The cathedral church of the Diocese of Hallam, and the finest Gothic Revival church in the City of Sheffield. The church was opened in 1850, year of the restoration of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales. Designed by M. E. Hadfield of the local firm of Weightman & Hadfield, it is a fine essay in the approved (by Pugin and the ecclesiologists) ‘Middle Pointed’ style, a stately composition whose chief glory externally is the slender stone spire rising from a square tower at the southwest corner. The church was built with support from the Duke of Norfolk and his family and despite some loss of historic furnishings (notably in a reordering of the early 1970s) represents something of a roll call of major Catholic ecclesiastical designers of the nineteenth century – including A. W. Pugin, Hardman & Co., William Wailes, Boulton of Cheltenham, Mayer of Munich and J. F. Bentley. The church was raised to cathedral status in 1980, a development commemorated with fine stained glass by Patrick Reyntiens, and in 2012 was sympathetically reordered. With the early twentieth century Cathedral House it makes a notable positive contribution to the City Centre Conservation Area. 

In the eighteenth century Sheffield Catholics attended Mass in an attic chapel at The Lord’s House in Fargate, on the corner of Norfolk Row. This had been built in 1712 by the Duke of Norfolk and was occupied by his agent. In 1814 local Catholics acquired the house, demolished it and built a separate chapel capable of holding 300 in the back garden (between the present Cathedral’s Mortuary Chapel and Blessed Sacrament Chapel). Possibly dedicated to St Peter, this earlier chapel was opened in 1816 and enlarged in 1838.

In 1843, the Rev. Charles Pratt was appointed to the mission. He was imbued with the principles of the Gothic Revival as espoused by A. W. Pugin, and attempted to confer a more ecclesiologically correct character on the late Georgian chapel. He installed a screen and seating for surpliced choirs, and commissioned a font and statue of Our Lady from the workshop of George Myers, Pugin’s favourite builder (both items were later removed to the present church). These were but temporary improvements pending the building of a larger and more worthy Gothic church. For this Fr Pratt acquired additional land to the west of the chapel and obtained designs from the local architect Matthew Ellison Hadfield, the young partner of J. G. Weightman and a member of the congregation. The two men travelled together in the East Midlands and the East Riding of Yorkshire looking at fourteenth century churches which might serve as appropriate models. Hadfield’s eventual design was in the approved (by Pugin and the ecclesiologists) ‘Middle Pointed’ style, influenced above all by the church of St Andrew in Heckington, Lincolnshire.

The foundation stone for the new church was laid by Bishop Briggs, Vicar Apostolic, on the Feast of the Annunciation (25 March), 1847. The principal contractors were Thomas Hayball (timberwork) and Benjamin Gregory (stonemason), both of Sheffield.

The old chapel was demolished, and while the new church was being built, the Mount Tabor Methodist Chapel at the corner of Rockingham Street and Wellington Street, newly dedicated to St John the Baptist, was used by the congregation. The new church would be dedicated to St Marie, the Frenchifying (medievalising?) of St Mary being a favourite conceit of Pugin and his followers. Fr Pratt died aged just 38 in 1849, before the church was completed, and was buried at St Bede, Rotherham; however, shortly afterwards he was reinterred near the high altar at St Marie’s, beneath a monument designed by Thomas Earp.

The high altar was consecrated and the first Mass said by Bishop Briggs on 10 September 1850, and the church was publicly and solemnly dedicated on the following day. It was built and furnished with the support of the family of the Duke of Norfolk as well as by members of the congregation, and cost £10,562 12s 2d. It is a fine example of Puginian Gothic Revival architecture, containing a reredos designed by A. W. Pugin and made at Myers’ workshop by Theodore Phyffers, and original stained glass by William Wailes (including the east window, designed by George Goldie) and Hardman & Co. (west window, designed by A. W. Pugin). Floor tiles in the chancel, Norfolk Chantry and Blessed Sacrament Chapel were designed and supplied by Minton & Co., the woodwork by Thomas Hayball (carpentry) and his son Arthur (carving, including the rood figures). In keeping with Puginian best practice, a rood screen enclosed the entrance to the sanctuary.

The main developments between 1850 and 1980 were as follows:

