We have 3 Images Above Photograph(s)
Copyright of Rosemary Lockie/Peter Kirk/Don Rimmington

St Martin's Church,
The Nook,
Stoney Middleton, 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 before 1459, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1932 records Stoney Middleton as on the road from Buxton to Chesterfield, and a township and parochial chapelry in the parish of Hathersage, from which it is separated by that of Eyam. It is 3 miles from Grindleford station on the Dore and Chinley branch of the London, Midland and Scottish railway, 4 miles north from Hassop station, 5 north-north-east from Bakewell, 5 east from Tideswell and 162 from London.

The church of St Martin is said to be at the lower end of the village, and an octagonal building erected in 1759, in place of an earlier structure, consisting, as far as is known, of a simple chancel and nave". The embattled western tower, a low structure in Late Perpendicular style, remains and contains 3 bells, all cast in 1720, and a clock place in 1898.

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/449/3/3/4) for "St Martyn - Chapel to Hathersage with own district parish" in "Stony Middleton", was for an estimated congregation on March 30th of 20 worshippers in the morning, and 94 in the afternoon, with 62 and 67 Sunday Scholars respectively. The return was completed by Urban Smith, its Minister, of "Stony Middleton nr. Bakewell". He remarked that March 30th was "very stormy". This, perhaps, was offered as an explanation of why the average attendance over the last 12 months had been higher - 25 in the morning, and 120 in the afternoon, though the number of Sunday Scholars was similar. There were 300 sittings in the building, but "no pews are free. The scholars are accommodated in the vacant spaces".

In 1932, according to Kelly, there were 250 sittings - presumably a consequence of a rearrangement, or "re-pewing". Kelly also mentions the churchyard - "very small, but a new cemetery has been laid out at a distance of about a quarter of a mile, and was consecrated by the Bishop of Lichfield on 11th October 1878". The parish registers date from 1715 for all entries.

The living, in 1932, was a perpetual curacy, in the gift of the vicar of Hathersage, and had been held since 1888 by the Rev. John Barnett Riddlesden M.A. of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, who was also a surrogate.

There may be more information available by by selecting one or more of the accompanying images on the right.

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 SK2316975469. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Martin's Church, Stoney Middleton shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Stoney Middleton 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)