Chinley Independent Chapel, Chinley (1999)
Information about the Chapel, and an account of its foundation, may be
found in The Diary of James Clegg of Chapel en le Frith
(Ed: Vanessa S. Doe - one of Derbyshire Record Society
Publications) - Clegg was its first minister.
Quoting from its Introduction, p.xxxvi:
“When James Clegg first came to Chapel en le Frith in 1702, the
Dissenting congregation was using a building in Malcoff for Sunday worship.
This building belonged to the Barber family, and in 1710, as Clegg recounts
in his Autobiography, Mr Barber married a ‘wanton high flown widow from
Salford’ at whose instigation the doors of the building were locked without
the slightest warning. By threatening to sue Barber for the seats in the
meeting house, which technically belonged to a number of members of the
congregation, they were given a year to find alternative accommodation, and
it was decided to build a new chapel. Land was purchased on a site lying
between Chapel en le Frith and Chinley, lying just within Chinley township,
and thus in the parish of Glossop. The land was bought for £10 from John
Hadfield of Chapel Milton in the names of William Bagshaw of Ford, James
Carrington of Chinley and Robert Middleton of Chapel en le Frith. Clegg
commented later that it was a wonder the congregation survived in the
endless meeting which took place concerning the new chapel as ‘all stood
pretty stiff for their own convenience to have it as near as possible to
their habitations’. The building, which stands today was completed in 1711
and made over to eleven Trustees. The work was financed by donations
amounting to £113.11s.0d., £53 of which was raised locally, the
rest coming ‘from other parts’ in donations and special collections.”
A list of names of those contributing to the building of Chinley Chapel is
given in Part 3, Appendix I:4 to Clegg's Diary, and a list of Trustees, 1711-1748
in ibid:, Appendex I:5.
(Information provided by Rosemary Lockie)
Image contributed by Andrew McCann on 9th April 1999.
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