• In 1850 an Angelus bell was cast by Mears & Stainbank.
• In 1860 or 1861 a west gallery was added, and the J. C. Bishop organ of c. 1838, which had come from the old church and had been originally placed in the south transept gallery, was moved here.
• In 1867, the shrine of Our Lady in the north transept was dedicated. It incorporated a statue of c. 1850 by Johann Petz and thirteenth century Frosterley marble colonettes said to have come from Durham Cathedral. The ensemble was carved by Boulton of Cheltenham from designs by M. E. Hadfield & Son. The retable painted with four saints was by Westlake. New Stations of the Cross in oak frames were also installed, and the organ was moved from the west gallery to the north side of the chancel, where it was repaired and adapted.
• Also in 1867, the choir relocated from the gallery to its original position in stalls in the chancel.
• In 1872, the altar of the Norfolk chantry was added, from designs by Charles Hadfield, the carved work by Thomas Earp and Theodore Phyffers, the glass by Lavers, Barraud & Westlake. The Bishop organ was sold at this time.
• In 1873, the west window openings of the transepts were formed, with clear gazing, that in the north transept with an unglazed opening at the base (builder John Pearson, working under the supervision of the Hadfield firm, at the expense of the Duke of Norfolk).
• In 1874 a new organ donated by the Duke of Norfolk, built by Thomas Lewis of London and with a case designed by J. F. Bentley was installed in the chancel. Bentley (architect of Westminster Cathedral) was from Doncaster, and was a close friend of Charles Hadfield. In the same year, eight bronze bells by Mears & Stainbank of London were installed in the tower, replacing steel bells cast by Naylor Vickers & Co. which had been loaned to the church in 1861. A shrine was also erected to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour at the west end of the Mortuary Chapel.
• In 1877 the Sacred Heart shrine was added in the north transept, again by Boulton of Cheltenham to a design by C. Hadfield, with painted panels of saints by Nathaniel Westlake.
• In 1878-9, the Lady Chapel was formed from designs by C. Hadfield. This was an adaptation of the south transept gallery, reached by stairs from the south transept and with a rib vaulted octagon over the altar. At the same time the sacristies were extended along Norfolk Row, with a relief of the Annunciation by Earp over the door near the corner with Norfolk Street.
• In 1886 encaustic memorial tiles to deceased clergy were installed in the Mortuary Chapel, the first of several similar schemes in the church for which the dates/maker have not been established.
• In 1889, additional clerestory windows were formed, three on the north side and four on the south (architect Charles Hadfield, builder George Webster). These are distinguishable from the originals by their quatrefoil tracery. On 1 June of the same year the church was consecrated, the debt having been paid off.
• In 1891 a nave pulpit was installed, from designs by Arthur Hayball (completed by his daughter Clara after Arthur’s death in 1887).
• In 1898 Fr (Canon) Oswald Dolan took over the mission; he was to remain until his death in 1935, after which a window was installed to his memory in the baptistery.
• Until the end of the nineteenth century, priests of the St Marie’s mission had occupied a house on the corner of Norfolk Row and Norfolk Street. In 1903-4 a purpose-built rectory (now Cathedral House) was built from designs by C. and C. M. Hadfield.
• In 1921 a new war memorial high altar by Hardman and Pippet replaced the original Pugin altar, and was placed in front of the Pugin/Phyffers reredos. Also a bronze war memorial plaque by Walker & Hall was installed in the baptistery, recording men of the parish killed in the war.
• In 1924 the top third of the spire was rebuilt, topped by a new stainless steel cross. According to some sources, the upper half of the spire had to be rebuilt again in 1935, when the bells were restored and rehung in a steel frame.
• In 1937, a window appears to have been inserted in the west wall of the baptistery (not original, it is apparent in an aerial photograph of 1935, information from Paul Walker).
• During the Second World War a bomb blew out two stained glass windows in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and damaged the organ. The remaining stained glass was removed and stored in a mineshaft at Nunnery Colliery until reinstated in 1947.
• In 1956-7 terrazzo floors were installed in the nave and porch, and the communion rails were replaced in cast terrazzo, by Hodkin & Jones of Sheffield. A glazed timber draught lobby was placed at the inner south door (moved to the west door in 1971-2 and removed altogether in 2012). New benches replaced the original pews.
• After the Second Vatican Council a temporary forward altar was placed outside the rood screen and altar rails. In 1970, the first major reordering for the reformed liturgy began, under J. J. Frame of Cowfold, Sussex (who had reordered the cathedral at Gibraltar). The 1921 altar, the 1869 choir stalls, 1957 communion rails and the 1850 rood screen were all removed. Arthur Hayball’s nave pulpit was dismantled and the parts used to make a lectern and portable font, while a celebrant’s chair (from 1980 the bishop’s throne or Cathedra) was improvised from choir stall ends. Fr Pratt’s tomb effigy was moved to the Mortuary Chapel, where seven medieval alabasters had been placed for safe-keeping (these were removed, sent for auction and stored when returned unsold; following conservation they will form part of the cathedral’s heritage display). The sanctuary levels were altered and repaved with polished marble, and a forward altar was introduced. New lighting and benches were installed. Redecoration included the colouring of the carved capitals of the nave and the recolouring of the heraldic shields of SS More, Fisher and Howard on the nave ceiling. In 1972 the new altar was consecrated by Bishop Moverley, auxiliary Bishop of Leeds.
• In 1973, the soot-laden exterior of the church was cleaned by sandblasting.

On 30 May 1980, the new diocese of Hallam was created and St Marie’s became the Cathedral Church. Bishop Moverley was installed as the first bishop and served until 1996. In 1997, the Rt Rev. John Rawsthorne was installed as the second bishop, and in 2014 the Rt Rev. Ralph Heskett CSsR became the third Bishop of Hallam.

Changes since the church was raised to cathedral status have been:

• In 1982 a window designed by Patrick Reyntiens commemorating the new diocese was installed in the south transept, depicting Our Lady flanked by the Padley martyrs, Nicholas Garlick and Robert Ludlum.
• In 1988, two windows by Goddard & Gibbs were installed in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, replacing those blown out in 1940.
• In 1989, at the time of the centenary of the consecration, the 1846 font was moved from the baptistery to the north transept. Timber confessionals were removed and the baptistery was converted to two reconciliation rooms. Some baptistery railings were moved to the sanctuary (from where railings had been removed to make way for the organ in 1875; they were moved again from here in 2012). John Rochford & Partners were the architects for this work.
• In 1992, a cellar beneath the cathedral was converted to a burial vault under the direction of Vincente Stienlet, with ironwork by Giuseppe Lund and mosaic and crucifix by Fenwick Lawson. This is the burial place of Bishop Moverley.
• In 1995, the church was re-roofed and other repairs carried out, with English Heritage grant aid (architects John Rochford & Partners).
• In 1997, railings designed by Maria Hanson were installed along Norfolk Row as part of a city centre enhancement scheme.
• In 2000, a glass door was placed in the south porch and the nave, and the transepts and aisles were redecorated, with painted votive legends to local martyrs.
• In 2008, a WC block was added on the north side (architect Nicholas Rank of Buttress Fuller Allsop Williams)
• In 2012, Buttress Fuller Allsop Williams undertook a major further reordering. The sanctuary was further extended and the levels altered. The 1972 sanctuary furnishings were removed, and a new altar, ambo and cathedra designed. The nave was repaved in sandstone with slate inlay, incorporating underfloor heating, and the 1950s nave benches replaced with ones supplied by a Polish contractor (who also supplied the material for new confessionals and the limestone for the liturgical furnishings). The 1846 font was moved to the sacristy corridor and a new font provided at the west end with a mosaic apron by Tessa Hunkin. Nearby, freestanding reconciliation rooms were added. The memorial to Fr Pratt was restored and returned to its original (1850) position in the sanctuary. The church was redecorated, with additional votive legends, and at the west end a former alleyway was covered with a glass roof to create an accessible new entrance.

