Default Image Place of Worship has been
Demolished.
Image by courtesy of
openclipart.org

Zion Chapel (Demolished?),
High Street,
Whitwell, Derbyshire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Chapel 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 1845, but we understand it was closed in 1901.

Described as "Zion Chapel (Free United Meth.) on Old Maps of 1875, this could be the 'Whitwell Free Church' mentioned on Page 5 of Whitwell Local History Group's publication A Parish History - Churches and Religion. More probably, however, it was the forerunner of the Central Methodist Church, which was built in Welbeck Street in 1901. This is borne out by the fact that Zion is marked on Old Maps of 1875 and 1898, but not on the Maps of 1916, of the same scale.

The above-mentioned webpage refers to the closure of the Welbeck Street Church in 1963, "thus ending a period of Christian witness that had lasted for 126 years". The account then cites the beginning of Methodism in the village when a Whitwell Wesleyan Association Church was registered with the Worksop Potter Street Circuit. Early services were held in the home of Mr and Mrs W. Loude, at #1 East Parade until premises were acquired in the upper storey of a building in Chapel Yard on High Causeway (now High Street). The Chapel was approached by a passage at the side, and a flight of steps at the rear, and the lower storey was in use as a tallow-chandlers.

Zion Chapel was indeed situated on the High Street, a short distance to the right of its junction with Worksop Road.

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/436/4/1/8) for the "Wesleyan Association Chapel" describes a group of Wesleyan Association Methodists meeting in an entire building, used exclusively as a place of worship, which opened in August 1848. It had free seating for 30, 90 "other" sittings, and standing room for 25; and had an average congregation in the morning of "100 regularly", no services in the afternoon, and 120 in the evenings. Sunday School classes in the morning and afternoon were attended by 45 pupils. The return was completed by Frederick Littelton [sic], its Steward, of "Whitwell, Derbyshire". The majority of the Wesleyan Association Churches would, of course, have joined the United Methodist Free Churches in 1857.

A comparison of modern maps with those of the past suggests the building, or one with a similar "footprint" is still in existence, presumably greatly altered.

Denomination

Now or formerly Wesleyan Association.

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 Chapel was located at OS grid reference SK5284876763. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Zion Chapel (Demolished?), Whitwell shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Whitwell 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 Whitwell, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Page 5 of Whitwell Local History Group's publication A Parish History - Churches and Religion (null) (verified 2018-10-09)

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.