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Mount Tabor Methodist Church,
Nottingham Road / Argyll Road,
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 1893, but we understand it was closed in 1989.

This is an elegant red brick building, having a three-bay front, with two tiers of pointed-arched windows, and central doorway, approached by a steep flight of steps, suggesting there is also a basement. The side facing Argyll Street has an extension of three bays, with "garage-width" openings. It is not clear what these were for originally, but they do appear to be part of the original structure. There is also a 3-sided tower attached to the south-east corner. Three courses of brickwork at the inner floor level are interspersed with dedication stones, recalling the names of who laid them. Following its transfer to secular use, the two ground floor windows have been partially bricked up.

It is situated next to Ripley Greenway, a footpath which follows the route of the Ripley & Heanor branch of the former Midland Railway, and first appears on Maps of 1900. Earlier Maps show the area was not yet developed.

A record of its opening appeared in The London Gazette of 13th January 1893 (p.204), when it was substituted for the Primitive Methodist Chapel Grosvenor-place, Ripley, now disused.

There is a photograph of the Chapel Choir in 1910 (DCAV003203) on the Picture The Past website indicating that it was known as "Mount Tabor". The following notice in The London Gazette of 6th December 1990 (p.18862) indicates its closure:

The Registrar General, being satisfied that MOUNT TABOR METHODIST CHAPEL, Nottingham Road, Ripley in the registration district of Belper, in the Non-Metropolitan County of Derbyshire, is no longer used as a place of worship by the congregation on whose behalf it was on 7th January 1893, registered for marriages in accordance with the Marriage Act 1836, has cancelled the registration. Dated 26th November 1990.

According to a Wikipedia article - a History of Methodism in Ripley Derbyshire, it had closed for worship the previous year, 1989. See elsewhere in this database for details of its predecessor, in Grosvenor Road.

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 SK4025450569. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Mount Tabor 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.

• Historical Photos of Derby, Derbyshire and Nottingham ~ Picture The Past (null) (verified 2018-10-12)
• A Wikipedia article ~ a History of Methodism in Ripley Derbyshire (null) (verified 2018-10-11)
• 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.