• In 2014 the Heritage Lottery Fund offered a grant for the overhaul of the Lewis/Bentley organ, work which was in progress at the time of the visit (March 2015).

Description

The architecture of the building is described fully in the list entry (below), and repetition is unnecessary. However, the chief furnishings are described in less detail, and the cathedral has undergone a major reordering since the list entry was revised in 1995. The following is an account of the chief furnishings:

• West window, 1850, designed by A. W. Pugin and made by Hardman & Co., with scenes from the life of Christ and Old Testament prefigurations.
• Stone font (2012), with mosaic apron on floor by Tessa Hunkin. At the time of writing, the 1846 octagonal stone font is housed in a corridor off the south transept, which is being developed as a heritage display area.
• The former baptistery (with war memorial) is now a shop. Glass of c.1924 (Baptism of Our Lord, maker not established) and 1937, by Hardman & Co.
• (St John Baptiste de la Salle, St Oswald and St Theresa of Lisieux, to the memory of Canon Dolan, died 1935).
• South aisle, with windows by William Wailes, 1850 (St William of York, symbols of priesthood, St Edward the Confessor, St Hilda of Whitby) and Hardman & Co., post-1859 (Our Lady of Sorrows, St Teresa and St Helen).
• South transept, with glass of 1850 by Wailes (St Teresa of Avila, St Anne, St Joachim and St Joseph) and 1982 by Patrick Reyntiens (Our Lady, Blessed Robert Ludlum and Nicholas Garlick), commemorating the establishment of the Diocese of Hallam.
• Munster (Lady) Chapel, now used by the Polish community, formed in 1878-9 and reached by a winding stone stair from the south transept with windows made by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake from designs by J. F. Bentley c.1884 (Annunciation and St Joseph). Rib vaulted octagon built over the altar and other stonework carved by Thomas Earp. Architects Hadfield & Son, builder John Pearson, Sicilian marble altar by Boulton, stained glass (Coronation of the Virgin, attendant angels) by Hardman & Co.
• Norfolk Chantry, now St Joseph’s Chapel, 1872, by Charles Hadfield, the carved Caen stone reredos by Thomas Earp, the relievo of the death of St Joseph by Theodore Phyffers, the stained glass (Immaculate Conception and Sacred Heart) by Lavers, Barraud & Westlake. Wall tiles depict female saints and recall the Sisters of Notre Dame (date and maker not established). Also statues of female saints. The Minton floor tiles depict emblems of the Duke of Norfolk.
• Stone ambo (2012) inscribed with the opening words of St John’s Gospel.
• Stone altar (2012) carved with the Pious Pelican. Above this is suspended the rood, 1850, decorated by Henry Taylor Bulmer, with figures by Arthur Hayball.
• Stone Cathedra (2012). Above this, painted and gilded arch braced hammerbeam roof with angels carved by Arthur Hayball.
• Stone reredos, 1850, designed by A. W. Pugin and carved by Theodore Phyffers.
• East window, 1850, designed by George Goldie (apprenticed in the office of Weightman & Hadfield) and made by William Wailes, depicting eighteen scenes from the life of the Virgin, with donors Matthew and Sarah Hadfield at Our Lady’s feet.
• Original clergy seating, based on the sedilia at St Andrew, Heckington. This and most of the enriched carved stonework here by Charles James.
• Effigy of Fr Charles Pratt, builder of the church, 1850 by Thomas Earp, the priest holding a model of the church.
• Organ, 1875, built by Thomas Lewis with a case designed by J. F. Bentley and carved in Austrian oak by J. E. Knox.
• Blessed Sacrament Chapel, with a window of 1850 by Wailes over the altar (Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament) and two windows of 1988 by Goddard & Gibbs depicting the Sacraments of Confirmation and Baptism (remnants of earlier glass in tracery at head of both windows).
• North transept, containing the shrine to Our Lady (1867-1874), incorporating a statue of c. 1850 by Johann Petz of Munich, and thirteenth century marble colonettes said to have come from Durham Cathedral, the ensemble carved by Boulton of Cheltenham from designs by M. E. Hadfield & Son, with an oak canopy of 1872 incorporating paintings by Nathaniel Westlake. Also the Sacred Heart shrine (1877), by Boulton to a design by C. Hadfield, with painted panels of saints by Westlake. Stained glass of 1862 by Hardman & Co. (St Thomas Villanova, St Michael, St Elizabeth of Hungary and St Mary Magdalene). Also in the north transept, a memorial to M. E. Hadfield (died 1887), architect of the church, by Charles Hadfield, with an alabaster pieta carved by Frank Tory, the design from a cast supplied to Matthew Hadfield by Pugin. In the floor of the transept is a glass panel giving light to the 1992 crypt chapel.
• Mortuary Chapel, with wall tiles of 1886 to deceased clergy, maker not established. Three windows of 1850 by Wailes (St Elizabeth of Hungary and St Mary Magdalene, St Michael the Archangel, St Elizabeth and St John the Baptist).  Also a small shrine to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour (1875), a painted copy of the famous icon at Sant’ Alfonso di Liguori all’ Esquillino, the mother church of the Redemptorists in Rome.

