St Paul’s Church History

St Paul's Church is a grade 2 listed building and was one of a pair of identical churches designed by architect William Railton, the 'twin' being the church at Copt Oak, they were his first church design projects. St Paul's is still the beneficiary of the robust construction of the simple original building with a tiny chancel and small single tower carrying just one bell. It was built in 1836 to 1837, primarily of local stone and on an area of shallow soil over rock, being funded by public subscription (£1,2000). The church was consecrated in 1837 when its first incumbent was appointed. It was built with a gallery to accommodate many more congregants than could be managed downstairs alone. As early as 1839 disaster struck as 'The Night of the Big Wind' storm damaged its roof and windows, the roof required extensive repair.

During the 1800s Woodhouse Eaves with its fresh, unpolluted, air became increasingly prosperous as a holiday and day-visit destination as well as having recovery homes and later, in the 1900s, children's homes, for residents from adjacent cities. Many wealthy manufacturers and others built or moved into homes in the village and its surrounds and the church reflects some of this wealth in its current structure. A much enlarged chancel was donated in 1871 and this was adorned by the first stained glass windows in the church (1880), these beautiful windows can still be seen behind the altar. Throughout the rest of the century and into the early 1900s more stained glass windows were added until, most unusually, all the significant windows in the church are now decorated in glorious stained glass.

In the 1880s Church Architect, Ewan Christian, removed the church gallery and a South transept and organ were donated by William Salt, a North transept was built, a vestry was built to the south of the tower and the original pew boxes were removed. In the 1890s, by public subscription, an organ chamber was built and extra seating created in the church.

When the church was first built it had no clock on its tower but one was added during the 1800s. In 1904, to commemorate the life and reign of Queen Victoria, who had died in 1901, a new clock and peal of 6 Taylor's bells were added to the raised and reinforced tower. The Vicar, Rev Arnold Hiley, donated the new village clock for the tower while the money for the bells was raised by public subscription. Our 1904 church clock is still maintained by the Derby company that first installed it and still recognised as a village clock and the same peal of 6 bells still ring in the tower.

In 1838 A Church of England funded National School was opened on Church Hill with extremely close links to St Paul's, these links persist today but children no longer lose their place in the school if they don't attend the required number of church services on a Sunday! A new infant school was built around 1867 and this building and that of the first school still exist in the village although as private houses.

By 1910 the original graveyard around the church was full and additional burial ground, opposite the church, was donated to St Paul's, this 'new' burial ground is still in use although, thankfully, the average age of those recorded on head stones is much older now than the average ages recoded in the earlier burial records of the 1800s.

St Paul's had a massive chancel restoration project in 2017 as the chancel was slowly but steadily 'departing' from the body of the church - as witnessed when daylight could eventually be seen through a crack in the extremely thick stone walls. It transpired that the 1871 Chancel had been built on very shallow foundations. The restoration was funded by local donations and Heritage Lottery Funding and involved steel posts being inserted through the walls of the chancel and adjacent vicar's vestry and into the walls of the body of the church, these were then 'glued' in place to hold the chancel firmly in position again. Extensive cracks were found and repaired in the chancel and vicar's vestry and a team of expert craftspeople worked on the project introducing a ramp to enable access to the (internally extended) chancel for all. They even removed and replaced hundreds of floor tiles from the old aisle onto the extended chancel which would have otherwise covered these Victorian relics.

In 2038 the church will be celebrating 200 years since it was consecrated and we all hope it is still here to tell its tales for many years to come.

For further information:
A summary of the extensive volunteer researcher records created during the St Paul's Heritage Project that followed the chancel restoration in 2018, can be found at http://stpaulsheritage.info