Independent Chapel, Chinley

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.

(Commentary provided by Rosemary Lockie)