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Methodist Church,
Plains Lane,
Shottle, 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 1816, though it is now closed, but we don't yet know when.

This is an interesting chapel, definitely off the beaten track. An account on the Belper Research website describing Old Salem Methodist Chapel, built in 1856, records the arrival of Methodism in the area, when Thomas Slater, a farmer of Shottle, opened his own home - now known as Chapel Farm - for Methodist worship. According to White's Directory of 1857 for Shottle, a Wesleyan chapel was built in 1816, and described as being on the south side of the township. This is presumably the building which can still be seen today, on the left (east) side of Chapel Farm, and marked on Old Maps as variously "Methodist Chapel (Wesleyan)", and in 1938, "Methodist Church".

Its closure, as "Methodist Church, Shottle, Belper", was recorded in The London Gazette of 9th July 1968 (p.7628) in a list of buildings which "have wholly ceased to be used as places of worship by the congregations on whose behalf they were certified"... Its original certification was dated 5th April 1934 - presumably when it joined the Methodist Church of Great Britain, rather than its original certification for worship.

Since then, presumably, and certainly today, it is in private occupation.

Thomas Slater was a Methodist preacher for upwards of 50 years, and was responsible for the foundation of a Preaching Room in Duffield in 1777, and the first Methodist Chapel in Belper, which opened in 1782. He was born in August 1738, and died 4th September 1821.

Denomination

Now or formerly Wesleyan 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 SK3279847821. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

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

• Tricia Booth's superb Belper Research (null) (verified 2018-09-29)
• 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.