St Mary's Church, Cromford, Derbyshire, Church History

Derbyshire Places of Worship

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Above Photograph(s)
Copyright of Mike Berrell
See more of Mike's photos on
The Churches of Britain and Ireland website.

St Mary's Church, Cromford

St Mary's Church,
1 Mill Road,
Cromford, Derbyshire.

Cemeteries

This Church has (or had) 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 1797, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1932 describes Cromford as a town and parish, with a station on the Manchester line of the London, Midland and Scottish railway, half a mile south from Matlock Bath, 2 miles north from Wirksworth and 142 from London. By a Ministry of Health Order, which came into operation in October 1924, Cromford was included in the Matlocks Urban District. A separate ecclesiastical parish was created in 1869, from the parishes of Wirksworth and Middleton.
The church of St Mary, "erected and endowed by Sir Richard Arkwright kt. about 1797, is a small edifice in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel, nave and a square tower containing a peal of tubular bells". It was restored and considerably improved, both internally and externally, in 1858 by Peter Arkwright esq. a former patron, and further restored in 1897, in commemoration of the Jubilee of Queen Victoria, and the centenary of the church. There are 350 sittings.
The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/449/2/9/31) for "St Mary's Chapel Cromford, Perpetual Curacy, built and endowed in 1797", in the parish of Wirksworth, and Township of Cromford" recorded 374 sittings, "exclusive of seats for Scholars", 70 of which were free. The estimated congregation on March 30th was 133 in the morning, and 115 in the afternoon, with 101 and 188 Sunday Scholars respectively. It was completed by Robert Jones, Perpetual Curate, of "Cromford, Derbyshire".
The parish records date from 1797. The living (in 1932) was a vicarage in the gift of Capt. R.A. Arkwright J.P. and had been held since 1915 by the Rev. George Arthur Hazlehurst M.A. of Keble College, Oxford, rural dean of Wirksworth, and hon. canon of Hartington in Derby Cathedral.
Along with many of Sir Richard Arkwright's "treasures" in Cromford, St Mary's is a Listed Building. A lengthy description on the British Listed Buildings website includes the information that building began in 1792, by Thomas Gardner, the remodelling in 1858 was by H.I. Stevens, whilst interior painting and glass added in the 1890s was by A.O. (Alfred Octavius) Hemming - "a very rare and complete scheme of wall paintings... executed by Hemming, integrated with stained glass into a very unusual overall scheme". The principal monument commemorates Richard Arkwright (1732-92) and his descendants; and in the nave are white-marble tablets to Martha Arkwright (d.1820) by Francis Chantrey, and to Charles Arkwright (d.1850) by H. Weekes.

Denomination

Now or formerly Church of England.

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 is located at OS grid reference SK2996657117. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

St Mary's Church, Cromford shown on a Google Map.
Places of Worship in Cromford 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 Cromford, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

Learn more about Buildings of special or historical interest on the British Listed Buildings (null) (verified 2018-09-19)

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.

Information last updated on 29 Jan 2015 at 15:40.

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This Report was created 7 Jan 2025 - 02:26:40 GMT from information held in the Derbyshire section of the Places of Worship Database. This was last updated on 13 Oct 2021 at 14:33.

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