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St Michael & All Angels Church,
Church Street / High Street, S43 1JG,
Brimington, 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 before 1535, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1895 records that the ancient church of Brimington was pulled down in 1808 and completely rebuilt, at an expense of £842 13s. 11d. with the exception of the tower, previously rebuilt by Joshua Jebb in 1796. The present church of St Michael dates from 1847, and is "a building of stone, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles and a western tower, considerably raised in 1847, and containing a clock and 3 bells". Inside the church is a memorial to Rev. Henry Audsley, vicar of Chesterfield (1723), and a window at the east end of the chancel to Mrs. Mills, of Tapton Grove, d.1893. There are 550 sittings. The register dates from 1775, "and there is also a copy made in 1801 of some dilapidated registers. The living was then a rectory in the gift of the vicar of Chesterfield, and held since 1888 by Rev. Edward Keane Blumhardt B.A. of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

The British Listed Buildings website provides the further information that an engraving of 1785 exists showing a small late-medieval church. "It was replaced by a new church in 1796 at the expense of Joseph Jebb, of which only the tower has survived". The rebuilding in 1847 was by Joseph Mitchell, an architect from Sheffield. The Church Guide (2002 edition) has a reproduction of a water colour of the first Brimington Chapel, reputedly by the Swiss artist S.H. (Samuel Hieronymus) Grimm painted during his stay in Barlborough in the period around 1785 - possibly this is the same as referred to in the BLB account. The original is held by Chesterfield Local Studies Library.

The Church Guide also makes reference to a document from the time of Henry VIII (1535) confirming the existence of the chapel at that time. It also mentions J. Charles Cox's comment, in his Notes on the churches of Derbyshire (Vol 1) that "this chapelry was destitute of the rights of sepulture until a comparatively modern date". Typically, since Brimington was originally a chapelry of Chesterfield, the mother church retained these rights; however as Cox was writing in 1875, this may not be as "modern" as we might imagine, when he records that "one of the earliest inscriptions in the church is to the memory of Henry Audsley, vicar of Chesterfield, who died on the 4th December, 1723".

The Derbyshire Record Office's catalogue of Church of England Registers records that Brimington was licensed only for baptisms and burials, until 1833, when it was licensed for marriages. It became a separate parish in 1844. The original registers they hold begin in 1813, so the fact that Kelly records a register beginning in 1775 is curious, to say the least - unless it is a reference to entries in Chesterfield registers which record a place of residence. Interestingly by the time of Kelly's Directory of 1932, the date for the commencement is 1794 - perhaps the church mice were very hungry in the intervening years! Or maybe just a typo…

Kelly's Directory of 1932 provides additional information about the War Memorial, erected in April 1921 to the men connected with this parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-1918; it stands out against the east window of the south aisle, and represents the figure of a Christian soldier. The whole cost was borne by R.F. Mills esq. J.P.

There are some nice photographs on St Michael & All Angels Church website.

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 SK4049973544. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Michael & All Angels Church, Brimington shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Brimington 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 Brimington, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Learn more about Buildings of special or historical interest on the British Listed Buildings (null) (verified 2018-09-19)
• You may want to visit St Michael & All Angels Church website for present-day information.

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.