St Margaret's Church - Wormhill Village - Wormhill, Derbyshire
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  • St Margaret's Church - Wormhill Village - Wormhill, Derbyshire
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  •      This quiet and peaceful sanctury among the trees draws many visitors throughout the year. Wormhill is mentioned in the Doomsday Book (1086) and at this time lay in the vast parish of Hope, which was the church noted in the High Peak in this survey. In 1245 it was included in the newly formed parish of Tideswell but in 1273 the inhabitants of this important little settlement in the great Royal Forest with it's manor, it's foresters and verderers and it's wolfhunters, petitioned the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield to be allowed to build their own chapel. This they were granted leave to do by Ralph de Semprington Dean of Lichfield and Rector of Tideswell and "to find at their own expense a chaplin ". They had to swear canonical obedience to the Dean and Chapter and to give all obventions (incidental fees etc.) and mortuaries belonging to the Mother Church. They had to keep the chantry in good repair, to find the books and ornaments, to pay both the great and small tithes to the Mother Church, and contribute their share towards it's repair and towards candles and lamps. Otherwise the chapel chantry and cemetery would be taken away from them. The inhabitants were also enjoined to repair the Mother Church for all the great festivals. John Daniels name, forester-in-fee, is given witness to this deed.         The chapel was dedicated to St Margaret's of Antioch in Pisidia, a martyr of the early Church, who is usually depicted in art assosiated with a dragon, representing the Devil, as in the carved statutte on the reredos. There is little now to see of this early chapel, only part of the tower with a small stained glass window and an adjoining portion of the northwall, but two 19th century descriptions give us some idea of it's size and style. The Rawlins' MSS (In the local history Department of the Borough Libray in Derby) says:- The chapel is extremely small having only a Nave 32' 4" regular built with oak, some of which appear to date : 1682, 1704, 1716, 1717. The font is plain and circular. Over the porch door on the outside is cut upon stone "P..C.W. for 1746".          The earlist Register known to survive begins with the following entry:- "Nicholas Bagshawe, Clerke, and schoolmaster, for want of a better. 1674. The book is bound  in what appears to be a 17th Century Bagshawe deed  and is in a very jumbled order: some pages missing , notable those covering the birth of James Brindley, the famous canal builder, at Tunstead. -  It may be of interest to note that the Rev. William Bagshawe, the 'Apostle of the peak' preached his first sermon in Wormhill Chapel and was evicted, when incumbent of Glossop, in 1662 following the Act of Uniformity. He continued to hold secret meetings, although of necessity these were in constantly changing localities, during this period of presecution. A peal of six bells from the foundry in Loughborough was hung and is thought to be the lightest ringing peal of six bells in the country. The five smallest bells bear the date 1863 while the tenor, the largest bell weighing 1cwt. 1qr 14lbs, is dated 1864 the bell having being recast in that year.                Services are held each Sunday normally at 6.30pm, with communion on the fourth Sunday.
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