Acknowledgements: Links not verified - placed only to illustrate where the information below was obtained.
Belper Research Website: St. Swithuns Church, Belper (belper-research.com)
Taken, with minor alterations, from a report compiled by Captain E G Gasson, Church Army,
who was in charge of Saint Swithun's from 1950 to 1961.
"ORIGIN OF SAINT SWITHUN'S CHURCH
In about 1909 or 1910 the vicar of St Peter's Church in Belper, the Rev Stuart Harrington Clark, invited the Church Army to conduct a Van Mission in the parish. This was conducted by Captain Jesse Ford and great spiritual fervour ensued which caused the parish to desire a residential officer on a more permanent basis.
This was agreed upon by the vicar, but when local people insisted that this officer should be none other than Captain Ford, he hardly thought that Church Army Headquarters would agree, for he was an outstanding evangelist in the Van Department. However, such an application was made, the result being that Captain Ford was allowed to come, which was more than a little surprising.
On arrival Captain Ford (then about 29) had no premises to work from but he was provided with a new cottage (8 Crich View, Cowhill – on the corner of Holbrook Road and what is now called Hillside Rise) and he and his wife Alice took up residence. (They had married in 1910.) It might be stated that the district of Cowhill was somewhat notorious at the time, being an area where the police patrolled in pairs. At first the captain used his little cottage for both Sunday School and Sunday Services, but as numbers increased it was necessary to move them into the Reading Room in Three Gates. This also became too cramped and by April 1911 space was taken in the local Fleet Girls School.
Growth
Enthusiasm continued to increase, the result being a desire to have a church of their own in that part of the parish, so it was decided to start a Building Fund Subscription List. It was then proposed to ask Mrs Elizabeth Hanson (whose house stood prominently on the overlooking Chevin) to head the list.
On being approached, Mrs Hanson did far more than that, for she promised to have the church built for them in memory of her husband who had recently died. Mr Hanson had been a director of Brettles Hosiery and the work people lived mainly in the Cowhill district. Out of admiration for Captain Ford's work, she also had St Swithun's House built for him and his wife and family to live in. When asked about the naming of the church, Mrs Hanson requested St Swithun's because her husband had been born on St Swithun's Day.
The foundation stone was laid by Mrs Hanson in September 1912 and the building was externally complete before the end of the year. The mosaic floor was laid by an Italian firm under conditions of great secrecy for the technique was virtually unknown in this country. The church was opened by the Bishop of Derby (Charles Thomas Abraham, Suffragan to the Bishop of Southwell) on 30 April 1913 and Mrs Hanson became a regular worshipper. Originally the church was also used for social events but Mrs Hanson soon had another building (The Institute) erected for that purpose. When Mrs Hanson's health began to fail the choir would go up to her house from time to time to sing to her, especially at Christmas.
1911 CENSUS
The 1911 Census is close enough in time to give a good picture of the housing and population of Cow Hill when St Swithun's opened in 1913. Earlier Census data is less specific, tending to call everything Cow Hill (ie not separating the individual roads so that we cannot be exactly sure what is included).
It is apparent that house numbers in Holbrook Road had only recently been allocated and that they ran consecutively (ie not in odds and evens as they do now). What was called Cow Hill is now called Hillside Rise (it had also been known as Three Gates, but the only house recorded is the one now known as 2 Holbrook Road but which retains the Three Gates name plate). Building was in progress in Cow Hill and probably in Holbrook Road where there is some evidence that older cottages were being replaced.
- There were 43 inhabited cottages in Cow Hill plus about 7 being built, plus The Horse and Jockey.
- There were 19 inhabited cottages in Canada Street including the corner shop.
- There were about 87 inhabited cottages in Holbrook Road including 2 shops.
- There were 2 empty cottages.
- Crich view was included with Holbrook Road.
- Also in Holbrook Road were the Cottage Homes (orphanage) and a larger house called Roland House.
- There were 2 inhabited cottages in Quarry Road, close to the Methodist Chapel.
- There were 20 inhabited cottages in Bargate Road.
- There was one inhabited house in Three Gates (this is one of the oldest houses in Belper).
- There were two farms in Wilderslea Lane, Rowlands Hill Farm and Wilderslea Farm, apparently the oldest house in Belper (although it was in Milford Ecclesiastical Parish).
- It is not possible to define how many cottages in The Fleet and Foundry Lane should be allocated to Cow Hill, but the property which was formerly a shop and alehouse and the houses next door to it should be included.
- Three pairs of cottages were in joint occupation, by large families.
This gives a total of 176, so including those in Foundry Lane and The Fleet would probably take the total to about 200.
By mid 1912 five cottages (43 to 47 Holbrook Road) had been demolished, either for rebuilding or specifically for building Saint Swithun's Church. Additionally Mrs Hanson appears to have had right of access to land to the rear of the site since at least 1905."
To the Cache itself:
To obtain the final co-ordinates: There is a short pathway located to the right of the church itself, leading to a newer congregation of houses.
As you walk along this path - note the number of rectangular lights and their orientation, vertical and horizontal on the church wall. Be sure to find them all before you start your calculations.
N 53.00. A B C W 001 28. D E F
A: Count all vertical lights, now minus one of them and multiply the remainder of vertical lights x 3 (it gives you a single digit number)
B: Minus one from the number of horizontal lights?
C: Add 2 to the total number of horizontal and vertical lights.
D: Take the total number of horizontal lights and vertical lights, now multiply that number by 2. Then take away the number of vertical lights.
E: How many lights are there in total - horizontal and vertical? and then minus one from that figure.
F: What is the total number of horizontal and vertical lights. (Make sure you counted them all).
Okay - you should now have the correct co-ordinates - but as a double check - we have provided a checksum for ALL coordinate figures :
CHECKSUM for (All) Northings: 26 (All) Westings: 30 - - CHECKSUM for ALL (N&W) = 56.
HAPPY HUNTING and a NOTE to CACHERS : The church and cache are near to busy roads, though the place where this cache can be found is in a quieter place vehicles clearly still use it. You should be able to use on-street parking near to the church, but there is a blind bend close by so please take care to park safely and considerately.
Children and Pets should be carefully supervised at all times - there are all traffic types that travel close to this location including buses and HGVs.
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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro.co.uk
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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