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Wood Street Methodist Church,
Wood Street, DE5 3DD,
Ripley, 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 1849, and we understand it is still open.

In 2008, a Google StreetView image showed a plain brick building in a pseudo-classical style, having false "columns" with Doric capitals, supporting a frieze above which was a pediment, featuring a cross in the middle. A plaque set into the frieze below the pediment read "Ebenezer Chapel / 1854", but a central doorway with a white canopy, was looking decidedly more modern.

The site has an interesting history. It is currently the home of Ripley Methodist Church, but has been used by various "flavours" of Methodism since its foundation. Derbyshire Record Office's Non-Conformist Register Guide states that as "Ebenezer Methodist Chapel", it was founded in 1849 by a congregation of Wesleyan Reformers. According to an account of its history on Ripley Methodist Church website, the congregation bought a former Lecture Hall in Wood Street in 1854, and built a new Chapel in its place, called Ebenezer.

By 1860, the building had become too small for the large numbers attending, so the congregation moved to a newly built Chapel in Nottingham Road. This was in use until its closure, in 1962.

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/446/4/2/11) for Ripley's congregation of "Wesleyan Methodists worshiping apart from the conference party" (Reformers) was for a building with seats for 150, all of which were free. The average attendance was 100 to afternoon services, and 150 in the evening, so there was "full house"! The return was completed by George Rowland, its Manager, whose address was "Market Place, Ripley, Near Alfreton". He remarked that "Our Chief Difficulty is want of Room But we are Building a large Room capable of holding from 500 to 600 which we hope to enter upon the 1st of June 1851".

Was this a reference to the Wood Street premises? After the Reformers moved to their new building in Nottingham Road, it reverted to a Lecture Hall and Ladies' School, until it was bought in 1876 by a group of miners, who called it "Wood Street Mission Hall". On Old Maps of 1881-1882, and as late as 1916-1917 it is labelled as Primitive Methodist. By 1938-1939 it was labelled "Methodist Ch", and by 1966 "Wood Street Methodist Church", to distinguish it from (for example) the former Wesleyan Chapel in Chapel Street, "Chapel Street Methodist Church", and the Nottingham Road premises. Chapel Street closed in 1966, and after the closure of Mount Tabor Methodist (on the corner of Argyll Street and Nottingham Road) in 1989, this became Ripley's only Methodist Church.

Denomination

Now or formerly Wesleyan Reform/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 SK3988350797. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

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

• You may want to visit Ripley Methodist Church website for present-day information.

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.