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Photograph at present.
Image by courtesy of
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Meersbrook Bank Methodist Church,
Norton Lees Road / Cockayne Place,
Norton Lees, 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 1898, but we understand it was closed by 1984.

The first known appearance of this building on Old Maps is in 1904 (500 series), where it is shown on the south west corner of the junction of Norton Lees Road with Cockayne Place, labelled as "Methodist Chapel (Wesleyan, Seats for 300). It is a rectangular building, with a small porch attached to the shorter end facing Norton Lees Road. This matches the building in this position today, which is built of stone, with sides of six bays separated by small buttresses, and a porch, approached by a flight of stone steps. There is a round arched recess above the porch, which may once have contained a window, and above that is a plaque, which unfortunately has blackened with time, so is not easily read. The roof has an elegant bell-turret at the centre of the ridge-line.

Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire of 1912 records a Wesleyan Methodist School Chapel in Norton Lees Road, but this building appears to be rather more substantial than what one would expect for a school. Perhaps the description of "school" is therefore misleading, as under its "Places of Worship", Wesleyan Methodist section it lists times of services at "Norton Lees road, Meersbrook" as 11am, & 6.30pm, and every alternate Thursday at 8pm. This was in connection with the Brunswick Chapel, Sheffield Circuit, with Rev. Henry OYSTON its superintending minister. By Maps of 1963-1973 it had acquired the name of "Meersbrook Bank Methodist Church", when it may also have acquired property to the rear of the main building.

The following notice in The London Gazette of 18th July 1941 (p.4158) recorded its registration for marriages:

A Separate Building, duly certified for religious worship, named MEERSBROOK BANK METHODIST CHURCH situated at Norton Lees Road, Meersbrook, in the civil parish of Sheffield in Sheffield registration district in the county borough of Sheffield was on the 9th July 1941, registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to 6 & 7 Will. IV, c.85. Dated 14th July 1941.

A comparable notice cancelling the registration of "MAERSBROOK BANK METHODIST CHURCH, Norton Lees Road, Maersbrook" [Maersbrook sic], was published in the Gazette of 5th January 1984 (p.184).

Today (2016), obviously, it has closed and is no longer in use. There is, however a (colour) photograph available, in Budby's Flickr Photostream; and some (black and white) images also on the Picture Sheffield website.

See also Google Books, which lists a 12-page booklet published in 1948 to commemorate its Golden Jubilee - Meersbrook Bank Methodist Church Sheffield: 1898-1948 Jubilee Souvenir, published by A. MacDougall & Son, 1948.

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 SK3484984000. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Meersbrook Bank Methodist Church, Norton Lees shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Norton Lees 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 Norton Lees, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Overview of Budby's Flickr Photostream (null) (verified 2018-10-13)
• The Picture Sheffield (null) (verified 2018-10-01)
• Search interface for Google Books (null) (verified 2018-10-07)
• 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.