In Wakeman’s ‘History of the English Church’, a description of the original site of a village church and its restoration is given, which with some slight alterations may be applied to Beeley.

“On the slope of the hill sweeping down to the river which twines about its base, in a clearing of the oak forest which then covered so much of the Midlands of England, stood before the Norman Conquest a small hamlet with its church of rough and cast timber from the neighbouring wood as a framework, with interstices filled with rough plaster. Such was the workmanship of the majority of English churches before the Norman Conquest.”

At Beeley, this was succeeded by a Norman church of c.1150. “It consisted of a nave, and a lean-to aisle, divided from the nave by round arches resting on massive round columns of stone with a square base. The nave was low, and roofed with a flat wooden roof. At its east wall was a wall pierced by a low round arch leading into the oblong chancel, against the east wall of which was the altar. The deeply-splayed windows on either side of the nave and the east end of the chancel admitted but little light. No benches or carved woodwork relieved the sombre severity of the whole. What ornament there was displayed itself in axe-hewn patterns on the outside of doors and windows. In winter, terribly cold, in summer, dark, the house of God was still more magnificent than any house of Man, and could not fail to affect the worshipper with a sense of deep solemnity.”       

The present font may possibly be pre-Norman, but it was so altered at the time of the church restoration in 1883 that it has entirely lost its original character. Mr Francis Bond speaks of it in his book on ‘Fonts’ as “apparently destroyed”.

To the Norman period belong the south doorway, and probably the stone bracket in the south-east corner of the nave. The dripstone over the doorway has a small head in the centre, and its terminals are also human heads surmounted by a sort of tiara. The small pillars on each side of the doorway were probably of stone, but replaced by marble at the 1883 restoration.

When the nave was rebuilt in 1819, the pillar supporting the arches separating the north aisle from the nave was removed. It was of the same date as the doorway, and is described by many as having capitals with heads at the corners. The corbel supporting the roof in the north-west corner of the aisle is of this date.

In 1192,Bakewell church, with all its appurtenances and chapels, was given by Earl John to the cathedral of Lichfield, and this gift included the chapel at Beeley. A priest was appointed with a stipend of 40 marks (£13-6-8), and other provisions for its maintenance.

About this time, the tower was built, the masonry as far up as the stringcourse beneath the belfry windows being of the Early English period. The shallow buttress is a feature to be noted: there used to be two on the outside of the west wall, but one was removed at the 1883 restoration when the two large buttresses at the agles were added. The walls and doorway of the chancel and are said to be of this date.

Nearly a century later, the regulations of 1192 were evidently not observed, for when Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury. Made his visitation of the Diocsese of Lichfield in 1280, he strongly rebuked the Dean and Canons for their gross neglect of the spiritual necessities of Bakewell and its independent chapelries. With regard to Beeley, he ordained that “the chancel should be kept in repair by the inhabitants, who were also to find a chalice and a missal, but that the rest of the fabric, books and ornaments were to be supplied by the Dean & Canons” The parishioners of Chelmorton were also ordered to pay 2.5 marks to the chaplain of Beeley, which, with one mark received from the very small curacy endowment, together with 20s to be raised annually from the inhabitants (amounting in all to five marks ie £3-6-8) was the annual stipend of the priest officiating at Beeley, a drop of £10 pa on what it was in 1192.

In 1315, the Dean & Chapter of Lichfield granted 20s to the chapelry of Beeley, to be paid yearly. They further permitted “that certain honest and chief men “ which shall be mete for the bringing of holy water may be named by the parishioners,” whose duty it was to take holy water for its use at the church at Bakewell. Because of this, Lichfield Dean & Chapter refused to recognise any responsibility as regards the expenses of the chapelries.

At this time (the Decorated Period), considerable alterations were again made to the church. The tracery of the east window was inserted as we see it now, and both the narrow window on the north side of the chancel and the upper portion of the tower were added; the tower and chancel arches are of the same period, but weer thoroughly renovated, and carved terminals added, in 1883.

In 1375, the nave was rebuilt. It was finished on July 7, 1375, and consecrated March 10, 1378. To this Perpendicular Period belong the small window on the south side of the chancel, and the battlements and pinnacles of the tower.

