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Our Lady of Sorrows,
Ashopton Road, S33 0DB,
Bamford, 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 1847, and we understand it is still open.

A Catholic Chapel at Bamford is recorded in Derbyshire Record Office's Non-Conformist Register Guide as opened in 1847, served from Derby RC Chapel, and closed in 1861. No records are listed; and neither was it included in returns to the Religious Census of 1851.

The next recorded mention of a Catholic Chapel in Bamford is in Kelly's Directories from 1891 onwards. Their 1912 entry for Bamford records that "here is a Catholic chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, seating 150 persons, and with school attached, built in 1882 by the Duke of Norfolk K.G.; the chapel is served from Derwent".

There is sizeable a burial ground to the north of the Chapel, shown very clearly on Old Maps, and still in existence today. The original Derwent Valley Water Act of 1899 made provision for this to be cleared, when preparations were being made for building a series of dams on the Rivers Derwent, Ashop, and Noe, and Burbage Brook. Details of the Act, published in The London Gazette of 22nd November 1898 (p.7236) include the following requirement:

To provide for the closing of the Roman Catholic Cemetery in the aforesaid parish of Bamford, and to empower the Corporation to remove the bodies interred therein, and in any other burial ground taken or interfered with under the powers of the intended Act, and to make provision for the reburial of the bodies so removed.

Only 2 of the 8 reservoirs planned originally were built before the 1st World War intervened, and when it was over, a new scheme was decided on, such that only one more dam was built. Thus the "Bamford" dam, which would have been created by damming the river upstream of Bamford Mills was never realised, and the burial ground was saved.

The DRO's list also mentions Derwent - where a St Henry's Catholic Church opened in 1847, and closed in 1947. Their information is that it was served by Bamford Catholic Chapel, but this cannot be correct, as it predates the Bamford Chapel.

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 Church is located at OS grid reference SK2071183762. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Our Lady of Sorrows, Bamford shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Bamford 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 Bamford, 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.