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

Chapel of St Nicholas (Demolished),
Codnor Castle,
Codnor, 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 before 1542, but we understand it was closed after 1692.

Codnor Castle was built by the Lords Grey of Codnor, and according to Pevsner's Buildings of England, passed to the Zouche family in 1496. The earliest documentary source to mention a chapel, according to the account of St Nicholas's Chapel on the Codnor & District Local History & Heritage website, is 1542 (temp. Henry VIII), when it was called a "Free Chapel". So it survived the Reformation, but more tellingly, perhaps, is the suggestion that it may also have served the extra-parochial district of Codnor Park.

Note: Gladwyn Turbutt's A History of Derbyshire (1999), pp.729-30 describes private chapels created at this time by a wealthy men "for the convenience of themselves and their families, and particularly when their parish church was some miles distant". It was necessary to obtain a dispensation from the bishop, and conditions were usually imposed, as for example, its owner would be expected to attend services at the parish church on major feast days, and the patronal festival; and any offerings made to the chapel were to be handed over to the parish church. Also no formal services, such as marriages, purifications, or confessions, were to held. Such private chapels became common by the end of the thirteenth century, occupying both grand, and humble apartments, as for example, in the manor house of Wakebridge, the chapel or oratory was "sandwiched between a pigsty and a dovecote". The living of the priest who attended the chapel was also of a menial nature, as although he was entitled to a stipend, he had no benefice, and could be dismissed at the whim of his patron.

Denomination

Now or formerly Roman Catholic.

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 SK4336249944. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Chapel of St Nicholas (Demolished), Codnor shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Codnor 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 Codnor, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• A website which is a joy to visit - all you might ever want to know about Codnor and its people - Codnor & District Local History & Heritage (null) (verified 2018-10-05)

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.