In 1819, the nave was again rebuilt, the Norman pillars with Early English arches separating the north aisle from the nave being removed.  

In those days, money for rebuilding and restoring churches was raised by issuing a ‘Brief’. The churchwardens made application at the Quarter Sessions for permission to send a begging letter to every parish in the country. The “Brief” stated the object for which the appeal was made. It was then read out in each church the Sunday following receipt. The response was not satisfactory. So, on August 5, 1823, application was made for another Brief on the grounds that the money collected by virtue of such Brief, after deducting all expenses, was £173-19-5. There still remained the sum of £880 to be paid and discharged, which the inhabitants of Beeley were utterly unable to raise. A copy of this Brief hangs in the vestry. The response to this Brief was less satisfactory than the previous one, so another Brief was issued on August 1, 1826, but with what result is unclear. Money to pay off the debt appears to have been borrowed from private sources. The final payment of £150 was made in 1837.  

In 1817, the church was visited by Mr George Meynell, of Meynell, who made a rough sketch of the exterior from the south, a copy of which hangs in the vestry. In addition to other features of interest, there was stained glass window in the north window of the church depicting a crowned figure, apparently St Catherine, with a wheel in her hand. Upon a seat-door in the chancel was carved “Godfrey Barker, sete made by A.B. (Adam Barker) 1660”. On a stone in the middle aisle was a Latin cross the full length of the stone, which is now missing, and on the wall of the church a hatchment. It bore the arms of the Saviles. It has also disappeared.

In place of what must have been a picturesque nave with aisle was substituted what the Rev H.C. Sculthorpe, a former vicar, describes as an “oblong, barn-like structure with flat whitewashed ceiling and walls. Their chief aim seems to have been to erect a Musicians’ Gallery, as it came to be called, at the west end of the nave. This, they did, and the nave was filled with high cattle-truck-like pews, which in my time had become rickety and worm-eaten. The gallery was approached from outside by a stone staircase. The so-called communion table was a common four-legged deal table, covered with a common green baize cloth.” He also says that when he was appointed (1864), the altar-plate in use was of a debatable metal pewter, or some other alloy. 

In 1883, the porch and nave were rebuilt, and the north aisle added, in the Decorated style to match the east and west arches; the large window on the south side of the chancel was reconstructed – the terminals of the dripstone of the original window are still to be seen, indicating that the former window was set higher than that of the present.

On the chancel north side is a brass plate to the memory of John Calvert who departed this life on April 17, 1710, aged 65, on which is incised the figure of a corpse lying in the grave wrapped in a shroud. It would seem, at Beeley at least, coffins were not used at that time for interment, the custom being for the corpse to be carried from the house to the church in a coffin kept for that purpose, called the “Parish Coffin”. While the words of the Burial Service, “Man that is born of Woman, etc” were being said, the body was lifted out of the coffin and placed in the grave.

A tablet in the vestry is to the memory of George Savile of Beeley, of the ancient family of Savile of Howley, Co York, who died September 16, 1675. Also to the memory of his brother William Savile, who died June 9, 1676. They were both sons of William Savile of Bakewell, whose brass is in the south transept of Bakewell church.

The tablet on the south wall of the chancel states that “Near this place lies the body of George Savile of Southouse Grange, Co Derby, and John, his brother, sons of William Savile of Hill Top in the said county, and of Dorothy, his wife. John departed this life October 1, 1733, George on May 16, 1734. The Saviles purchased the Manor of Beeley in 1689, and occupied the residence formerly called “The Greaves”, but which they renamed “Hill Top”.

There is a gravestone in the Baptistery on which is engraved the Greaves family crest, with the inscription: “This marble stone doth press but not oppress the body of John Greaves son of john Greaves of Greaves, who was always a true son of the Church of England, merciful and charitable to ye poor, patient and courageous in a tedious sickness, and at length being full of faith and hope did exchange this troublesome world for a better, upon ye 13th day of October in ye year of our Lord 1694.” A stone in the north aisle to the memory of his wife is the only other gravestone preserved in the church, “her better part to blissful regions ascended the 25th day of May, Ann Dni 1700”. The stained glass in the east window is to the memory of Lord Edward Cavendish, M.P., who died May 18, 1891. The south window is to the memory of the 7th Duke of Devonshire. The windows were designed and made by Messrs Burlison & Grylls. The panels of the altar were painted by an artist, Mr John Pedder, in 1884.

