History

A chantry Chapel was located in the centre of the village from around 1175AD. This was most likely served by the monks of nearby Beauchief Abbey. Cox, the authority on Derbyshire churches says, "the Chapel at Dore is a very ancient and low mean building with a rotten roof". A new church was consecrated on August 22nd 1829 by the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in whose diocese it then lay. The church was designed by the architect and schoolmaster Richard Furniss. Dore Chapel was at first a chapel-of-ease to Dronfield. The first incumbent, Richard Martin, was appointed in 1843 and the church became a parish church in its own right in 1844. The request to become a separate parish was submitted by the Vicar of Dronfield, the curate of Dore and five leading landowners, one of whom was John Gray Waterfall of Totley. The patron of the living was Earl Fitzwilliam and land was given by the Lord of the Manor, the Duke of Devonshire. The Vicarage, now a private house was built in 1840. The first burial took place in 1829. Also in the graveyard can be seen 6 low headstones marked 'SP full up'. These contain the bodies of those who died of smallpox during the construction of the Totley Tunnel in 1894.