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

Former Presbyterian Chapel (Demolished),
Main Road / Wood Lane,
Pentrich, 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 after 1700, but we understand it was closed before 1970.

This Chapel is recorded in Non-Conformist Chapels and Meeting Houses, Derbyshire (1986). It mentions that the vicar of Pentrich, Robert Porter, was ejected from the living in 1662, but there is no evidence that he was involved with the establishment of the meeting here, which in the early 18th century shared a minister with the congregation at Belper. In fact confirmation of the meeting's beginnings occurring earlier is available in St Matthew's parish register - Kelly' Directory of 1895 records that it contains "the signatures of 180 persons to the declaration of conformity to Presbyterian practices insisted on by the Parliament about 1646".

The booklet also records that the meeting house was altered in the mid 19th century "probably for another denomination", but by 1970 it was derelict, and that it was demolished about 1971.

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/446/4/3/9) confirms the "other denomination". It describes Pentrich's "Independent Chapel" as erected "60 yrs ago or more", "let to the Reform Methodists for a time". It was a separate building used as a place of worship only, with free sittings for 40, 80 "other" sittings, and standing room for "30 or upwards". The estimated congregation on March 30th was 42 in the evening, and the average over the previous months was "45 persons". The return was completed by W.H. Fletcher Senr. who was "Deacon of the Independent Church occasionally worshipping at the above chapel". His address was "Harthay near Belper".

It was a single storey building, of coursed rubble, with gables on the north and south ends. The west wall had a central doorway originally, with a window in either side. The doorway was later blocked, and a wooden window frame inserted. Th east well had 3 similar windows, but the middle one was altered to become a doorway. The north wall had a fireplace. The booklet includes a photograph, and it appears superficially similar to St Mary's Mission Church at Sawmills, as that too has a chimney, and is single-storey.

Its position is shown on various Old Maps, labelled as a Congregational Chapel, and it appears to have been situated on the east side of the fork in the road where Main Road becomes Wood Lane. Maps of the 1980s label the building which occupies its site as "Chapel Farm". Ironically, there is a house adjacent to it on the north, which looks remarkably similar to the photograph the NCC booklet has of the Chapel before demolition, but it doesn't match its position on Old Maps, nor the orientation of the description as the gables are at the east and west ends. Perhaps it was built as a "homage".

Kelly's Directory of 1895 records that St Matthew's parish register contains "the signatures of 180 persons to the declaration of conformity to Presbyterian practices insisted on by the Parliament about 1646".

Denomination

Now or formerly Presbyterian.

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 SK3889252248. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Former Presbyterian Chapel (Demolished), Pentrich shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Pentrich 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)