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Wesleyan Chapel (replaced by Trinity Methodist),
Station Road / Chapel Walk,
Bolsover, 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 1826, but we understand it was closed in 1868.

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/448/3/3/5) describes the "Wesleyan Chapel" in Bolsover as erected in 1826 as a separate building, used exclusively as a place of worship. It had free seating for 80, 70 "other" sittings, and no standing room; and the average congregation during the previous 12 months was 40 in the afternoons and 55 in the evenings, with 30 Sunday Scholars attending afternoon classes. The return was completed by Jno. Bennett, its Steward, whose gave his address as High Street, Bolsover.

I understand however, that meetings had begun earlier in the century. An account of Nonconformity in Bolsover, on the Victoria County History website (in 2014, then "Work in Progress") cites a book Bolsover Methodist Church. Centenary Celebrations 1896-1996 (M. Clarke, 1995), which states that services had been held in private houses or hired rooms from at least 1807; and a document in the Derbyshire Record Office (D3765/2/2) records a celebration of the centenary of the foundation of Bolsover Methodist Circuit in 1906.

The Chapel had a short lifetime, as it rapidly became too small for its growing congregation, so in 1868, it was replaced by Trinity Chapel, in Hill Top. The latter, which was rebuilt in 1886, was replaced in 1896-7 by Hill Top Methodist (now Bolsover Methodist) Church.

Meanwhile, the original Chapel building was sold into private ownership, and converted into cottages. The above-mentioned document says it stood at the junction of what later became Station Road and Chapel Walk; but I cannot verify this, as I have been unable to establish whether the cottages are still in existence.

Note: Some sources refer to "Chapel Walk" as "Chapel Breck". It is a footpath providing a "short cut" between the right-angled bend in Castle Street northwards to Station Road.

Denomination

Now or formerly Wesleyan Methodist.

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 SK4726070596. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Wesleyan Chapel (replaced by Trinity Methodist), 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.

• Victoria County History (null) (verified 2018-10-12)

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.