Methodist Church, Harpur Hill

Kelly's Directory of 1895 says there were then 2 Wesleyan Chapels in “Burbage-on-the-Wye” (of which Harpur Hill was part), and a Primitive Methodist Chapel at Canhole. It also refers to a Mission Church and School erected by the Buxton Lime Company, in 1876 “who also pay an annual stipend to the curate, and have further established a reading and news room; the Rev. Henry Clark May L.Th. of Durham University has been curate in charge since 1894” (this was in addition to Christ Church). The second Wesleyan Chapel seems to have been built after 1891, as Kelly's Directory of 1891 mentions just the one, though the Mission Church, and the Primitive Methodist Chapel at Canhole were both in existence by then.

This seems to be a lot of chapels for what is now a small place, but Kelly's Directory (1895) further explains that the “quarries and works of the Buxton Lime Firms Co. Limited, the largest of that kind in the kingdom, give employment to several hundred men, the lime being principally used for chemical and manufacturing purposes”.

(Information provided by Rosemary Lockie)