The care of an architecturally listed church requires commitment, expertise and deep pockets. In return, parishioners forge a deep bond of affection with their place of worship

In the guise of an Etruscan temple, All Saints in the village of Hassop near the heart of the Derbyshire Peak District, stands amid rolling hills, grazing sheep and flowing streams. The church belongs to the era of picturesque vistas and reverence for the architecture of classical antiquity.

The builder was Francis Eyre, who belonged to a local family which was staunchly Catholic through penal times, at one time losing their family seat, Hassop Hall, and having to buy it back. In 1818, Francis paid for the building of this extraordinary chapel for local Catholics on a hillside just outside the gates. His instruction to the architect, Joseph Ireland, was to model the building on St Paul’s, Covent Garden, designed by Inigo Jones.

Stone was quarried 14 miles away and brought by cart drawn by three sturdy horses, two of which wore themselves out and had to be replaced. We know this because of the detailed accounts kept by J.J. Scoles, Ireland’s young apprentice. Scoles served as clerk of works, and lived at Hassop Hall while All Saints was being built. He went on to become one of the most distinguished Catholic architects of the nineteenth century, with the Jesuits’ church at Farm Street, Mayfair, among the spectacular churches to his name.