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

Derwent Chapel (Demolished),
Derwent, 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 after 1271, but we understand it was closed in 1867.

The Abbey of Welbeck owned the land surrounding the Derwent valley, and its "White Canons" are known to have built four chapels in the area surrounding Derwent village. "The first chapel was attached to the grange itself, and the second stood in the Derwent Woodlands close to the site of the old church at Derwent, where they also built a corn mill... A third chapel stood on a site between Marebottom and Birchinlee... the fourth used to stand in the woodlands close to the old Roman road, about 130 yards south of Hope Cross... the third and fourth were Wayfarer chapels, which administered to travellers both for their religious needs as well as food and shelter...". The last chapel was removed in 1867, after which the church dedicated to St John & St Peter was built.

The site of a chapel within Derwent itself, next to the church, is marked on Old Maps well into the 20th century. The same series of Maps also mark a separate place of worship adjacent to Derwent Hall - labelled as "St Henry's R.C. Chapel". According to Kelly's Directories, this was built in 1877 by the Duke of Norfolk; and in spite of its appearance of being a private adjunct to the Hall, it was a place of public worship.

The information above, on the White Canons, is summarised from "Silent Valley - A History of the Derbyshire Villages of Ashopton and Derwent" by V.J. Hallam (1983). See also Derwent, The Old Chapel, about 1867, with Notes on the Chapelry of Derwent in Hathersage, an account from The Reliquary (1869-70) in the Derwent, Dethick, Drakelow section of Ann Andrews' Picture Gallery : Derbyshire. The writer of the article (the Rev. Francis Jourdain, Vicar of Derwent Woodlands) convincingly argues that the chapel's owners were Dunstable Priory, in Bedfordshire at the time of Henry I (1100-1135), and not initially Welbeck Abbey. The land was given to Welbeck Abbey at a later date, following on from the death of Matthew de Hathersage in 1271. This is confirmed by Gladwyn Turbutt, in his History of Derbyshire (1996, p.566). He says "the abbey's grange was close to where the Abbey brook enters the Derwent reservoir on its eastern side, and there were four chapels on the abbey's Derwent estate".

Denomination

Now or formerly Roman Catholic.

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 SK1848688566. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Derwent Chapel (Demolished), Derwent shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Derwent 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 Derwent, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• “The Andrews Pages”, featuring Ann Andrews' Picture Gallery : Derbyshire (null) (verified 2021-09-12)

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.