The 19th Century

Rev. Chaloner was a Catholic priest who was responsible for the 'Derby Circuit' from 1815 to his death in 1836. In a report to the Vicar Apostolic for the Midland District, Rev. John Milner, dated 11 November 1815, Rev. Chaloner mentions a Catholic Chapel in Derby. It appears to have been well established at this date and had a good congregation. These included some of the local landed gentry such as Lord and Lady Scarsdale of Kedleston Hall, Mr and Mrs Beaumont of Barrow Hall, and Mr John Talbot who later became the 16th Earl of Shrewsbury.

The Catholic Chapel stood at the corner of Chapel Street and Orchard Street and was built about 1813. Initially it could accommodate 100 people, but was later extended to cater for a congregation of up to 300. A high wall had to be erected round it 'against the over-zealous local Protestants'!

Under the ministry of Rev. Chaloner the congregation increased and he started a school which initially had 26 boys and 30 girls. About 1827/28 Rev Chaloner and the Trustees of the Chapel decided that a larger building had to be found. It was about this time that the Hon. Edward Strutt decided to move his household to Belper and so the whole of the vast estate was split up into building plots, and the surrounding streets were named after members of his household.

Rev. Chaloner purchased the prime plot of land as the site for the new church; it is reputed to have cost £1400. The site stretched from Bridge Gate through to Edward Street, and had two houses on the Bridge Gate frontage. Rev. Chaloner made one his presbytery and rented the other to the master of the Derby Free School.

The money to buy this site came from Bishop Walsh of the Midland District, who liquidated all the endowments which, in accordance with the practice of the previous century, had been left by various benefactors to the Derby Mission. An entry in Bishop Walsh's Diocesan Book under the Derby heading reads:

"All the above monies, except £13 paid by Lord Shrewsbury, was absorbed in the purchase of land for the site of the new Church and Chaplain's house, and in the new buildings erected on it."

The Building of Saint Mary's Church, Derby

The purchase of the site with a view to building a church for the Catholics of Derby coincided with the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829. This Act was the culmination of a process which had been continuing for a number of years of removing the civil disabilities and oppressive regulations which had been imposed on Catholics in England by various statutes dating back to Henry VIII.

After nearly three centuries of oppression, the building of St Mary's, along with other new Catholic churches around the country, powerfully symbolized in stone and reinforced in practice the resurgence of the Catholic faith in England.

Rev. John Chaloner, who had effectively prepared the groundwork for the new church, died in 1836. He was replaced by Rev. Thomas Sing who immediately started to develop the plans for the larger church on the Bridge Gate site. The influx of Irish immigrants was making the need for a larger church even more urgent.