List descriptions

Cathedral

GV II*

Cathedral church and attached parish room. 1846-50. By Weightman & Hadfield. Munster Lady Chapel 1878-79 by ME Hadfield & Son. Ashlar and coursed squared stone, with ashlar dressings and steep pitched slate and lead roofs. Gothic Revival style. PLAN: cruciform plan with chancel with side chapels, lady chapel, parish room, transepts, nave with clerestory, aisles with south porch and north side chapel, south-west tower with spire. EXTERIOR: plinth, sillband, string courses, coped parapets and gables with crosses. Windows have hoodmoulds. Chancel east gable has angle buttresses and a 7-light pointed arch window with flowing tracery, hoodmould and mask stops. South side has a 3-light window with Kentish tracery and similar hoodmould. South-east chapel has a 2-light pointed arch window to east and a similar 3-light window in the south gable. Below it, a transomed 2-light window with blind tracery and flat head. To left, a canted projection with string courses and 3 lancets. To right, a single-storey square porch with chamfered pointed doorway and steps to west, and a 2-light window to south. At the south-east corner, an octagonal stair tower, 3 stages, topped with a leaded spire. Three 2-light pointed arch windows to the top stage. To right, single-storey parish room with parapet. To left, a 3-light window and to right, five 2-light windows, all with flat heads. Below these, 2 small mullioned openings. To right, a 2-storey canted porch with parapet, crenellated octagonal stair turret, and large clustered side wall stack with 3 flues. To west, a chamfered square headed double doorway and above it, a double niche with figures, with nodding ogee canopies and crocketed gables. On each side, a crocketed gable, and below, 2 shields. Right return has a small 2-light flat-headed window, and below, 2 flat-headed single light windows. North-east chapel has to north two 2-light pointed arch windows. Transepts have gables with angle buttresses and 4-light pointed arch windows. South transept has a 3-light pointed arch window to west. Nave clerestory has on each side a 2-light and seven 3-light pointed arch windows with linked hoodmoulds. West end has a 4-light pointed arch window with a trefoil above it, and below, a central moulded doorway with hoodmould. South aisle has buttresses and to left of the porch a 2-light pointed arch window, and to its right, 2 similar windows. Right buttress has a niche with figure. South porch has crocketed angle buttresses and coped gable with moulded doorway with triple shafts and hoodmould. On each side, a trefoil window. North aisle has a moulded doorway with single shafts and above it, a 3-light pointed arch window with central canopied niche. Both have hoodmoulds. On either side, a 3-light pointed arch window, and in the west end a similar window. North side chapel has 2 single lancets to north and a 2-light pointed arch window in the west end. South-west tower, 3 stages, has gabled 2 stage clasping buttresses topped with crocketed spires. To west, the lower parts of the buttresses have figure niches. First stage has to south and west, a 3-light pointed arch window. Second stage has a niche with figure to south and a similar window to west. Bell stage has a 2-light pointed arch bell opening on each side. Set back octagonal spire is linked by flying buttresses to the tower pinnacles. 3 tiers of lucarnes with crocketed gables.

INTERIOR: chancel has arch braced hammer beam roof with ogee wind braces and traceried spandrels, all painted and gilt. Double coved arch with hoodmould and angel stops and clustered triple shafts. East end has roll moulded window surround. South side has to east a doorway and a 4-seat sedilia with crocketed gables. To west, a moulded arch with a 6 bay Decorated stone screen with Latin inscription and wall painting on the chapel side. North side has west arch with organ and east arch with wrought-iron screen. South chancel chapel has Decorated style traceried stone screen to west, and elaborate reredos and 2 stained glass windows to east, flanked to right by a piscina. South side has an Early English style blind arcade with figures of saints. Lady chapel has screen wall with Decorated style balustrade and moulded pointed doorway flanked by single windows. The octagonal turret has blind arcaded lower level and stone winder stair leading to shrine with moulded pointed arches and 2 round piers, framing a central large standing figure. North-east chapel has coffered panelled wooden vault and wrought-iron screen and gates. Stained glass windows, C19 and C20, to north and east, and traceried aumbry to east. Transepts have common rafter roofs with collars. South transept has 2 arches to east, into adjoining chapels. North transept has to east a single arch into the east chapel, and 2 shrines with gilt figures. Nave has a 5 bay arcade to south and a 6 bay arcade to north, with clustered quatrefoil piers, double chamfered arches and linked hoodmoulds. Arch braced panelled wagon roof. West end has a stained glass window. South-west bay has a stilted segmental arch to the tower chamber. South aisle has strutted lean-to roof and mid and late C19 stained glass windows. Moulded doorway with stoup. North aisle has similar roof and segmental pointed doorway with niche and figure above it, flanked by stained glass windows. Moulded east arch to transept. North side chapel has arch braced lean-to roof with wall shafts and traceried east opening into transept. Glazed tile dado with memorials to priests. Rib vaulted tower chamber has moulded arches and is fitted with late C20 confessionals.

STAINED GLASS: nave and south transept west windows designed by Pugin. East window by G Goldie. South transept south window by Wailes. FITTINGS include chancel reredos designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, 1850, organ case, 1875, by J F Bentley, and C19 traceried pulpit. Other fittings C20. MEMORIALS include shrine with alabaster figure, 1850, by Thomas Earp to Fr Charles Pratt. Gothic wall tablet with relief figures, 1885, to Matthew Hadfield, architect. Ashlar table tomb with effigy below it, 1849.

