ALTHOUGH THE PRESENT BUILDING DATES FROM 1955 THE CHAPEL SITE ITSELF GOES BACK TO 1866.  THE THEN PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHAPEL WAS BUILT, WE BELIEVE BY THE WRIGHT FAMILY OF TISSINGTON OF WHOM ONE WAS  A LOCAL PREACHER.  THE LAND IT WAS BUILT ON BELONGED NOT TO THE FITZHERBERTS BUT TO GEORGE JOHNSON OF TISSINGTON.  

THERE HAS BEEN SOME CONFUSION AS TO ITS ORIGINS DUE TO THE PROXIMITY OF THE RAILWAY LINE AND THE CHAPEL RESEMBLING A RAILWAY CARRIAGE. HOWEVER THE RAILWAY WAS CONSTRUCTED IN 1899 LEADING TO THE ASSUMPTION OF THAT DATE BUT IN FACT THE CHAPEL EXISTED LONG BEFORE THEN.  EVEN SO, TISSINGTON IS ONE OF THE LATER CHAPELS BELONGING TO THE  PRIMITIVE METHODISTS IN THIS AREA.

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It seems plans to erect a new building on the site started well  before its actual completion and were certainly active in the 1920s as this letter shows:

"The Primitive Methodists of Tissington have worshipped for fifty eight years in a wood chapel which is now much weather worn and needs to be superceded with a new one.  It is intended to erect a more substantial structure and the members of society have promised £150 towards the cost.  Help from friends is greatly needed and will be gratefully received.  

|Mr J H  Carr is authorized to receive subscriptions.

Signed January 1924

John Holmes, Minister

The Manse

Buxton Road

Ashbourne"  

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Dorothy Robinson has kindly provided the following account of the days when the Chapel had a Sunday School.

TISSINGTON METHODIST CHAPEL SUNDAY SCHOOL 1956 - 1961

"The Sunday school was begun shortly after the new chapel was built, when the Rev John Barker was our Minister.  This was inspired by a visit by the Derbyshire Village Mission - the Caravan Sisters, Sister Kitty and Sister Margaret.  They entertained the young people in their caravan and introduced us to singing choruses and gave us film shows.

My father Percy Titterton then started the Sunday School and I played the harmonium for them, keeping up the choruses.  At that time visual and practical aids were becoming available from Methodist Resources and we invested in various items including colouring materials and a sand tray.  We even performed a demonstration about traffic signs at a Sunday School Anniversary.  Sometimes good behaviour was assured with the reward of liquorice allsorts at the end of the lesson.

We met on Sunday afternoons to avoid clashing with the Anglican Sunday School and up to 12 children attended aged 5 - 11 years.  We went round the village to collect children from their homes including Brenda Beresford who lived at Fenny Bentley.

We kept an eye on the money.  I recently found the accounts book which I kept up, helped occasionally by sister Catherine, until my brother Jim took over in August 1961.  There are recorded expenses for a Sports Day with the Circuit, a Sunday School outing to Rhyl, a Christmas party in the Village Hall and Sunday School Prizes in 1960 - 1961.  It sounds a bumper year! Unfortunately the account was often in deficit and had to be funded with a loan of £5  10 -0 from Chapel funds on one occasion.  In 1961 I noted that we had to pay an annual Sunday School levy of 4d per head amoounting to 8 shillings.  I wonder if this levy still applies.

Sadly the Sunday School had to close in 1961, as our family left Tissington then, but I amencouraged to see how well some of its pupils and helpers have done in the service of their Lord and the Church."

Dorothy Robinson (nee Titterton)