A plain, brick church with a portal frame, built to serve a post-war housing estate. 

The population of Thrybergh grew as a result of the opening of Silverwood Colliery, originally known as Dalton Main Colliery, between Thrybergh and Ravenfield. A Mass centre was opened in 1910 from St Bede’s in a mission room in Dalton Brook. The following year a parish was formed. Land was acquired at Park Nook, where the present church stands. Originally a wooden hut was built and Mass was said here until St Gerard’s School was built in 1928, when the school hall was used as a chapel. Housing expansion continued after the Second World War. The wooden hut which by this time was used as a Catholic Social Club was destroyed by a fire in 1947. The present church was opened in 1950. It was consecrated on 15 October (the feast of St Gerard) 1983 by Bishop Moverley of Hallam.

Description

For the purposes of this report liturgical orientation will be used i.e. the sanctuary referred to as the east end.

The church opened in 1950. It is a functional design with a concrete portal frame, clad in brown brick laid in stretcher bond and with a pitched roof covered in corrugated sheeting. The church forms a T-plan comprising porch, narthex with gallery over, aisleless nave, sanctuary, confessional and sacristy. The west porch has a pantiled roof and painted brick work and incorporates a statue of Saint Gerard. The side and east elevations contain rectangular-headed lancet windows. Towards the east end, catslide roofs sweep down to cover the sacristy to the north and confessional to the south.

Inside, the narthex/former baptistery area now houses an office and WC. In the nave, the bay divisions are marked by the exposed concrete portal frames. The walls are plastered and painted, the floor carpeted, and the canted ceiling plain and plastered. The nave windows have small panels of coloured glass. The west wall has vertical tongue and groove boarding to door height. The sanctuary is narrower and lower than the nave and is raised by three steps, with a timber altar rail. The tabernacle is placed on the east wall above a plain marble reredos and beneath a crucifix and canopy. The forward altar is of brick columns with a marble mensa. On either side of the sanctuary arch are shrines to Our Lady and the Sacred Heart, and a font to the north. The pews are of pine and the Stations of the Cross are in high relief, made from brass.

Heritage Details