(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Yorkshire: The West Riding: London: 1967-: 451-452). Listing NGR: SK3547487293

Cathedral House

GV II

Presbytery to Cathedral Church of St Marie (qv). Dated 1903. Red brick with ashlar dressings and steep pitched Westmorland slate roofs. 2 gable and 2 side wall brick stacks with stone bands and multiple flues. Eclectic Gothic Revival style. EXTERIOR: plinth, sillbands, coped and crenellated parapets. 3 storeys; 3:1 window range. Norfolk Street front has canted 2 storey oriel window with parapet. Central niche with figure, flanked by single shouldered window. Beyond, on either side, a single sash with glazing bars and hoodmould. Above, similar fenestration, the oriel window having a central blank. Below, central moulded pointed arched doorway with nodding gabled canopy and door with ogee headed fanlight. On either side, 2 small glazing bar sashes with hoods cut in the lintels. To left, a single storey range with 3 flat-headed cusped single lancets. To right, a gable set at an angle with a 2 storey canted bay window with 4 shouldered glazing bar sashes above and 4 plain sashes below under gabled hoodmoulds. Above, a triple glazing bar sash flanked by pilasters which run up into the diaper-work gable peak and are topped with traceried gables. Right return has to left, a 2 storied canted wooden oriel window with triple glazing bar sashes, flanked by single glazing bar sashes on each floor, the upper ones in flat topped through-eaves dormers. Below, 3 similar windows. All these windows have surrounds with pointed heads. To right, a further range, 3 windows, with 2 gabled through-eaves dormers. Rear has a parapeted semicircular stair turret with a 4-light cross mullioned window. INTERIOR not inspected. Listing NGR: SK3551187290

Last amended: 16.01.2018.

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Markham Main Colliery opened at Armthorpe at the beginning of the twentieth century, and a number of housing developments followed in the 1920s and 1930s. With an increasing Catholic population in the area, a temporary wooden structure was built as part of Mere Lane School and was in use as a Mass centre from 1921-2, served by priests from St Peter, Doncaster. In 1929, a Motor Mission visited Armthorpe and began a fundraising campaign for a new church. The church of St Francis of Assisi was built in 1930, replacing the wooden structure, and in 1935 the parish of St Thomas of Canterbury (Armthorpe and Kirk Sandall) was erected.

In 1957 a parish reorganisation resulted in Armthorpe becoming the centre and St Thomas of Canterbury at Kirk Sandall a chapel-of-ease, a reversal of the previous arrangement. Construction of a permanent new church dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows and St Francis began on 1 May 1958 and the completed church was opened by the Bishop of Leeds on 14 March 1959. This was designed by Evan E. Morgan FRIBA of Park Row, Leeds and built by Messrs C. Earnshaw (Rotherham) Ltd; it seated 240 and the approximate cost was £18,500.

The present external appearance of the church is very little different from that of 1959. The original appearance of the interior – the high altar and its painted canopy, the panelled pulpit and communion rails – were all removed in post-Vatican II reordering. The present appearance is described below. The church was dedicated on 14 March 1984. The former church of St Francis, which became a parish hall after the church was built, was demolished in recent years.

Description

The church was built to the designs of Evan E. Morgan of Leeds in 1959. The external walls are faced with hand-made Leicestershire silver grey bricks, the roof is covered in copper and there are projecting artificial stone surrounds to the windows. The building is rectangular on plan, consisting of a small narthex with gallery over, nave, sanctuary, confessional and sacristy.

The west front has a recessed central bay with a six-light window with sections of cream coloured tiling above and a facing bronze cross; above this, a copper fleche surmounted by a cross. An entrance canopy supported by fluted bronze pillars encloses entrance doors of walnut and ebony with vert royal marble surrounds. The north and south sides have four large vertical windows and a high circular window before the entrance to the sanctuary. To the south is a small projection forming the Lady Chapel while to the north is a small block containing sacristies and linking the church to the presbytery.

The interior has plainly painted walls, a flat ceiling with acoustic tiles, carpeted circulation areas and African walnut parquet flooring beneath the oak pews. The west gallery is raised over a small entrance area or narthex and has a canted, timber-clad front; it is reached by a concrete spiral staircase. The sanctuary is of similar width to the gallery and is raised by three steps, with a forward stone altar and a further step to the tabernacle stand against the east wall. Dado panelling in the sanctuary includes a pair of raised segmental-headed panels, the backdrop for two shrines, with a central reredos in timber, painted burgundy and a modern catalogue carving of the Risen Christ. The nave is lit by four large tall windows of Flemish glass. There are two modern stained glass windows (artist/maker not established), one to the right of the sanctuary and another at the west end, with coloured hexagonal panels on a clear background.

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This parish contains Burghwallis Hall, a house of Tudor origins which was acquired by the Bishop of Leeds in 1941 and used as St Anne’s Convent until closure in 2014. This had been the home of the Catholic Anne family, amongst whose number is said to have been Blessed John Anne (or John Amias/Amyas), who became a secular priest and was hanged, drawn and quartered in 1589. Along with 135 other English martyrs, he was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929, no doubt explaining the dedication of the present church.

There is little documentary material available about the history of the parish. The church was built to serve the Catholic community in Askern, a small town straddling the A19 trunk road between Doncaster and Selby.  Askern had a small spa around the lake in the nineteenth century, which attracted tourists and visitors, but the village was transformed by coal mining after a pit was opened in 1911 above the west side of the village. In the late 1920s a Coalite plant was built on an adjoining site; both led to a rise in the population and new housing was built for mining families.  In the early twentieth century Catholics had to travel for Mass to other churches until 1929, when a chapel-of-ease was built, initially served from Woodlands (q.v.). This was dedicated to the Blessed English Martyrs. It was replaced by the present church, which opened in 1940, sited just below the colliery. Askern became an independent parish in 1953.

