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

Chapel Street Methodist Church (Demolished),
Chapel 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 1847, but we understand it was closed in 1966.

This Chapel was labelled as Wesleyan Methodist on Maps of 1881-1882. By 1900 it had a Sunday School attached.

Derbyshire Record Office's Non-Conformist Register Guide provides the information that it was built in 1847, approved for marriages in 1901, and closed in 1966. Supposedly they hold a register of marriages 1848-1964, but this cannot be so if it was not approved for them until 1901!

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/446/4/2/15) indicates that it was a separate building erected in 1847 "in lieu of a chapel erected about 1810", and used exclusively as a place of worship. It had free seating for 310 and 246 "other" sittings, and the estimated congregation on March 30th was 121 in the morning, and 119 in the afternoon, with 173 Sunday Scholars to a morning class. The return was completed by Daniel Norman, the Chapel's Steward, who lived at "Ripley near Alfreton". He remarked that "General congregation is reduced about two thirds of its number since 1849. This loss is chiefly from the free sittings. The Seceders mistaking the noble stand made by the Conference of that year to maintain the purity of the ministry for an arbitrary exercise of power to deprive the members of a perfectly voluntary society of Liberty".

In the present day, the building has been demolished, and a branch of the Lidl supermarket chain now occupies its site. Fortunately, however, there are photographs on the Picture The Past website - DCAV00128 ("Ripley Wesleyan Chapel School room & House", 1900s), and DCAV000954 ("Wesleyan Chapel, Ripley", c1970). A description with the latter provides the additional information that the chapel was demolished in 1973, and the site used as a car park until Lidl was opened in 1999.

It was referred to "Chapel Street Methodist Church" on Old Maps of 1966, as by then, it was necessary to distinguish it from the other Methodist Churches in Ripley.

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 SK3996250668. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Chapel Street Methodist 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.