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Derbyshire
NONCONFORMITY IN BOLSOVER
Introduction
The history of nonconformity in Bolsover begins with the establishment of a Dissenting
congregation in the town at the beginning of the 18th century, which in the 19th century
evolved into a Congregational church. Wesleyan Methodism in Bolsover dates from the early
19th century. As the population expanded in the late 19th century so did the number and
variety of nonconformist chapels, both in the town itself and in the adjoining villages. The
second half of the 20th century saw a steady reduction in provision, so that today Bolsover is
served by a single Methodist church, a building used by the United Reformed Church, and a
kingdom hall of Jehovah's Witnesses.
The United Reformed Church and its predecessors
The former Presbyterian meeting-house on High Street was registered for worship in 1722. It
appears to have been supported by a small congregation for most of the 18th century but then
closed for some years before reopening in 1813. By the mid 19th century it had evolved into a
Congregational chapel.
The original building was superseded by a new chapel, seating 700, opened in 1893
immediately to the north on Castle Street, when the original meeting-house became a
schoolroom. The Congregational (latterly United Reformed) church remained open until
1980, by which date the regular congregation had dwindled to ten. The Castle Street building
was demolished in 1986 and the site used for a medical centre; the earlier meeting house was
converted into a private residence.
A Congregational mission in Carr Vale was opened in 1902, presumably in temporary
premises, and a church built on Castle Lane (the modern Main Street) the following year. The
mission became a separate church in 1936, although it continued to share a minister with
Castle Street. After the Castle Street church closed in 1980 the remaining members moved to
Carr Vale, where the church remained open (in a modern building) at the time of writing.
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Methodism
A Wesleyan chapel, a small brick building, was opened in 1826 at the junction of what later
became Station Road and Chapel Walk. Services had previously been held in private houses
or hired rooms from at least 1807 and the Wesleyans celebrated the centenary of the Bolsover
circuit in 1906.
A new chapel was opened on Hill Top in 1868 and in 1873 a Sunday school was added. The
old chapel on Station Road was converted into cottages. By 1896 the original Hill Top chapel
was too small and the following year Trinity Methodist church, with seating for 500, was
opened on a site further north on the same road. A datestone from the original building of
1826 was incorporated into the back wall of the new chapel and the older building on Hill Top
was retained as a Sunday school.
By the 1960s declining numbers made it difficult for the congregation to maintain two
buildings and the church of 1868 was sold to the local council for conversion into an
assembly hall. Trinity was remodelled and later enlarged. It was renamed Bolsover Methodist
church after an amalgamation in 1973 with the former Primitive Methodist church at Town
End.
The first venue for Wesleyan Methodist worship in New Bolsover and Carr Vale was the
Colliery Schools but on 7 September 1904 Emerson Bainbridge helped lay the first memorial
stones for a chapel at the junction of Chapel Road and New Station Road, adjoining the
orphanage for miners' children. The chapel was designed by M.J. Morley & Son of Bradford
and had 250 sittings A large, red-brick building with stone dressings to the doors, windows
and entrance porch, the chapel was opened in 1905 and by 1911 was clear of debt.
New Bolsover chapel remained in use after the unification of Methodism and eventually
closed in 1979. The building was demolished in the early 1990s.
A Wesleyan Methodist church was opened at Whaley Thorns in 1894 and enlarged in 1908,
when the older building became a Sunday school. In 2007 the building was converted to
accommodate the Whaley Thorns heritage centre.
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Primitive Methodism was introduced into Bolsover in 1819. For some years services were
held in a cottage in Hockley, until the first Primitive Methodist chapel was erected on Cotton
Street in 1864. In 1898 that building was taken over by the Salvation Army and the Primitive
Methodists moved to a new church at the junction of Town End and Welbeck Road, which
seated 300.
By 1908 the Primitive Methodists had opened a second chapel at Shuttlewood, known as the
Bannister Memorial Chapel.
Both the Primitive Methodist churches remained in use after unification. By the early 1970s,
however, it was clear that either Trinity or Town End would have to close. The choice fell on
the former Primitive Methodist church, since there was more room to expand at Hill Top. The
Town End church was later demolished and a Methodist retirement home built on the site. At
Shuttlewood the Bannister Memorial Chapel closed in 1993 and the building was sold to a
local drama group.
The United Methodist Free Church opened a chapel at Stanfree in 1903, which closed in
1969. The building, the only United Methodist chapel in the parish, was later demolished.
Other denominations
The Salvation Army took over Cotton Street Primitive Methodist church in 1898 but gave up
the building in 1911, when it became the offices of the urban district council. A new Salvation
Army hut was opened in the early 1920s. A Pentecostal church on High Street appears to have
opened in the 1960s; it was still in use in 1991 but later closed. At the time of writing there
was a kingdom hall of Jehovah's Witnesses on the same road.
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