Matlock Bath chapel is a jewel-box in a sylvan setting… with a mystery.
A 1901 article on the chapel in The Builders’ Journal described a painted altarpiece by John Cooke. But there’s no altarpiece there today. Where did it go? And while we're at it, who was John Cooke?
#thread
A 1901 article on the chapel in The Builders’ Journal described a painted altarpiece by John Cooke. But there’s no altarpiece there today. Where did it go? And while we're at it, who was John Cooke?
#thread
For a long time, it was believed that the artist at Matlock was distinguished painter, John Percy Cooke. But recent research has revealed that there were more Cookes in town…
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The 1901 census lists a John Cooke (artist-painter, aged 35) living at Temperance Hotel, just down the road from the chapel.
But further digging revealed a family of Cookes, all decorators, painters, carpenters, living three miles away. We reckon they must be our Cookes.
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But further digging revealed a family of Cookes, all decorators, painters, carpenters, living three miles away. We reckon they must be our Cookes.
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But then, what about that reredos? It’s not there now. Was it ever? Where and when did it go?
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A chance scrap of information survives to tell us that, in 1929 the church was closed on Sundays December 1st and 8th for Painting and Re-decoration under the Direction of Mr E Guy Dawber ARA, Architect of the Church.
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Is it then possible that this reredos, more Art Deco than Arts & Crafts, dates to this period – the 1920s, rather than the 1890s?
Dr Alec Hamilton investigates this murky Matlock mystery in our latest blog: friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk/who-was-john-c…
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Dr Alec Hamilton investigates this murky Matlock mystery in our latest blog: friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk/who-was-john-c…
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