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

Ripley Baptist Church (Demolished),
Church Street,
Ripley, 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 1846, and it has since been demolished, but we don't know when.

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/446/4/2/12) for a "General Baptist Chapel", in the parish of Pentrich, and township of Ripley describes a building erected in 1846 for a congregation of "General Baptists of the New Connexion". It had free seating for 100 and 120 "other" sittings, and attendance on March 30th was 248 at afternoon service, and 300 in the evening, with 170 and 150 scholars respectively. There is no mention of standing room, but evidently some of the congregation would have had to stand! The return was completed by William Gray, its Minister, of "Ripley Nr. Alfreton", who remarked that "this day was our Sabbath School Anniversary consequently more than an average attendance".

Kelly's Directory of 1932 records a Baptist chapel in Ripley, built in 1833, with 450 sittings, and a Baptist School, built in 1930, in Church Street. This suggests that the Baptist Chapel itself may not have been in Church Street originally, and this was apparently the case. Photographs on the Picture The Past website of "Cope's House", the offices of Lee, Son & Cope Auctioneers (DCAV001395 and DCAV000913) in Grosvenor Road, indicate it was originally the Baptist Chapel. Perhaps the Chapel transferred to Church Street when the firm of "Lee, Son & Coupe", "auctioneers, valuers, land, estate & insurance agents & accountants", was first established. Their entry in Kelly says this was in 1860, that their telephone number was "20", and they also had a branch in Alfreton.

Both buildings have now been demolished - Cope's House demolished shortly after the photographs were taken (1971), to be replaced by a new Public Library, and the Church Street site is now occupied by a car park.

Denomination

Now or formerly General Baptist.

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 SK3992450545. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Ripley Baptist Church (Demolished), 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.

• Historical Photos of Derby, Derbyshire and Nottingham ~ Picture The Past (null) (verified 2018-10-12)

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.