Church and graveyard in Swadlincote come up at auction

The congregation has left the building as it became too costly to maintain

A town centre church, complete with a graveyard, and its former school room went under the hammer at auction but yielded very different results.

Swadlincote Methodist Church, in West Street, was set to be sold at auction on Wednesday, July 29, with guide price of £175,000.

However, despite the building coming with planning permission to convert it into eight flats and the nextdoor graveyard, it failed to sell.

There was better news for the adjoining school room which had a guide price of £140,000 and bettered that total to be sold for £143,000 at Bond Wolfe Auctions.

The original church is believed to have been a chapel built by the Wesleyan Methodists in 1816, which was subsequently enlarged around 1823, and further extended in 1837, then it was subsequently rebuilt in 1863.

Its congregation has now moved to the former Geia Fitness gym building in the town, having put the site up for auction in 2017 after it became too costly to maintain.

The site also includes a small burial ground which planners believe contains 16 or 17 gravestones with the number of burials to have taken place there thought to be much higher. The approved plans do not include removing or building over these grounds. Permission for this would have to be sought.

It was at least the third time the buildings have gone under the hammer.

Applicant, Paul Thomas, for SG Design Studio, said in a report that the redevelopment of the site would enhance the town centre and boost the economy and help maintain the town from becoming a ghost town at night.

There is no parking but the report to the council said there were free 24-hour car parks nearby.