Betjeman’s Best British Churches. Richard Surman
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6m/9km W. of Derby
OS SK263342 GPS 52.9053N, 1.609W
A narrow lane leads to a farming hamlet with a small church at the end, 13th-century in origin, though heavily restored in the 19th century. At the W. end is a sweet little castellated tower like a toy castle, and a loveable interior with box pews and late 17th-century font and pulpit of 1862.
DALE ABBEY † All Saints
5m/8km N.E. of Derby
OS SK437385 GPS 52.9429N, 1.3506W
Romantically set in a secluded valley beyond the village, near the ruined arch of the 12th-century abbey with a hermitage close by, this tiny church and farmhouse coexist under one roof and are pleasant to behold. The interior is a delight – minute and higgledy-piggledy, with box pews, a gallery in the roof, a ‘cupboard’ altar, and a pulpit dated 1634. There is a late 13th-century mural of the Annunciation, Visitation and Nativity.
DERBY † St Mary’s Bridge Chapel
Duke Street
OS SK353367 GPS 52.9271N, 1.4758W
A picturesque view from across the river has been unforgiveably compromised by Derby’s inner ring road, which has been routed to within a hair’s breadth of the chapel. Nonetheless, it is one of only five surviving bridge chapels, dating from the 14th century and later.
DERBY † St Mary RC
Between St Alkmunds Way and Darley Lane
OS SK351367 GPS 52.9274N, 1.4790W
Following the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church was designed and built in 1838–9 by A. W. N. Pugin, who was newly converted to Roman Catholicism. Unusually it is set on a north–south line. Pugin lamented the uncanonical necessity of this, imposed by constraints of the site. The whole building is imposing and very correct Perpendicular. The Gothic W. tower, with ornamented finials, has a fine window. The sanctuary is apsidal, and its lofty archway is echoed by a curved rood. The Lady Chapel, as large as a modest country church nave, was added in 1853 by Joseph Hansom – he of the Hansom Cab. There is stained glass by Hardman; the general effect is elegant and dignified.
DETHICK † St John the Baptist
2m/3km S.E. of Matlock
OS SK327579 GPS 53.1179N, 1.5127W
In a fine position on a hill over Cromford, the remarkable W. tower, modest in scale but lavish in detail, was built by Sir Anthony Babington in the 1530s; it has a curious stair turret which rises above the rest. There is a clerestory, but no aisles. The manor house has gone, but a 16th-century tithe barn remains.
DALE ABBEY: ALL SAINTS – the church adjoins a farmhouse that, in the past, served as an infirmary and later as the Blue Bell Inn; the church interior is a ramshackle delight
DOVERIDGE † St Cuthbert
2m/3km E. of Uttoxeter
OS SK113341 GPS 52.9042N, 1.8322W
St Cuthbert is approached beneath the cover of a venerable yew and set in the former grounds of the demolished manor hall. The 13th-century work is memorable – a tall chancel and massive W. tower, the spire a 14th-century addition. The rest is mostly 14th-century too. The absence of a chancel arch or screen adds to the spaciousness of the interior.
ECKINGTON † St Peter and St Paul
6m/10km N.E. of Chesterfield
OS SK432797 GPS 53.3132N, 1.3530W
The church is distinguished by a massive tower, c. 1300, with a round-arched W. doorway, lancet windows, and low, thick-set 14th-century spire. The Classical S. aisle and porch, 1763, are by John Platt. Inside, too, there is history in stone. The E. bays of the nave arcades date from the late 12th century, the rest 13th; the N. aisle 14th and 15th; the chancel Classical also – but turned Gothic again in 1907.
EDENSOR † St Peter
2m/3km E. of Bakewell
OS SK250699 GPS 53.2256N, 1.6260W
Sir George Gilbert Scott rebuilt this in 1867 for the 7th Duke of Devonshire; it is set in a pretty model village in Chatsworth Park and provides an impressive essay in the Early English style with its tall spire and interior with Hardman glass. The alabaster pulpit is supported on black and red local marble, also used for the sedilia and font. On the W. wall is a massive florid monument to William, 1st Earl of Devonshire, d. 1625, and Henry Cavendish, d. 1616. The W. window is by Hardman and a fine example of his glass.
EYAM † St Lawrence
5m/8km N. of Bakewell
OS SK217764 GPS 53.2843N, 1.6749W
Eyam is famous as the village that halted the plague in 1666, when the village closed itself to the outside world. The Mompesson chair in St Lawrence’s chancel commemorates the event – it is named after the rector at the time of the plague, who convinced the villagers to quarantine themselves to prevent the disease spreading. The 13th-century chancel was restored by Street in 1868-9. There is a huge sundial of 1775, 16th- and 17th-century wall-paintings, and texts on the nave walls. An 8th-century cross is in the churchyard. Look for the wonderful tombstone to the cricketer Harry Bagshawe, showing stumps flying and the umpire’s finger pointing to heaven.
FOREMARK † St Saviour
6m/10km S. of Derby
OS SK329264 GPS 52.8348N, 1.5120W
Built by Sir Francis Burdett, 1662, in his park at Foremark Hall, this is a Gothic church without, except for window-spacing and some strapwork, but completely Renaissance within. The furnishings are original, neither Gothic nor Carolean, but rather the Jacobean style of 50 years earlier. They include a screen, triple-decker pulpit, box pews and a wrought-iron communion rail by Robert Bakewell, c. 1710.
HARTINGTON † St Giles
9m/15km N. of Ashbourne
OS SK129604 GPS 53.1413N, 1.8077W
Raised above the spreading village, the large cruciform church straddles the mound on which it sits, with proud, ashlar-faced tower looking out over the roof-tops. Inside there are vistas through arcades and into transepts, and a sense of interconnecting parts making up the whole.
HASSOP † All Saints RC
3m/5km N. of Bakewell
OS SK223723 GPS 53.2474N, 1.6666W
By Joseph Ireland, 1816–18, for Francis Eyre of Hassop Hall, the church is unusual and unexpected in this little hamlet – an Etruscan temple in the Peak District. With echoes of Inigo Jones’s Covent Garden church St Paul’s, it has a monumental and rather severe W. portico over which sits a disproportionately overhung roof. The interior is gentler and more ornate, with an early 19th-century chamber organ in the W. gallery and an elaborate altar of French origin.
KEDLESTON † All Saints
4m/6km N.W. of Derby
OS SK312403 GPS 52.9592N, 1.5367W
Churches Conservation Trust
The old village was moved, but the medieval church still stands cheek by jowl with the grand 18th-century hall by Robert Adam. It is essentially a late 13th-century cruciform church, with crossing tower and transepts, Norman S. doorway and a Classical E. end. The memorial chapel to Lady Mary Curzon, Vicereine of India, was added by Bodley in 1907–13. The Curzon family monuments include effigies designed by Robert Adam and Michael Rysbrack and span some 700 years.