All Saints’ Church, Matlock Bank is a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

parish church in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

Matlock, Derbyshire Matlock is the county town of Derbyshire, England. It is in the south-eastern part of the Peak District, with the National Park directly to the west. The spa resort of Matlock Bath is immediately south of the town as well as Cromford lying fur ...

History

A mission room and school was designed by Mr. Skedward of Sheffield and opened on 17 August 1875 by Captain Augustus Arkwright, M.P. The mission room was quickly found to be inadequate, so funds were raised for the construction of a new church. The foundation stone was laid on 31 August 1882 by Mr. F.C. Arkwright J.P. of

Willersley Castle Willersley Castle is a late 18th-century country mansion above the River Derwent at Cromford, Derbyshire, outside Peak District National Park. The castle has been a Grade II* listed building since April 2000. Standing in of grounds, the C ...

, in the presence of the Bishop of Lichfield. and the church was built to the designs of the architect, Thomas Henry Healey of Bradford. The church was opened by the Bishop of Lichfield on Easter Tuesday, 15 April 1884 and formally consecrated by the Bishop of Southwell, Rt. Revd. George Ridding on 17 September 1884 The original plan was to construct a much larger church, but only the chancel and part of the nave were completed. A west front was added in 1958. An old priest hole, running from the church to the nearby Infant’s School, then on to the site of the Junior School is still in use today, although much of the original run between the church and the Infant School is impassable. The tunnel is carved from the sandstone bedrock and was illuminated by gas-light. The tunnel is approximately 4ft high by approximately 2ft wide and only passable by smaller people.

Stained glass

The church is noted for its stained glass windows, with an east window designed by

Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August 183317 June 1898) was an English painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter. Burne-Jones worked with William Morris as a founding part ...

of 1905 and a sequence of north aisle windows by

Heaton, Butler and Bayne Heaton, Butler and Bayne was a British firm that produced stained-glass windows from 1862 to 1953. History Clement Heaton (1824–1882) Fleming, John & Hugh Honour. (1977) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Decorative Arts. '' London: Allen Lane, p. 371 ...

of 1907.

Parish status

The church is in a joint parish with *

Holy Trinity Church, Tansley Holy Trinity Church, Tansley is a parish church in the Church of England in Tansley, Derbyshire. History The foundation stone was laid on 1 May 1839 by Sir George Harpur Crewe, Bart, MP in the presence of Revd. Thomas Carson, vicar of Crich, ...

Organ

The pipe organ was built by

Forster and Andrews Forster and Andrews was a British organ building company between 1843 and 1924. The company was formed by James Alderson Forster (1818–1886) and Joseph King Andrews (1820–1896), who had been employees of the London organ builder J. C. Bisho ...

and opened on 15 December 1886 by Thomas Barker Mellor of

All Saints' Church, Bakewell All Saints' Church, Bakewell, is the parish church of Bakewell, Derbyshire, England. It is a Grade I listed building. The first church The church was founded in 920, during Anglo-Saxon times and the churchyard has two 9th-century crosses. Dur ...

. A specification of the organ can be found on the

National Pipe Organ Register The British Institute of Organ Studies (BIOS) is a British organisation and registered charity which aims to promote study and appreciation of all aspects of the pipe organ. Further, it acts as a lobbying body to raise awareness of organ issue ...

Organists

*John Goddard Barker 1889-92 (formerly organist of Holy Trinity Church, Matlock Bath, afterwards organist of All Saints' Church, Ashover)

References