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Eckington Methodist Church (formerly Mount Zion),
Chesterfield Road, S21 4BD,
Eckington, 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 in 1830, and we understand it is still open.

Eckington Methodist Church is situated on the west side of Chesterfield Road, on the way out of the village, built, according to a plaque above the entrance, as a Primitive Methodist Chapel in 1877.

It was not, however, Eckington's first Primitive Methodist Chapel, as a return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/448/4/2/13) refers to a separate building erected in 1830 used exclusively as a place of worship by a Primitive Methodist congregation. It had free seating for 70, and 50 "other" sittings, and had an estimated congregation on March 30th of 40 in the afternoon and 110 in the evening, with 57 Sunday Scholars attending a morning class, and 65 in the afternoon. The return was completed by John Rose, Chapel Steward, who described himself as a Carpenter, of "Mosbro Near Chesterfield".

Although the present building is not (to my knowledge) marked on any Maps as such, a catalogue of Nonconformist Registers at Sheffield Archives refers to it as "Mount Zion", and later "Eckington Methodist Church". They hold records of baptisms for the period 1946-1996. Evidently 1996 was a crucial date, as the stonework indicates an extension was provided then - as did (apparently) its first registration for marriages, as the following notice in The London Gazette of 5th August 1996 (p.10513) indicates:

A Building certified for worship named METHODIST CHAPEL, Chesterfield Road, Eckington, in the registration district of Chesterfield in the Non-Metropolitan County of Derbyshire, was on 24th July 1996, registered for solemnising marriages therein pursuant to section 41 of the Marriage Act 1949 as amended by section 1(1) of the Marriage Act Amendment Act 1958. Dated 29th July 1996.

The present (2010) dedication is 'Eckington Methodist Church with St Luke's Church', the former Anglican Mission of St Luke joining the Methodists in a Local Ecumenical Partnership.

Denomination

Now or formerly Primitive Methodist.

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 SK4175178814. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Eckington Methodist Church (formerly Mount Zion), Eckington shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Eckington 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 Eckington, 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.