The Mission, (correct title The Church Room) stood on the corner of New Lane and Pasture Lane
The site for the Church Room or Mission as it was known, was given by the Duke of Devonshire early in 1910. Donations were received from the Derbyshire Extension Society £50, Blackwell Colliery Co. £50, The Dowager Countess of Carnarvon £25, Mrs Reynolds ( Newark) 15 guineas, Mrs Sampson ( Tibshelf) £5 and other smaller amounts.
The building was completed by 1913, when it was offically opened by Mrs Oswald Bainbridge, Sherwood Hall. The Archdeacon of Chesterfield took part in the ceremony.
In 1916 the Rev A. E Barnacle presented a font, bell and bell tower.
Communion services, harvest festivals, etc. were held in the Church Room, but evening services had been discontinued at the time the booklet The Church of St Werburgh Blackwell was written by Messrs S Storer and H G Cresswell in the 1950s. All the above information has been borrowed from that booklet.
Mr John Lander can remember attending Sunday School there every sunday afternoon and has kindly supplied this photo of some of the class about 1955. Keith Ackley, son of Newton’s Police Sergeant Ackley, led the Sunday School classes.
It is not known exactly when the Church Room was finally closed and taken down, but probably in the 1960s?