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Holy Trinity Church,
Derby Road, DE4 3PU,
Matlock Bath, 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 1842, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1932 records that the civil parish of Matlock Bath, which includes Scarthin Nick, was created in 1894 under the provisions of the Local Government Act of that year. It is described as "a modern inland and fashionable watering place", situated in a deep and lovely valley south-west of the parish of Matlock, with a station on the London, Midland and Scottish railway. "The place is celebrated for the romantic character of its scenery and the purity of its medicinal springs, and in the summer season this beautiful locality is frequented by visitors from all parts of the kingdom".

Its ecclesiastical parish, Holy Trinity, was created considerably earlier, in 1843, the year after the church opened. Kelly describes it as "a cruciform building of stone in the Decorated style, consisting of chancel, nave of three bays, aisles, transepts and a tower on the north with spire and containing one bell".

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/449/2/7/18) for "Holy Trinity, Matlock Bath, Perpetual Curacy with a District. Under 1 & 2 Wm. IV. c.38" describes its consecration in October 1842 "as an additional Church", financed by "Private Subscriptions and Benefactions". There were then 150 free sittings, and 300 "other" sittings, for an estimated congregation on March 30th of 154 in the morning, 146 in the afternoon, with 46 Sunday Scholars attending both a morning and afternoon class. Evening services were held "only during Summer". The return was completed by William Gibbs Barker, the Incumbent, who gave his address as "Parsonage, Matlock Bath, Derbyshire". He added that "the Attendance during the Summer months is fully double the number of the Winter congregations, the consequence of the large numbers of Visitors frequenting this Watering place".

Kelly mentions a stained east window, presented by Mrs. Charles Clarke to the memory of her husband, and another presented by the nephews of Mr. Charles Clarke. There were 450 sittings, the same as in 1851, but by then, two-thirds were free. The parish records date from 1843. The living in 1932 was a vicarage, in the gift of trustees, and had been held since 1929 by the Rev. Clement Thomas Walker M.A. of Fitzwilliam Hall, Cambridge.

For more information about Holy Trinity Church, and other churches in the Matlock area, see Ann Andrews' excellent webpage of Matlock Churches and Chapels.

Denomination

Now or formerly Church of England.

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 SK2946057886. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Holy Trinity Church, Matlock Bath shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Matlock Bath 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 Matlock Bath, 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 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.