Visitors Book - St Philip & St James - Atlow, Derbyshire
Posted by: SMacB
N 53° 02.099 W 001° 39.465
30U E 590003 N 5877005
Visitors book inside St Philip & St James' church, Atlow.
Waymark Code: WM14KDC
Location: East Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/20/2021
Views: 0
Visitors book inside St Philip & St James' church, Atlow. The book was started on Sept 10th 1972.
"According to Kelly's Directory of 1895, St Philip & St James's Church was built on a plot of land lying between the old church of All Saints and the road called Church lane. It was consecrated by Bishop Selwyn in May 1874, and is "a building of stone in the Early English style [which] consists of a chancel, nave, south porch, and western turret, containing the bell from the pre-existing church, bearing a monogram and the date 1595: in the south wall is a piscina; the easternmost window in the north wall of the chancel is continued downwards, and serves as a credence table: there are sittings for 120 persons".
Kelly's entry notes that the earliest register dates from the year 1685, "truly extracted from an old and ruinous paper register by W. Wilson, curate, 1762".
There is no mention in Kelly of chapels of other denominations. For such a small settlement, this is hardly surprising; but there was a small schoolhouse, also in Atlow Lane, south of the church, to which Kelly records "sums of £10 from the Okeover charity left in 1878 and £10 from the Ironmongers' Company" applied.
There is an older graveyard behind the church (marked on Old Maps), which presumably belonged to All Saints Church, of which there appear to be no other signs today. According to Lewis's account of 1831, it was a "mean dilapidated structure, situated in the middle of a field". Beyond that, to the west, is Henmore Brook, which is shown as having a footbridge across."
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visit link)
Of interest in the church is the largely blue and white majolica reredos including a fine black-framed plaque of the Holy Lamb by the Campbell Brick & Tile Co.