The registers date from 1538, the year in which the keeping of registers was first made compulsory by law. The altar plate is modern. A single oak chair remains of the pre-Restoration fittings.

The War Memorial Window in the north aisle was unveiled and dedicated, together with the Roll of Honour, on Sunday June 26, 1921. The subject of the window, the flags and emblems in the tracery, and the picture of Beeley church in the background, was the suggestion of Mrs Chadwick, wife of the vicar, and was carried out by Messrs. Heaton, Butler & Bayne of London.

The Churchyard     

With the exception of five stones in the angle formed by the north wall of the tower and the west wall of the aisle, which were originally in the church, the oldest are those on the south side of the church, near the chancel door. Only two are from prior to 1700, viz. William Norman, who died in 1670, and Mary Norman, who died in 1687. The next oldest is “O.H.”, Olindor Holmes, date 1730.

Another stone refers to a most pathetic incident. It is to the memory of “Mary Woodson, who departed this life January ye 8th, 1785, age 27”. It is said that she died suddenly on her way to church to be married. There is a long epitaph on the stone, giving credence to the tradition.    

Church bells are seldom dated. The maker had his special mark which was moulded in the bells. The age of some bells can be ascertained only by the style of the inscription letters. The three bells in the tower appear to have been cast in the reign of Elizabeth I. It is difficult to realise that they are so ancient, and that they have been summoning the people of Beeley to worship for some 400 years.

They bear the following inscriptions: i) “God save the Church” in Lombardic capitals; ii) no inscription, but, amongst other effects, the maker’s mark of George Heathcote, bell-founder, of Chesterfield, who died in 1558; iii) “Ste Georgi O.P.N.” (Sancti Georgi, ora pro nobis) – the founder’s mark is as on the second bell;   

Originally of C12 & C13, its restoration of 1882-4 was by H Cockbain. Coursed squared gritstone with gritstone dressings and quoins. Lead and Welsh slate roofs, hidden behind plain parapets with moulded copings. Chamfered plinth. West tower, nave with north aisle and south porch, chancel with north vestry. C13 west tower of two unequal stages. Diagonal buttresses to west. Single light depressed ogee headed bell-openings in each direction. To the west a pilaster buttress. Moulded battlements and four crocketed pinnacles. C19 gabled south porch with neo-Norman moulded round-arched doorway with colonnettes and carved capitals. The south side of the nave has two C19 3-light windows with reticulated tracery. Hoodmoulds on head stops. Two buttresses, continuous moulded sill bands. The south side of the chancel has a plainly chamfered priests’ doorway. To the left, a 2-light flat arched window with triangular headed subcusped lights. To the right, a 3-light C19 window with cusped intersecting tracery. Hoodmould with head stops. 3-light east window with bar tracery. The north side of the chancel has one ogee headed cusped lancet. North aisle and vestry in one of 1882-4. West and east windows and four north windows, all of 3-lights with reticulated tracery, under segmental pointed heads. Continuous sill and hoodmould, the latter stepped up over the windows. Buttresses between each window, have two set-offs. Ashlar chimney at the north-east corner. Interior: Plain C12 south doorway with scallop capitals on C19 polished stone columns. Segmental inner arch and C19 plank door. Three bay north arcade with octagonal piers, moulded capitals and double chamfered arches with hoodmould. Similar C19 tower arch, the hoodmould with elaborate carved stops with narrative biblical scenes. Similar chancel arch. Monuments. Brass to John Calvert +1710, a recumbent figure in a shroud. Large aedicule to George and John Savile +1733 and 1734. C19 stone and marble reredos and dado to east wall with inset needlework panels. C19 piscina of sub-cusped round arch on colonnettes. C19 altar with painted gothic panels. C19 gothic choir stalls, built in stone pulpit and tub font. Stained glass, World War I memorial window in the north aisle, by Heaton, Butler & Bayne.