We have 1 Image Above Photograph(s)
Copyright of David Lindley

Dronfield Baptist Church,
1 Stubley Lane (off High Street), S18 1PY,
Dronfield, Derbyshire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Church does 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 before 1851, and we understand it is still open.

Dronfield Baptist Church is situated on the south-west corner of the junction of Stubley Lane with the High Street, today controlled by a roundabout. It is built of local stone, with two dedication plaques on the front. The circular decoration set in the gable has a date '1871', and a built-in oblong above the porch reads 'Baptist'. Kelly's Directory of 1932 confirms the date, and says it had seating for 450. Interestingly, it was then the largest of the chapels in Dronfield (in terms of seating capacity), others being United Methodist (150 sittings), Wesleyan (150 sittings), Congregational (400 sittings) and Primitive Methodist (100 sittings).

Evidently the building was preceded by an earlier "Baptist Meeting House" in Dronfield, recorded in a return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/448/5/1/9) as a separate building, used exclusively as a place of worship "except for a Sunday School". It had free sittings for 76, and 24 "other" sittings, and the usual number of attendants on the Sabbath was 25 in the morning, 14 in the afternoon and 82 in the evening, with 64 Scholars at morning classes, and 85 in the afternoon. The return was completed by Edwin Lowe, who gave his address as "Dronfield, Derbyshire", crossing out Derbyshire, and substituting "Sheffield". The space on the form for "when erected" was left blank.

The following notice in The London Gazette of 3rd March 1893 (p.1410) recorded its registration for marriages:

NOTICE is hereby, given, that a separate building, named Baptist Chapel, situate at High-street, in the parish of Dronfield, in the county of Derby, in the district of Chesterfield, being a building certified according to law as a place of religious worship, was, on the 24th day of February, 1893, duly registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to the Act of 6th and 7th Wm. 4, cap. 85. Dated 24th February 1893.

Denomination

Now or formerly Baptist.

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 SK3493178554. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Dronfield Baptist Church, Dronfield shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Dronfield 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 Dronfield, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• 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.