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

Farley Hill Congregational Church (Demolished),
286 Smedley Street, DE4 3LH,
Darley Dale, Derbyshire.

Cemeteries

This Church 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 by 1895, but we understand it was closed by 2003.

The definitive source for information about Farley Hill Congregational Church is Ann Andrews, on her excellent webpage of Matlock Churches and Chapels.

For the record, however, the following notice in The London Gazette of 21st June 1895 (p.3531) recorded the registration of its first building for marriages:

NOTICE is hereby given that a separate building named Congregational Chapel situate at Farley Hill in the parish of Darley in the county of Derby in the district of Bakewell being a building certified according to law as a place of religious worship, was on the 17th day of June 1895, duly registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to the Act of 6th and 7th Wm. 4, cap. 85. Dated 17th June 1895.

As explained on Ann's site, the original building was replaced by a new Chapel which opened in 1902. A corresponding notice, registering the substitution of a new "CONGREGATIONAL CHAPEL, situated at Farley Hill" for the old was published in the Gazette of 3rd January 1905 (p.55).

Old Maps show the original building was on the south side of the road now named "Farley Hill", just past its junction with Smedley Street West. There is no evidence on Old Maps that it was used afterwards as either a Hall, or Sunday School, but as far as I can tell, it is still standing. This is not the case for the newer building, because as Ann explains, it has been demolished, and replaced by two houses. Planning applications relating to the new build - the earliest on 13th February 2003 - may be seen on the Derbyshire Dales District Council website. [Ref: 05/00174/FUL]

In spite of the Chapel's closure, no notice of the cancellation of its registration has been found in the Gazette.

Denomination

Now or formerly Congregational.

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 SK2940361146. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Farley Hill Congregational Church (Demolished), Darley Dale shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Darley Dale 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 Darley Dale, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• “The Andrews Pages”, featuring Ann Andrews' study of Matlock Churches and Chapels (null) (verified 2021-09-12)
• The Local Government website of Derbyshire Dales District Council (null) (verified 2018-10-05)
• 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.