History
In the 1940s Tupton was a small and scattered agricultural village and township in the parish of North Wingfield. There were only fifty-four houses in 1841 and only three-hundred and seventeen people. Coal was an important industry in Tupton at this time and had been also in the previous century. Tupton Green, the site on which the Chapel now stands, is listed as a working mine. A new and prominent feature in the village was the North Midland Railway, which opened in 1840, cutting through Tupton and providing a station.
Little is known about Tupton Green Colliery except that it was working in 1811 and was active in the early 1840s, at least, as a line was built to carry coal from the colliery to the main Midland Railway line. The tithe of 1841 lists the landowner as Sir Henry Hunlocke, but the owner of the colliery was the Wingerworth Coal Company. The present Chapel was once a workshop belonging to the colliery, and in all probability was the wagon shop. It is possible that when people first met here for worship in the 1840s that the colliery was still working. Whether it was working or disused the owners of the pit gave permission for these first worshippers to use the premises. A name is all that remains of the old pit site – the drive from Nethermoor Road up to the Chapel is still known as the Woodyard, a place where pit props were once stored. This is the only building of the Colliery that survives.
In the early 1800s there was no Church or Chapel in Tupton, but North Wingfield Church would have had some influence in the village and non-conformists may have worshipped at Clay Cross. In 1843 a New Connexion society was formed in the village, this being at the Colliery building. Over a century and a half later Methodists still meet in the same building, though there have been several additions since those early days.
Extract adapted from the booklet ‘Old Tupton Methodist Church 1843 – 1993’ Copies of which can be found at Chesterfield Library or the John Rylands library in Manchester.