With permission of St Mary’s PCC PCC
Last updated 24 Aug 2008
One thousand
years of history
St. Mary the Virgin
Denby, Derbyshire
1200
2000
1000
1800
1400
1600
Find out about the timeline
The Gallery
The gallery was an unhappy addition of 1838, when the fact that the Church was too small for a growing population misled the authorities into the sad error of pulling down the Saxon arches which were standing there at that time.
The Porch
A mystery surrounds the origin of the porch. It is disproportionately large for so small a Church, and quite obviously does not fit. A quick glance will show that the builders have had to set it a considerable distance to the left in order not to obstruct a window. It is also interesting to notice that the architecture of the porch (about 1375) is almost a hundred years earlier than that of the wall to which it is built! This can mean only one thing; that the porch was not originally part of the building, but was brought to Denby from elsewhere. It is possible that it came from Dale Abbey, six miles away. When this monastery was destroyed, much of its glass found its way to the Church at Morley and a porch would have been fairly easy to salvage from the ruins. But this is only conjecture.
The gallery was an unhappy addition of 1838, when the fact that the Church was too small for a growing population misled the authorities into the sad error of pulling down the Saxon arches which were standing there at that time.
The Porch
A mystery surrounds the origin of the porch. It is disproportionately large for so small a Church, and quite obviously does not fit. A quick glance will show that the builders have had to set it a considerable distance to the left in order not to obstruct a window. It is also interesting to notice that the architecture of the porch (about 1375) is almost a hundred years earlier than that of the wall to which it is built! This can mean only one thing; that the porch was not originally part of the building, but was brought to Denby from elsewhere. It is possible that it came from Dale Abbey, six miles away. When this monastery was destroyed, much of its glass found its way to the Church at Morley and a porch would have been fairly easy to salvage from the ruins. But this is only conjecture.
The organ is situated at the east end of the gallery. It was made by Harrison and Harrison of Durham and was installed in 1914.
An earlier organ had been situated on a Gallery above the west end of the Nave. This was either removed during the major restoration of the Church in the first few years of the twentieth century, or the west Gallery had been taken down in 1838 when the new Gallery was constructed.
