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Ash Lane United Reformed Church,
Parke Road, SK17 8NS,
Tideswell, Derbyshire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Church did 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 1844, but we understand it was closed in 2010.

Kelly's Directory of 1932 records Tideswell's Congregational Chapel as built in 1888, providing seating for 350; adding that the old chapel, built in 1830, was then used as a school.

Derbyshire Record Office's Non Conformist Register Guide refers to it as "Ash Lane United Reformed Church", built in 1844. Referring to it as "Ash Lane" and "United Reformed" in the same sentence is a bit misleading. Ash Lane was the name of the street now called Parke Road prior to Maps of 1922, so it would have already been known as "Parke Road" before the congregation joined the United Reformed Church, after its formation in 1972.

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/449/3/21/26) for the "Independent Chapel" in "Ash Lane, Tideswell" describes a separate building, erected in 1844, used exclusively by an "Independent of Congregational" congregation. It had free seating for 100, 140 "other" sittings, and "a space of this description [standing room] is supplied with moveable seats on occasion and might hold from 50 to 60". The estimated congregation on March 30th was 74 in the afternoon, 170 in the evening, and 110 Sunday Scholars attending an afternoon class. The average over the last 4 months differed only in the number attending evening service - 220. The return was completed by James Rennie, its Minister, who gave his address as "Tideswell, Bakewell, Derbyshire". He remarked that "under the Chapel is a large School-room in which the Sunday School is held. The number of Sunday Scholars on the book is 145. The very little ones are generally dismissed before the commencement of the afternoon service. 170 might be regarded as the average number attending on Sunday evenings in the 12 months last past - but the attendance has been greater during the Winter Season & the lower space of columns No. VIII is used to express that fact". [The contents of Column VIII are space available for Public Worship]

The present day building dates from 1888, erected adjacent to the original building. The original Chapel was in turn replaced by the building still standing on the south-east corner of the junction of Parke Road with Sherwood Road - a rather smart single-story, which in 2009 was labelled as "United Reformed Church Hall". There is a stone plaque above the doorway which reads: "Congregational / School 1844 / Rebuilt 1938". The book The Spirit of Tideswell (Landmark, 2004) confirms that this replaced an earlier school building of two stories, and of a similar size in plan. The two stories, as indicated in Minister Rennie's comments, evidently comprised Chapel and Sunday School.

The Chapel was first registered for marriages in 1865, as the following notice in The London Gazette of 9th May 1865 (p.2437) indicates:

NOTICE is hereby given, that a separate building, named the Independent Chapel, situate at Tideswell, in the parish of Tideswell, in the county of Derby, in the district of Bakewell, being a building certified according to law as a place of religious worship, was, on the 29th day of April, 1865, duly registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to the Act of 6th and 7th Wm. IV., cap. 85. Dated 3rd May 1865.

A further notice, published in the Gazette of 22nd June 1888 (p.3441) registered the replacement of "the building known as Independent Chapel, now disused" by a similarly named building. As it happens, the Roman Catholic Chapel in Tideswell was registered for marriages on the same day - the economy in Tideswell was evidently booming at that time!

The final notice to appear in the Gazette was on 13th August 2012 (p.0), where "United Reformed Church, Tideswell" was one of the "buildings [which] are no longer used by the congregations on whose behalf they were registered for marriages"... It was, however closed earlier than that, in 2010, when its congregation joined that of the former Wesleyan Methodist Church in Fountain Square.

Denomination

Now or formerly Independent/Congregational.

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 was located at OS grid reference SK1509475702. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Ash Lane United Reformed Church, Tideswell shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Tideswell 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 Tideswell, 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.