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Copyright of Alf Beard

St Michael & All Angels Church,
Main Road,
Taddington, 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 the 14th century, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1932 describes the church of St Michael as "a building of stone, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles, south porch and a western tower with broach spire, containing 4 bells". "No part of the existing edifice seems older than the 14th century, and it is probable that the church was entirely rebuilt about 1416". The east window consists of five lights. The nave arcade has slender and somewhat lofty octagonal piers. The clerestory was an addition in the Perpendicular period. In the chancel is a stone reading desk, attached to the north wall, 3 feet above floor level. Similar desks exist at Crich and Spondon.

In the churchyard is an ancient cross, consisting of a pedestal 2 feet square, on which is set an incomplete shaft, 6 feet high, incised with chevron and other markings - "it is probably Celtic, and may have been erected by the Celtic missionaries of the 7th century". A stone cross bearing the names of the men who fell in the Great War, 1914-1918, was erected by public subscription in 1922. Close to it is a lych gate erected as a war memorial by S. Bramwell esq. in 1923.

Kelly also tells us that in 1889, the churchyard was enlarged by order of the bishop of the diocese, the vicar bestowing 2½ acres of glebe for the purposes - "the churchyard is now about 4 acres in extent". By the appearance on Old Maps of 1877, the original churchyard was restricted to a horse-shoe shape of ground surrounding the Church.

The parish records date from 1640. The living (in 1932) was a perpetual curacy, in the gift of the vicar of Bakewell, and had been held since 1921 by the Rev. John Fawcett Warden M.A. of Keble College, Oxford.

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/449/1/11/17) for "Taddington Church or Chapel" was (one might say) a non event! It was completed by Richard Heighway Kirby, the Perpetual Curate, of "Taddington, near Bakewell", who admitted that "I never counted the numbers" attending morning and afternoon service on March 30th, and in the evening there was "no service". He did however mention an endowment of £85, and fees of £2, remarking that "in addition to the endowment above-mentioned there is a quarry on the land out of the proceeds of which the expense of building the (?)Vicarage was partly funded. This quarry produced from 1838 to 1844 inclusive, 258l. 4s. 7d. In 1844 the Incumbent has only received 4l. 2s. 6d." I'm not sure whether he is saying he didn't receive enough, or is refuting potential claims of having received too much! And perhaps an apparently indifferent congregation related to the fact that there were only 30 free sittings, in comparison with 200 "others", ie rented - a disparity which in St Oswald's Church in Ashbourne resulted in the so-called "great pew battle", only resolved when the vicar resolved to provide more free seating.

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 SK1413171145. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Michael & All Angels Church, Taddington shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Taddington 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)