St. John's Church peeps out from amongst the trees on the hillside above the row of cottages and houses in Matlock Dale on the two sepia images below. The top postcard is the later of the two as an extra terrace of houses, Charnwood Terrace, had been built in the row below the church. It appears to be a very quiet and secluded spot.

However, in early 1912 some of the people who lived in the Common Wood cottages had a narrow escape when there was quite a serious landslip at about 6 o'clock in the morning^[1]. The Derby paper reported that the affected area of the Dale "is situated well above the main roadway. ... Four villa residences stand perched on the hillside below the [church] and it was the embankment above the houses [that] gave way", with the damage extending to about 20 feet in length. "Tons of masonry crashed into the rear of the houses occupied by Messrs. Frank Buckley and G. T. Smith and other parts of the embankment were pushed out of position".

It was still dark when the landslip occurred and George Talbot Smith, a book keeper working for a Matlock ironmonger, had been asleep. He heard a terrific crash, found a light and went downstairs to discover two large pieces of rock in his kitchen and the back door on the table. His neighbour, Frank Buckley, was just going to work; if he'd left by the back door a minute earlier he might have been crushed to death. "Mr. Ernest Taylor, the owner of the houses, said the accident was partly due to wet weather and partly due to some heavy traffic on the Dale Church road above the embankment".

Enlargement of part of the second image, showing the houses of Common Wood.

This final postcard, published by Samuel and Lucy Brown of Dale Crescent, was sent to Miss A E Pidcock c/o Mrs. Wildgoose, Oldham House Hydro. "Dear Agnes, Come down at eight. Shall be at work till then Yours sincerely Fred". The young man was Frederick Lewis, whom Agnes later married. He became a casualty in World War One.

Over the years the chapel in the woods became a little neglected and was also vandalised. In 1993 much needed work, costing about £10,000, was carried out to restore a building that was nearly 100 years old. This was made possible because of grants from English Heritage, the County Council and Derbyshire Dales District Council. The original endowment left by Mrs. Harris was by this time insufficient to meet the costs of what needed to be done^[2]. The building had to be made watertight, which involved removing the stone roof to repair the timbers underneath^[3].

References:

^[1] "Derby Daily Telegraph, 18 January 1912. An early morning sensation. Narrow Escape.

^[2] "Matlock Mercury,, 22 July 1994. Woodland Chapel's future secured.

^[3] "Matlock Mercury,, 15 October 1993.