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

Mr Shore's Chapel (Demolished),
Norton Hall,
Norton, Derbyshire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Chapel 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 by 1777, but we understand it was closed by 1846.

Samuel Bagshaw's Directory of Derbyshire of 1846 records that "near the east end of the village, a small neat Unitarian chapel was erected by the late S. Shore, Esq., previous to which a room in Norton Hall was used for that purpose, but the building is now closed". Norton Hall was described as "a large handsome stone mansion, in the village of Norton, the seat of James Yates Esq.", the Shore family having lost the hall after S.[Samuel] Shore's son Offley "succeeded to the manor, but whose misfortunes, from the family having been bankers in Sheffield, have placed the manor in the hands of assignees for the term of his life".

Samuel Shore's father (also Samuel) had acquired the manor after marrying the daughter of Stephen Offley, Esq. who had succeeded to the manor as sole heiress, after her brother died without issue. The article on Norton Hall on Wikipedia explains more fully how Samuel (junior) was responsible for the design of the present Hall, which he rebuilt in 1815, when it included "a private nonconformist chapel, stables, a gamekeeper's house, 200 acres of park and woodland, small lakes and a walled garden".

Derbyshire Record Office's Non-Conformist Register Guide refers to the separate building as "Mr Shore's Chapel", recording that it was built about 1800, and that it was Presbyterian, later Unitarian. They hold records of births/baptisms for the period 1777-1836; and a note that it had closed by the mid 19th century.

There is an intriguing reference to the Chapel in a publication available from Google Books - The Universal Theological Magazine and Impartial Review, for August 1805, where on p.110 it states that "The Rev. Mr. Piper, late of Rochford, Essex, is engaged to succeed the Rev. Mr. Williams, at the Unitarian chapel, Norton, Derbyshire".

There is a further mention of a Unitarian Chapel under the entry for Norton in The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland - "the Wesleyans and Unitarians have each a place of worship", but this may be a left-over from previous accounts, as it would appear it was no longer open at that time.

Denomination

Now or formerly Presbyterian/Unitarian.

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 Chapel was located at OS grid reference SK3580882184. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Mr Shore's Chapel (Demolished), 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 Norton, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• A link to an article from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, on Norton Hall (null) (verified 2018-11-22)
• Search interface for Google Books (null) (verified 2018-10-07)

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.