St Werburgh's Church is an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church on Friargate in the city of

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

, England. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

as a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. In this church,

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

(Dr Johnson) married Elizabeth Porter in 1735. The church has two sections, which, although connected, have no internal access between them: these are the tower/chapel and the main church. The seventeenth-century tower and old chancel are in the care of the

Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

(CCT); the key is kept at the nearby

Derby Museum and Art Gallery Derby Museum and Art Gallery is a museum and art gallery in Derby, England. It was established in 1879, along with Derby Central Library, in a new building designed by Richard Knill Freeman and given to Derby by Michael Thomas Bass. The collect ...

. The main church was closed as a place of worship in 1984 but reopened in September 2017 as part of the Holy Trinity Brompton Church network. The church meets for worship every Sunday in the main church at 10.30am and 6.30pm every Sunday and is of a contemporary music style.

History

It is of medieval origin, but the oldest surviving part of the church is the tower, which was rebuilt between 1601 and 1608. The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

was built in 1699. The remainder of the church was rebuilt in 1893–94 in stone from

Coxbench Holbrook is a village in Derbyshire at the southern end of the Pennines around five miles north of Derby, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,538. History Holbrook lies about two miles to the north-east of Duffi ...

quarry, the architect being Sir Arthur Blomfield. The style of this rebuilding is

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

in the manner of the 15th century. The church closed in 1984 and the parish joined with St Alkmund's. Memorials from the main body of the church were moved into the chancel and some of the windows, by Kempe and Herbert William Bryans, were moved to All Saints' Church, Turnditch. The church was declared redundant in 1990, and the body of the church was converted to commercial use. The building has been an indoor market and Chinese restaurant but was closed for seven years. On 17 September 2017, St Werburgh's reopened as a church. The tower and chancel were

vested In law, vesting is the point in time when the rights and interests arising from legal ownership of a property is acquired by some person. Vesting creates an immediately secured right of present or future deployment. One has a vested right to an ...

in the Churches Conservation Trust in 1989. The tower was refurbished in 2004, and contains a chapel known as the "Johnson Chapel".

married Elizabeth Porter (''née'' Jervis) on 9 July 1735. Elizabeth (or "Tetty") was a well-to-do widow. At the time he was 25, she 46, and neither family was enthusiastic about the match. The marriage lasted until Elizabeth's death in 1752.

Architecture

The tower is in

Gothic Survival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style. The chancel of 1690 has been converted into a side chapel. It contains many of its original fittings and furniture, including an elaborate

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

cover made by Robert Bakewell. The

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for ex ...

contains panels inscribed with the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ� ...

, the

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...

and the

Apostle's Creed The Apostles' Creed (Latin: ''Symbolum Apostolorum'' or ''Symbolum Apostolicum''), sometimes titled the Apostolic Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles, is a Christian creed or "symbol of faith". The creed most likely originated in 5th-century Ga ...

. Over the reredos is the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

of Queen Anne. The stained glass is from the studio of

Charles Eamer Kempe Charles Eamer Kempe (29 June 1837 – 29 April 1907) was a British Victorian era designer and manufacturer of stained glass. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and also designs for altars and altar frontals, furniture and furnishings, lichg ...

, and there is a monument dated 1832 by

Francis Leggatt Chantrey Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (7 April 1781 – 25 November 1841) was an English sculptor. He became the leading portrait sculptor in Regency era Britain, producing busts and statues of many notable figures of the time. Chantrey's most notable w ...

. The chancel has a wall-mounted war memorial by Arthur George Walker. It is a cast-bronze figure of Christ with arms outstretched surmounting a plaque. The inscription reads "Remember 1914–1918 / (Names) / Blessed are the Peacemakers". A total of 47 men are listed.

Organ

The church had an organ as early as 1750. A new organ by John Gray was opened on 3 February 1841. It was replaced by a new instrument by Walker and Sons of London which was opened on 14 December 1872. After several restorations and enlargements (including Henry Willis & Sons in 1905), it became a 4 manual instrument with 47 speaking stops. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register. William Hartley Ashton was organist and choir master in early 1910s and 1920s. In 1989 the organ was sold to All Saints, Newton Heath, Greater Manchester but never installed.

Organists

*F Roome ca. 1766 – ca. 1812 *Edward William Gover ca. 1841 *Henry W. James ca. 1846 – ca. 1851 * Edward Chadfield 1861–72 * Arthur Francis Smith 1872–1911 *Norman Hibbert 1912–41 (formerly organist of St Luke's Church, Derby) *Leslie Taylor 1941–43 (formerly organist of

St Alkmund's Church, Derby Saint Alkmund's Church was a Victorian church, which stood in a Georgian square between Bridgegate and Queen Street in Derby; this was the only Georgian square in the city. The church and its yard were demolished in 1968 for construction of a road ...

) *H. Stanley Mayes 1943—???? *Stanley Mayes was succeeded by Dr Arthur Pope (Head of Music at Bemrose Grammar School), and later by David Johnson, also Head of Music at Bemrose. *Christopher Martin Thomas 1975–81; left to become Director of Music at Waltham Abbey, Essex

References

External links