Derby Cathedral

Name:
Derby Cathedral
Record Type:
Cathedral
Church code:
612001
Diocese:
Derby
Archdeaconry:
Cathedral
Parish:
All Saints Derby

Statutory Designation Information

Listed Building?
This is a Grade I Listed Building
View more information about this Listed Building on the National Heritage List for England web site
Scheduled Monument?
There is no Scheduled Monument within the curtilage or precinct

National Park

The church is not in a National Park

Conservation Area

The church is in the following Conservation Area: City Centre

Heritage At Risk Status

On Heritage At Risk Register?
This church is not on the Heritage at Risk Register
 

Approximate Date

Approximate Date:
Post Medieval

Exterior Image

Exterior image of 612001 Derby Cathedral
Caption:
Exterior image of 612001 Derby Cathedral
Description:
Photograph of the west façade of Derby Cathedral.
Year / Date:
2014
Copyright:
Archbishops' Council
Originator:
Boris Baggs

Summary Description

The town of Derby became prosperous almost overnight with the Enlightenment, when it witnessed the first stirrings of the Industrial Revolution. Close to the church was Britain’s earliest factory, a water-powered silk mill. The tombstone of local painter Joseph Wright of Derby is mounted on the wall. Wright mixed with other influential eighteenth century scientists, intellectuals and industrialists and is famous for his paintings of industrial experiments. In the 1720s the parishioners pulled down their church, leaving only the fine 1530s tower, and with their new industrial wealth James Gibbs built a broad single-storey church with large round-headed windows that still flood the church with light and confidence. Later the Industrial Revolution moved elsewhere, though wealth returned in the nineteenth century, in part from the railways, and Derby Parish Church became a cathedral in 1927. Just as in Gibbs’s St Martin-in-the-Fields, tall Doric columns divide the nave from the aisles and ground the undulating groin vaulting. Most exquisite is the 1730s gilded wrought iron screen by local smith Robert Bakewell. Traversing the whole church, it has been described as ‘delicate as lace and intricate as a fugue’. The screen’s blue and gold are picked up in Ceri Richards’s twentieth-century stained glass windows. Four-times-married Bess of Hardwick has a monument in the church, setting a trend for later Cavendishes including Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. In the late 1960s Sebastian Comper added the retro choir, designed by his father Sir Ninian Comper that harmonises well with Gibbs’s building. It was at Derby Cathedral in spring 2014 that the Chancellor of the Exchequer launched the First World War Centenary Cathedral Repairs Fund.

Visiting and Facilities

The church is open for worship.
Work in progress - can you help?
 

Church Website

Church Website:
http://www.derbycathedral.org

Sources and Further Information

Boris Baggs (2014) Exterior image of 612001 Derby Cathedral [Digital Archive/Graphic material]
Exterior image of 612001 Derby Cathedral
Boris Baggs (2014) Interior image of 612001 Derby Cathedral [Digital Archive/Graphic material]
Interior image of 612001 Derby Cathedral
Antiquarian Horological Society (2015) AHS Turret Clock database Unique Number ID: 819 [Digital Archive/Data]
Church of England (2021) A Church Near You https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/13148/ [Digital Archive/Index]
View information on worship and access at this church
Church Buildings Council (2019) Church Bells 11 Bells [Archive/Index]
11 Bells