In 1801 Matlock was a large rural parish with some substantial and varied industrial interests. Cotton was overtaking lead in the local economy, and the spa at Matlock Bath was just becoming fashionable. There were 475 families in the parish with a total population of 2,354 persons. Fifty years later at 4,010 persons the population had nearly doubled and the increase was officially attributed to the visitors to the baths.
	In 1851 John Smedley founded his hydro on the Bank and in the next two decades others followed his example. By 1871 the population had risen to 5,220 persons and the increase was attributed to visitors for hydropathic treatment. The older spa was being superseded by the fashionable new hydros on the Bank. Well-to-do people were settling on the Bank. To cater for them and the hydros, and their servants, as well as the older scattered farm and cottage settlements, a new service centre was growing up.
	The nonconformist churches were moving into this unchurched area. By 1881 the Primitive Methodists, Free Methodists, Congregationalists and the Society of Friends had churches or meeting houses on the Bank, and the Wesleyans and Catholics were lower down the hill near the Bridge.
	Inter-church rivalry was keen in Victorian days, and local Anglicans saw the need for a church on the Bank. They also saw and judged more important the need for a school. So in 1875 the Revd William R Melville, Rector of Matlock, and a group of local gentry, manufacturers and tradespeople, bought from the Woolley estate for £3100, a piece of land on the Bank on which to build "a School and a Mission Room to be used for the education and instruction of Children and for the worship and service of God....... according to the principles and usages of the Church of England as well as for literary and philanthropic purposes so far as they are not repugnant to such principles."
	The School was built by 1876 for 200, and had an average attendance that year of 150. It is still in use as All Saints' Infant School.
	In 1881 a curate was appointed to run the mission and build up a congregation, the Revd Adam Lowe, MA of Jesus College Cambridge. He built up a wide circle of friends, many of them influential and well-to-do. In 1880 the Revd E John Higgs, a local landowner, gave trustees an acre of land on Smedley Street as site for a church. He gave separately an adjoining site for a vicarage, and later some more land as glebe now part of the church garden.

All Saints' Church

	Adam Lowe hoped to build a big church on John Higgs' site. The church as originally planned would have stretched well to the west of the present building. Money was tight, so he and his committee decided to start with the eastern end and finish with the west end of the nave with a temporary wall.
	The foundation stone was laid on 31st July 1882 in the presence of the Bishop of Lichfield by Mr F C Arkwright of Willersley Castle, Cromford, one of the original School Trustees, and a good friend to All Saints.
	The Church and vicarage sites were conveyed to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1882. As the church neared completion the Archdeaconry of Derby was transferred from the diocese of Lichfield to the newly created diocese of Southwell, so the church could not be dedicated as planned by the Bishop of Lichfield. Instead on Easter Tuesday, 15th April 1884, he opened it for public worship by special permission of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Southwell being not yet appointed. On 7th September 1884 the Rt. Revd George Riddings DD, the new Bishop of Southwell consecrated All Saints as one of his earliest duties. He and his wife, Lady Laura Riddings, took a good deal of interest in the church in its earlier days.
	The church, as built, seated 350 persons and cost £33,500, raised by voluntary contributions and a grant of £3400 from the Lichfield Diocesan Church Committee. It was adequately, if simple, furnished with a Repair Fund of £3200, and an endowment of £31,000. It was free from debt but members of the Committee personally owed £31,200 on its behalf.
	On 16th April 1886 an Order in Council assigned a District Chapelry to All Saints, carving the new parish of All Saints Matlock Bank out of the north western end of the old parish of Matlock. This permitted banns to be read, marriages to be solemnized and funerals to take pace. Adam Lowe became the first Parish Priest.
	So All Saints started life with a church to finish and adorn and a debt of honour. The congregation worked hard to meet its obligations, much helped by the generosity of visitors to the hydros.

Vicars of the Parish

Material for this page, Historical Details, is taken from an All Saints' Church publication "Historical guide to the Church"

Return to Home Page