the 1898 chapel. It is faced with stucco, with an entrance door, and a single pointed arched window at the front, now blocked. It was in use until a few years ago by the Funeral Directors who took over the premises, as a mortuary chapel. The same funeral directors now occupy the site where the Wesley Church stood on Nottingham Road/Mill Street.

The premises were approved for marriages, as the following notice in The London Gazette of 16th November 1900 (p.7049) indicates:

NOTICE is hereby given, that a separate building, named the Primitive Methodist Church, situated at Nottingham-road, Somercotes, in the civil parish of Alfreton, in the county of Derby, in the district of Belper, being a building certified according to law as a place of meeting for religious worship, was, on the twelfth day of November, 1900, duly registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to the Act of 6th and 7th Wm. 4, c.85. Dated 13th November 1900.

Note: Nottingham Road is either in error, or it continued further to the east at that time, as there appears to be no other chapel the announcement could apply to. [Other Source: Peter & Janet Kirk]

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 was located at OS grid reference SK4259253582. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Somercotes Hill Methodist Church, Somercotes shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Somercotes 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 Somercotes, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• 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.