The church was reordered in 1970, when the altar was moved to the north wall, but this arrangement has recently been abandoned and the altar returned to the east end. The Coalite plant closed in 1986, and Askern Main closed in 1991.  Today the church is served from St Peter-in-Chains, Doncaster (q.v.).

Description

The church opened in 1940. It is built of red brick laid in stretcher bond, with a concrete tiled roof and aluminium rainwater goods. The two-storey building is built into the slope of a steep hill, with the church on the upper level accessed from the west, and a basement hall accessed from the east. The building is aligned with the sanctuary to the east, projecting confessional to the southeast, a porch and baptistery with hipped roof to the northwest, six-bay nave and a narrow gabled sanctuary. The windows to the basement are boarded for security and the basement side door has a steel shutter; the lower sections of the nave windows are blocked, with polycarbonate panels over the upper timber windows. These measures combine to give the church a closed, forbidding appearance. There are projecting panels of brickwork below each upper floor window. The porch has steel and timber double doors facing west and the west gable end of the church is blind with no details to identify the building as a church. There is a dedication panel on the side wall of the porch, inscribed 25 January 1940.

The interior of the church is plain, with plain plastered walls and ceiling and structural bays expressed by pilasters and segmental arched soffits to the ceiling beams (probably reinforced concrete). The floor is carpeted and seating is on plain pine benches. The sanctuary is lit from side windows, with plain timber fittings and carpeted floor. Within the porch is a modern octagonal timber font, and a large circular inlaid timber panel fitted on the east wall; the latter was used as a canopy over the altar in the 1970 reordering. The hall in the basement is plainly finished.

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In 1877 the mission of St Henry was founded at Derwent Hall, a property of the Howard family, in a chapel designed by M. E. Hadfield. In 1881-2 a similarly-designed school-chapel, also by Hadfield, was set up in Bamford by Henry Fitzalan Howard, the fifteenth Duke of Norfolk, and served by his chaplain from Derwent Hall.

In 1912 Bamford became a separate mission and a priest was established in the former schoolmistress’s house, attached to the chapel, which was adapted and extended.

Derwent Hall was submerged when Ladybower Reservoir was created in 1944. Today the church is served from Hathersage (q.v.), and the presbytery is let.

Description

See list entry, below, which describes the exterior only and omits mention of Hadfield as architect. The main entrance has the date 1881 over it, with the initials HN and FN, presumably referring to the Duke of Norfolk and his wife Flora. The interior of the church is a single undifferentiated volume, with a painted arched timber roof. The sacristy is in a short projecting wing, on the liturgical south side. The seating consists of wooden benches. A forward altar has panels painted with angels on a gold ground. A reredos with cresting has a relief scene showing the Deposition, and a Crucifix hangs in the notional chancel position. The reredos is said to be of Austrian provenance, and was brought to the church in 1961 from the Gee chapel at Radcliffe College, Leicester, where it had been erected as a memorial to Dr Gee, an honorary surgeon to Queen Victoria. The painted Stations of the Cross in frames surmounted by crosses appear to be part of the same scheme, all restored in 2013.

List description

II

Church and attached presbytery. 1882. Paid for by the Duke of Norfolk. Coursed squared gritstone with gritstone dressings. Stone slate roofs with stone coped gables with moulded kneelers. Chamfered plinth. Various stone stacks. One and two storeys, irregular plan and elevations. Single storey chapel to the south with 2- and 3-light chamfered mullioned and transomed windows and a bellcote with conical cap on the south gable. East porch and to the right a tall polygonal chimney stack. Presbytery at north end with main elevation to west. This is of three bays, the right hand bay gabled and taller. Central doorway up a flight of six stone steps. Oak studded door with segmental arched over- light above. 2-light window above. Flanked on each side by two storey canted bays with 4-light mullion windows, those to the ground floor also with transoms. Right hand gabled bay with a further 2-light chamfered mullion window above. Moulded first and second floor bands. Listing NGR: SK2070083765

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The church was built to serve Athersley South, a large post-war housing estate on the north side of Barnsley. In 1949 a Mass centre was founded at New Lodge, from the parish of Holy Rood.  The Rev. Patrick Reeves acquired a large plot on Matlock Road, and built the present church in 1952. Initially the building was a chapel-of-ease, served from Darton until 1956 when an independent parish was erected. The presbytery was built in 1954, from designs by R. A. Ronchetti, and it is likely that he also provided the designs for the church (it bears a general similarity to his churches at Rawmarsh and Wybourn, Sheffield, qqv, for example in the ceiling design). The building initially served as a dual-purpose hall and church, and plans to build a new church alongside and adapt the present church as a hall were not realised. In the late twentieth-century a cross wall was inserted across the east end, to reduce the size of the sanctuary and form a small hall at the east end. The altar was brought forward as part of reordering in the 1990s. The parish recently sold part of the plot, previously used as a playground, for the building of new bungalow housing which was under construction in 2015.

Description

The church was built in 1951-2, probably to designs by R. A. Ronchetti, who designed the presbytery. The building is faced in drag-wire red brick, laid in stretcher bond, and the pitched nave roof is covered with mineral felt with flat roofs to the projecting elements. Rainwaters goods are plastic and windows are steel or aluminium. The plan comprises a small narthex to the west, five-bay nave, sanctuary, east hall and north porch. The west entrance bay slightly breaks forward from the west wall of the flat-roofed narthex, with double doors in a square-headed concrete moulded surround, flanked by steel windows. The west end of the nave has a triangular buttress topped with a concrete cross finial to the gable apex. The narthex wraps round the southwest corner of the nave to provide a small meeting room. The nave has plain aluminium-framed windows, and a flat-roofed porch for the north side entrance. The east end is blind, but with a pair of small rectangular blocked windows. There is a basement with boiler house below the raised east end, accessed via external steps from the north side.

