Church of The Good Shepherd, Wardlow

Wardlow is a surprising place. In early days, when there was no church here, the village suffered the affliction of being part of two parishes. The main street marked the boundary between Longstone parish and Hope, and one side of the village was therefore in Hope parish, and the other in Longstone (or more usually in the records, Bakewell). The church deemed it as a ‘lost place’; and it was said that ‘Wardlow women scarcely could trudge the long Derbyshire miles to either church and the men seldom did!’

This apparently was a source of confusion at the 1871 census, even for the Census ennumerator John OUTRAM, who, whilst not a native of the village, had lived in the village for some considerable time. He recorded the whole of the village together on the census returns, but then had to cross it all out and start again, recording the same households again, in two separate lists, one for ‘Wardlow in the Parish of Hope’, and the other for ‘Wardlow in the Parish of Bakewell’. (See Wardlow 1871 Census)

Then in 1871 the Reverend Samuel ANDREW, vicar of Tideswell, taking an interest in the spiritual welfare of Wardlow's 180 inhabitants, decided there should be a church. Its founding is described on a separate page, along with a view of the Church of The Good Shepherd from the south west (facing the road).

(Information provided by Rosemary Lockie)