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St Lawrence's Church,
High Street, S80 4RE,
Whitwell, 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 1150, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1895 describes Whitwell as "a considerable agricultural village on the road from Chesterfield to Worksop", in the extreme north-east of the county, bounded by Yorkshire on the north and Nottinghamshire on the east, with a station on the Mansfield and Worksop branch of the Midland railway, and 11¾ miles north-east from Chesterfield, 4½ miles south-west from Worksop and 151¼ from London.

The church of St Lawrence is a cruciform building of stone, chiefly Norman, and dating from 1150, transepts having been added and the east end altered at a later period in the Decorated style". It consists of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, transepts and a Norman tower containing a clock and 3 bells. There are two stone sedilia in the chancel with "lofty and richly carved tabernacle work", a memorial window to a late rector dated 1876, and a monument with recumbent effigy to Sir Roger MANNERS, knt. erected in 1632. The font is massive and dates probably from about 1490. The church was "thoroughly restored" in 1886, chiefly at the expense of the Duke of Portland.

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/436/4/1/1) for "the Parish Church, dedicated to Saint Lawrence" recorded an estimated congregation on March 30th of 83 in the morning, and 60 in the afternoon, with 80 and 63 Sunday Scholars respectively. It was completed by John Ralph Dobson, its Minister, who lived in Whitwell. He noted that the church had 250 free sittings, and 250 "other" sittings, but "the number of Sittings is not according to Measurement but by computation of the Minister & one Churchwarden".

The parish records of baptisms and burials date from 1672, and marriages from 1682. The living in 1895 was a rectory, in the gift of the Duke of Portland, and had been held since 1874 by the Rev. George Edward Mason M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Whitwell Hall, "a large and ancient building" was formerly the seat of Sir Roger Manners, who was knighted at Theobalds, Herts. in 1615, and fell during the Civil War.

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 SK5262576830. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Lawrence's Church, 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)