Inside, a small narthex is top-lit by a glass-block rooflight; there are WCs to the north and south and a south doorway leads to a small meeting room used for children’s liturgy. Double timber and glazed doors lead into the nave, which has a herringbone parquet floor, plain plaster walls and acoustic ceiling panels. The pews are pine. The sanctuary is carpeted and up three steps, with the altar on a forward platform that projects in front of a wide square opening resembling a proscenium. The altar is oak with a brass relief panel of the Last Supper set into the front.

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The arrival of the French émigré priest, the Rev. Vincent Louis Dennis from revolutionary France was an important development in the revival of Catholicism in Barnsley. He started a mission, with Mass celebrated in private houses until 1804, when premises over a stable in Quiet John’s Yard were acquired, to become the first chapel. Fr Dennis died in 1819 and the mission was without a regular priest for a while. Local Catholics, principally a hand-loom weaver, William Rigby, raised funds to build a classical chapel, which opened in Nelson Street in 1824. In time this became too small to serve the growing Catholic population in the area and another church became necessary. The Rev. John Rigby acquired a site and a church was built in 1832, including a school in the basement. A school followed in Dodworth Road in 1858-9, built from designs by M. E. Hadfield of Sheffield.

Continued growth meant that in course the 1832 church too became inadequate, and in 1894 plans were initiated by the Rev. John Hill to build a replacement, designed by Edward Simpson of Bradford and his son Charles. At the start of the twentieth century the school buildings of Dodworth Road were demolished and the stone used for the building of the new church. The foundation stone for this was blessed and laid by the Right Rev Dr R. Brindle, Bishop of Nottingham on 14 September 1903 and the church opened in 1905. Bishop Cowgill of Leeds consecrated the church on 10 May 1919.

Description

The church is described in some detail in the list entry (below), and repetition is unnecessary. However, there are some omissions which might be mentioned:

Exterior:

• At the east end, a simple classical stone front of a porch, said to be from the church of 1832, is reused as a rear sacristy or office entrance.

Nave and aisles:

• The walls are built of red Leicester brick laid in stretcher bond
• The nave and the aisles are laid with Terrazzo marble flooring whilst the flooring under the seating is oak laid in pitch blocks
• Fittings of note include the opus sectile and alabaster shrine of the English Martyrs, and further shrines to St Teresa of the Child Jesus, Our Lady of Perpetual Succour (by Burns Oates & Washbourne of London) and Our Lady of Sorrows (by S. J. Durrant of Dyson, Cawson and Coles, architects of Barnsley).

Sanctuary:

• Three steps lead from the nave to the sanctuary, with the upper two steps of Rouge Royal marble; sanctuary flooring is laid in a diamond pattern with Swedish green and white marble
• Above the arcade are carved heads of the founders of the religious orders (St Francis of Assisi, St Dominic, St Benedict and St Ignatius Loyola) and the great Doctors of the Church (St Gregory, St Augustine, St Alphonsus and St Thomas Aquinas)
• Windows are decorated with emblems of the Passion and Blessed Sacrament.

Lady Chapel:

• Two white marble steps lead to the altar, which rests on four granite pillars
• The reredos contains a marble image of the Madonna and Child
• Above the door are four copies of angels by Fra Angelico, in opus sectile
• In 2011 a window was installed in memory of Pope John Paul II.

Sacred Heart altar:

• This was relocated from the old church and Gabriel Pippet designed the new reredos.

List description

GV II

Roman Catholic church. 1905 by Edward Simpson of Bradford assisted by his son Charles. Squared, coursed stone with ashlar dressings. Welsh slate roof. Late Victorian Gothic style. North-west tower. 5-bay nave with 4-bay lean-to aisles and a south-west baptistry, 2-bay transepts, 2-bay apsidal chancel with 3-bay south chapel. The square tower becomes octagonal with tall single-light louvred belfry openings and stone spire with gargoyles and moulded bands. West portal with 2 cusped doorways and a carved crucifix in tympanum. Large 6-light west window with Decorated tracery and quatrefoil in head. 5-sided baptistry with hipped roof. Aisles are plain to lower half, buttressed to upper half with small 2-light windows with cusped heads and small trefoils. South transept windows are tall, of 3-lights with Perpendicular tracery. North transept windows are shorter and of 4 lights. 2- and 3-light chancel and south chapel windows.

Interior: 6-bay arcades, the aisles being transverse vaulted in brickwork and with stone ribs. Bays 5 and 6 form the crossing and the 2-bay transepts are similarly vaulted but taller. Elongated, octagonal piers with attached colonettes. Arch-braced hammer-beam panelled roof to nave and chancel. Two traceried recesses to each side, alternate with the confessionals, contain 2 marble sculptures: a Pietà and St. Patrick, and 2 stone sculptures of St. Michael and St. Anthony. Above these is a blind, traceried frieze into which are set 14, tessellated, stations of the cross, the work of the artist Gabriel Pippett of Birmingham, which were erected by the congregation as a 1st World War Memorial. The bays of the apsidal east end are marked by slender, pale green and dark green marble colonettes. 4 sculpted heads to each side. The elaborate, traceried, and pinnacled altar and reredos is the work of R. B. Wall of Cheltenham: a carved panel altar frontispiece of the Last Supper, and 2 panels in the reredos of the Finding of the Cross, and the Exaltation of the Cross, flanked by two similar panels of Christ carrying the Cross and Abraham leading Isaac. Holy Rood in recess above. Organ gallery at rear with ambulatory under. Lady Chapel to south lined in white marble with opus sectile pictures on walls.

An example of Simpson’s later work compared to his many Roman Catholic churches in High Victorian style. Listing NGR: SE3427906132

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The church was built as the Anglican church of St James in 1902, to the designs of T.H. & F. Healey of Bradford.  When it closed in 1973, the Church of England placed a condition on the sale requiring that the main use of the building should continue to be religious. It remained vacant for some time, and was subject to vandalism.

