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

Valley Road Methodist Church (Demolished),
101 Valley Road, S8 9FX,
Meersbrook, Norton, 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 1895, but we understand it was closed before 1951.

The first appearance of a Methodist Chapel in Valley Road is on Old Maps of 1898, labelled as "Methodist Chapel (Free United)". It was situated on the north east side of the street, south east of its junction with Molloy Street. At that time, Valley Road was not yet fully developed, but the terrace of housing (81-99 today), between the junction and the Chapel was already built. By the next available detailed Map, a further terrace had been built on the other side of the Chapel (103-127), so completing the development of the street as far as Brooklyn Road.

Kelly's Directory of 1912 tells us that the United Methodist Chapel in Derbyshire Lane (now Mount View Methodist Church) had a Mission room in Valley Road; however a list of Milestones in the Emergence of a City - a time line of events in the history of Sheffield, on the Old Heeley website says it was a Mission from Oak Street Chapel, opened in 1895.

By Maps of 1935, it had become a Methodist Church; but on Maps of 1951 it was labelled as a "Ruin". Although the houses on either side appear to have escaped unscathed, this was, possibly as a consequence of WWII bombing, as the Chapel registers, held by Sheffield Archives, end in 1943 (baptisms 1898+, marriages 1919+). On the other hand, the houses on either side would appear to have survived intact, so was it simply abandoned? The site itself was however salvaged, and the next available Map labels the building there as a "Cold Store".

In more recent times it has been pressed into use again, and is now (2016) the site of 101 Valley Road MOT and Service Centre.

Note: Old Maps prior to 1900 clearly show the ancient (county and parliamentary) boundary between Derbyshire and Yorkshire to the rear of the properties, with Valley Road, and its Chapel clearly on the Derbyshire side. The boundary followed the Meers Brook, to which the "Valley" in Valley Road, presumably refers.

Denomination

Now or formerly Free/United 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 SK3526784470. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Valley Road Methodist Church (Demolished), Meersbrook, Norton shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Norton 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 Meersbrook, Norton, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Heeley's History Workshop - Old Heeley (null) (verified 2018-10-28)

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.