A functional dual-purpose church and hall, built to serve a new post-war suburb from designs by Reynolds & Scott, the most prolific Catholic church architects of the post-war period.

The population of Sheffield grew rapidly after the Second World War. In response to an urgent need for new housing the local authority initiated a major programme of housebuilding in the 1950s, of which the new suburbs of Gleadless and Hackenthorpe are examples. To serve Catholics in these estates, Our Lady of Lourdes in Hackenthorpe (qv) opened in 1957 and St Anthony opened as a chapel-of-ease in 1963.

St Anthony’s was built as a multipurpose church and hall, pending a time when a parish might be erected and a permanent church, school and presbytery built. The building was designed by Reynolds & Scott to seat 320, at a cost of approximately £20,000. The church remains a chapel-of-ease, since 2011 again served from Hackenthorpe, and the land intended for a permanent church, school and presbytery has been sold for housing.

In 1985 the central north porch was converted into a meeting room and a new porch was built to the northeast corner. The works were undertaken by Patrick Cassidy.

Description

For the purposes of this report conventional liturgical orientation will be used.

A dual-purpose church and hall of 1963 by Reynolds & Scott. The church is built using portal frames of laminated timber. The external walls are faced with golden brown brick laid in stretcher bond, while the east elevation is differentiated by a facing of buff square and snecked rubble. The pitched roof is covered with copper sheeting. The longitudinally planned church-hall comprises a flat-roofed projecting extension to the west (formerly the narthex) which contains ancillary facilities, a lean-to porch with tiled roof to the northwest corner that leads into a four-bay nave and sanctuary, with sacristies either side. The fenestration consists of three rectangular three-light windows under the eaves on the north side. The south side has three large timber windows stretching almost from floor to eaves. The east gable end has two four-light windows flanking a central panel and the west gable end has a six-light window, similar to the south side; all windows have a vertical emphasis.

The interior bay divisions of the nave are marked by the laminated timber frame. The walls are plastered and the ceiling is panelled, with pendant drop lights. The sanctuary is raised by two steps and has timber furnishings; it can be separated from the nave/hall by a folding screen. Chairs provide flexible seating in the nave.

Heritage Details