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Copyright of Mike Berrell
See more of Mike's photos on
The Churches of Britain and Ireland website.

Normanton Road Congregational Chapel (now New Life Derby),
Normanton Road / Rose Hill Street, DE23 6UU,
Derby, 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 1886, but we understand it was closed in 1976.

This building is situated on the south east corner of the junction of Normanton Road and Rose Hill Street. As the photograph shows it is a grand building.

It was built in the years 1886-1887 as a Congregational Church. The notice of its closure, published in The London Gazette of 28th September 1976 (p.13150) indicated it had been registered for marriages the year after its completion:

The Registrar General, being satisfied that NORMANTON ROAD UNITED REFORMED CHURCH, Normanton Road, Derby, in the registration district of Derby in the Non-Metropolitan County of Derbyshire is no longer used as a place of worship by the congregation on whose behalf it was on 13th October 1888 registered for marriages in accordance with the Marriage Act, 1836, has cancelled the registration. Dated 20th September 1976.

I was unable to find the original notice of its registration; however we do know from the above that its congregation would have joined the United Reformed Church, along with most of the other Congregational Churches after its founding in 1972.

Derbyshire Record Office has a record of baptisms at the chapel from 1950-1976; and of marriages 1899-1975.

After its closure, the premises were acquired by a group of Christians who had been meeting as Whiston Street Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church. Evidently they lost no time moving in, as a notice of registration for marriages, of PENTECOSTAL CHURCH, Normanton Road, Derby was published in the Gazette on 25th October of the following year (p.13450)

The latter was listed in Places recorded by the Registrar General under the provisions of the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 (2010) as New Life Christian Centre, with an Assemblies of God congregation, but it is now (2016) known more simply as New Life Church Derby, details of which are available elsewhere in this database.

Another source of useful information for the area, and indeed for Derby generally is Andy Savage's Derby Photos. The photo I refer to has the description "The Derby Christian Life Centre Church", taken 20 July 2001, with a note that it was originally the Congregational Church, built in 1886-1887, and located on the corner of Rosehill street and Normanton road.

Denomination

Now or formerly formerly 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 Chapel was located at OS grid reference SK3522934918. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Normanton Road Congregational Chapel (now New Life Derby), Derby shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Derby 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 Derby, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• See New Life Church Derby elsewhere in this database.
• “The official photo website for the City of Derby” - a large collection (over 3,000) of Andy Savage's Derby Photos (null) (verified 2018-10-06)
• 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)
• 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.