Funerary Chapel, Staverley, Derbyshire, June 2019

1. The History
The short and tall of it is that I can’t find any specific history about this little church. Searched high and wide but nothing came up on this delightful twin chapel at the east end of the graveyard in the north Derbyshire town of Staveley. There’s very little history about the graveyard as a whole beyond that it was founded in 1884 and there are 25 Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) graves here; 11 from WW1 and 14 from WW2. It was under the supervision of the Rural District Council of Chesterfield, and by 1932 it had been increased in size from its initial 3.5 acres to 7 acres. Old Maps show two mortuary chapels, one for Church of England, and the other for Non-conformists.

2. The Explore
Purely a speculative explore of the back of a picture that came up on Flicker. As I was passing close by, thought I’d pop in and see what was there. Glad I did as this turned out to be an absolute gem of a place. There are two separate chapels either side of the central tower – one labelled Gentlemen, the other Ladies. The gentleman’s side was accessible and still have some chapel furniture in. It was only a single room with a store cupboard off to the side but this place was so peaceful and really atmospheric.

3. The Pictures

View from the approach road:

img1422 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Staverley 19 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Ladies side:

img1417 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img1415 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Staverley 18 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Currently closed off so a peek through the door:

Staverley 17 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Central tower/spire:

img1409 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Gentleman’s side:

img1407 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img1392 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Central altar:

Staverley 12 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img1390 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Stained glass windows:

Staverley 05 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Staverley 04 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img1400 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img1399 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Detail of some of the cast-iron railings:

Staverley 11 by HughieDW, on Flickr

The original pews:

img1385 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Staverley 08 by HughieDW, on Flickr

The roof:

Staverley 15 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Door that leads to the central recess and the Ladies’ side:

Staverley 10 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Which is sealed up:

Staverley 07 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Answers on a postcard as to what this is or was:

Staverley 09 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Enchanting little place:

Staverley 03 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Staverley 02 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Interesting. Were there also toilets in this building? The reason I ask is that I can't think of any example of chapels being segregated by sex. Normally cemeteries would have two chapels, one being Anglican and the other Non-conformist.

This design of chapel is almost identical to one that I had a lease to a few years back. There would have been outdoor toilets on the back corners of the central tower, this is what the signs probably refer to. The chapels themselves would indeed have been split between Anglican and Non-con.

Lovely building that. Mind you, that car parking is just shocking!
The handle thingy is a pump - you see them at the base of access shafts into ROC posts and fixed to the wall. I've no idea why it's attached to bracketry and tin plate. Dirus will come along and tell us the name of those pumps (My mind fails me!).

Thats lovely again HD nicely done.

Cheers Sausage - The pump is a bog standard rotary lift pump and I suspect it has been modified into a dosing pump. Ground water in cemeteries can become a bit contaminated and I think this pump was used to dose 'scent' or disinfectant into water being pumped out of the diggings. There again the tin can may be just a means of holding water to keep the pump primed as the 'waste water' was completely removed from the diggings. Obviously hand made to do a needed/vital job.