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Aldwark Methodist Church,
Aldwark, DE4 4HW,
Grange Mill, Bradbourne, 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 1829, though it is now closed, but we don't yet know when.

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/449/2/11/35 - District of Bakewell) records a "Preaching Room" in the "parish or place" of Aldwark, erected in 1829, not as a separate building, but used exclusively as a place of worship by a Wesleyan Methodist congregation. It had seating for 70, all free, and the estimated congregation on March 30th was 37 in the afternoon, and 25 in the evening, with an average congregation of 30 over the previous 12 months. The return was completed by Benjn. S. Buxton, its Steward, of "Aldwark, Nr. Winster".

White's Directory of 1857 records that in 1851, Aldwark (recorded under the parish of Bradbourne) had 17 houses and 79 inhabitants - so about half of them must have attended services! It is described as "a township and small retired village", 5¾ miles west-north-west from Wirksworth. By the time Kelly's Directory of 1895 was published, however, the population had halved. Then, it was described as a township in the union of Bakewell, with 944 acres, and in 1891, with 43 inhabitants. In 1901 (Kelly, 1912) there were 36 inhabitants, and in 1921 (Kelly, 1932), 42, when it was described as a township 4 miles north [of Bradbourne], in the rural district of Bakewell, with 967 acres.

For such a scattered population it is surprising that it had a chapel at all! Yet Old Maps of 1968 show a building labelled as "Aldwark Methodist Church" very clearly. The same building, or if not the same, an earlier one with the same "footprint", is shown on Maps of 1877-1880 and 1898, and in 1922, it is labelled as "Mission Room". It is uncertain, therefore whether there was a continuous Methodist presence since the Preaching Room opened until at least 1968, but if the evidence of Maps can be believed it is certainly a possibility.

Needless to say, the building has now closed for worship, and is in private occupation, probably named "Chapelgates".

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 SK2290457386. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Aldwark Methodist Church, Grange Mill, Bradbourne shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Bradbourne 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)