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

Salvation Army Hall (Demolished),
[55?] Portland Avenue,
Bolsover, 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 1911, but we understand it was closed before 1998.

Salvation Army meetings in Bolsover began in 1898, in premises erected originally in Cotton Street, as Bolsover's first Primitive Methodist Chapel, after its congregation had moved to a new building, later Town End Methodist Church, in Welbeck Road. They met there until 1911, when the premises were taken over as Council Offices. By the 1920s, the Salvation Army are known to be meeting in new premises, of which an old photograph survives, captured on the Picture The Past website. Information with the photograph indicates the Bolsover Corps was formed on 18 December 1923.

The building appears from the photograph to have been made of wood, and may therefore have been intended as temporary accomodation; certainly there appears to be no evidence of a Salvation Army presence in Bolsover in the present day. According to the list of Places recorded by the Registrar General under the provisions of the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 (2010), the address they registered in Bolsover was in Portland Avenue.

Another photograph on the Picture The Past website shows their Band playing in the Market Place, in 1952.

Today, Portland Avenue appears to be wholly residential, its housing laid out by Old Maps of 1938. The previous Map of 1921, to the same scale, shows the area as "Allotment Gardens", which on the face of it seems an unlikely place for a Salvation Army hut. However it may not be so improbable as it seems. Allotments often do have their own collection of huts, which in the past had the potential to evolve into more substantial structures. Certainly, that is what happened in the area now known of St Agnes, in Bristol. In the 19th century, the area was known as "Newfoundland Gardens", and settlers set up home there in self-built huts and hovels. Fresh water was obtained from a nearby spring, and lanes and trackways formed between the hovels, which later became today's roads. The last remaining hovels were not cleared until the early 2000s.

Whilst I have no way of knowing this was the case in Bolsover, nor for sure where the Salvation Army met, one possibility is at 55 Portland Avenue, in the present day occupied by a late 20th century bungalow, for which planning permission was sought in 1999 [Ref: 99/00393/OUT]. Old Maps of 1961-1962 indicate a long narrow building once stood there, with the typical profile of a meeting hall, and without a specific road number.

Denomination

Now or formerly Salvation Army.

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 SK4784269960. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Salvation Army Hall (Demolished), Bolsover shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Bolsover 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 Bolsover, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Historical Photos of Derby, Derbyshire and Nottingham ~ Picture The Past (null) (verified 2018-10-12)
• Places recorded by the Registrar General under the provisions of the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 (2010) is available as a "Freedom of Information" document on the website What Do They Know. (verified 2018-10-14)

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.