Matlock Bath

This remarkable private chapel was built by the redoubtable Louisa Harris just over a hundred years ago to the designs of the leading Arts and Crafts architect Sir Guy Dawber. Dawber was one of the founders of the CPRE  and a President of RIBA (1925–7).  She assembled a glittering array of artists to realise her dream.

Louis Davis, "the last of the Pre-Raphaelites", designed the stained glass in the east window. He took water for his theme and the panels depict baptism, the waters of death, communion and the Water of Life.

George Bankart, an architect that specialised in ornamental plasterwork, created the barrel-vaulted plaster ceiling (do notice the birds flying across the plaster).

Built into a cliff face overlooking the Derwent Valley, a World Heritage Site, the church is also built over a well, which can be picked out on the roadside.

We've undertaken a programme of repairs which included the rebuilding of Dawber's gates into the churchyard, the cleaning and repair of the chandeliers.