Green light to turn North Derbyshire chapel into a home

Barlow Methodist Chapel at Millcross Lane, Barlow, will become a three-bedroom home under plans that have been conditionally approved by North East Derbyshire District Council.

The proposals include adding a first floor to an existing rear extension and the creation of a new vehicular access from a service road off Millcross Lane.

A design and access statement says: “The proposed scheme will ensure the longevity and viability of this historic building which will if left undeveloped begin to decay, and will ultimately become derelict and eventually lost. The surroundings will be replanted and landscaped to provide a much more attractive surroundings, more in keeping with what would most likely have been intended at the time of the building’s construction.”

Planning approval was granted with several conditions including that the existing coloured (cathedral) glass shall be retained in situ and that details of how the new first floor of the back extension will be fixed to the historic chapel should be agreed in writing by the local authority before work commences.

Built around 1892, the church’s architectural merits include brick ‘gothic’ arch windows and brick corbel detailing under the eaves and verge on the older chapel part of the building. The rear extension was added in 1952.

The chapel was put on the market after it became unviable in 2021. The applicant bought the property in order to sympathetically convert it into a residential property.