From 1900, Catholics in the area had worshipped in a chapel-of-ease t the parish of Our Lady. In 1962 a primary school had been built and this also served as a Mass centre. When it became available, the parish was keen to purchase St James’s church, and local businessman Alan Finley, a member of the congregation, coordinated the fundraising which enabled acquisition of the church and the building of a presbytery and parish hall. The church reopened as Our Lady and St James on 15 June 1976, when the altar was consecrated by Bishop Moverley in the presence of Bishop Wheeler of Leeds.

The building was damaged by fire in 2008, but was subsequently made good.

Description

The church was built in 1902 in a simplified Gothic style and consists of a short aisleless nave and small sanctuary. The east sides of the sanctuary directly abut the small parish meeting space and presbytery (modern structures which are identified in the list entry as not of special interest). The interior has undergone redecoration in recent years following a fire in the sacristy in 2008. The walls are plain plastered and painted. The nave roof has three arch-braced trusses carried on moulded stone corbels, exposed purlins and rafters with infill tongue and groove panelling. The circulation area has a terrazzo floor while there is wooden boarding beneath the pews.

List descriptions

Church

GV II

Church. 1902 by T. H. and F. Healey of Bradford, patron S. J. Cooper (Plan register, 1901; Kelly’s Directory, 1912). Thinly-coursed sandstone, graduated Westmorland slate roof. 3-bay nave with south porch, narrower chancel with south tower in angle with nave, adjoining vestry on east. Nave: porch to bay 1 has double-chamfered arch with floral-stopped hoodmould, gable copings with cross. String course on right beneath windows of 3 : 2 and 1 lights, buttress between the first two. West window has buttress between 2 sets of 3 lancets with hoodmoulds; vesica. Tower: south priest’s door with string course rising as hoodmould. Quoined slit windows beneath offset ashlar belfry stage having semi-octagonal corner piers and flanking 2-light trefoiled openings; continuous hoodmould. Short lead-covered spire with corner spirelets and turret at north-east corner. Gabled south vestry has ashlar panel with 3-light mullioned window; central light taller, transomed and cusped. Chancel windows of 2 and 1 lights, corbel table to ashlar-coped parapet. East window of 3 cusped lights divided by shafts, outer lights blind. East and west gable copings with crosses.

Interior: simple Gothic-Revival styled interior with marble font and wall paintings above chancel arch. Originally dedicated to St. James, now in Roman Catholic use, the Anglican congregation being accommodated at the Church of St. Thomas and St. James (q.v.). Adjoining buildings at east end not of special interest.

Worsbrough U.D.C. Plan Register 1901 plan 22 (held in Barnsley Local Studies Library). Kelly’s Directory, West Riding, 1912, vol 1, p996.

Listing NGR: SE3541003558

Lych gate

GV II

Lych gate. Probably 1902 by T. H. and F. Healey of Bradford (as church (q.v.)). Ashlar sandstone. Free-standing archway with double iron gates, in Gothic Revival style. Double-chamfered arch with hoodmould beneath panel inscribed: ‘Believers in the word and not hearers only’, shield above with insignia of St. James. Flanking buttresses with roll-moulded copings, ashlar-gable copings with apex cross. Contemporary iron gates. Included for group value. Listing NGR: SE3541503542

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From the late 1920s, Carcroft and nearby Skellow developed as residential areas serving Bullcroft colliery. In 1960 a dual-purpose church and hall on Skellow Road was built as a chapel-of-ease to Woodlands, to serve the new housing estates. The land for the site was rented at a nominal rent from the coal board. According to the Almanac and Directory for the Diocese of Leeds (1961) the building was designed by a local Catholic surveyor, Mr Saul; this was Edward Saul FABS AFS of Jenkinsons, builders of Bentley (Saul was also responsible for the church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Bentley, Doncaster about this time). Costing £10,000 and built to seat 270, the church was built on a reinforced concrete mining raft (information from J. E. Saul). It was opened by the Bishop of Leeds on 8 December 1960. It continues to be a chapel-of-ease to Woodlands (qv).

Description

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

The church was originally conceived as a dual-purpose structure and opened in 1960. It is built of brown brick laid in stretcher bond, with artificial stone dressings to the windows and surrounding the panel on the porch, roofs covered in felt and deep eaves with a timber boarded soffit. The T-plan comprises a projecting narthex and porch at the west end, a confessional and sacristy to the north, ancillary facilities to the south and sanctuary to the east. The principal entrance is via side doors into the flat-roofed west porch. The main feature of the west elevation is a colourful panel in the porch depicting St George and the Dragon, flanked by St John Fisher, St Thomas More, Blessed John Anne (martyr of Burghwallis Hall) and Blessed (now St) Margaret Clitherow. According to the Leeds Diocesan Almanac and Directory, this was the first decorative panel made by Formica in the country. Directly behind is the flat-roofed narthex, with the higher shallow-pitched roof of the hall/nave above, with three horizontal large window openings and cross above. The north and south elevations are of plain brick with four two-light rectangular windows below the eaves. To the northeast is the confessional/sacristy and to the southeast the kitchen range, with a later extension in red brick. The sanctuary is shallower than the nave and is lit by two large windows to the north and south.

The interior has plastered walls, plainly painted, pine floorboards and a shallow sloping tiled inserted suspended ceiling. Low relief plaster Stations of the Cross are placed on the north and south walls. A sliding leather screen divides the nave and sanctuary, the latter raised on one step with wrought iron altar rails designed by Saul and made by Mr Wood, a local blacksmith, who also made a matching wrought iron screen to the baptistery in the narthex. The stone altar is on a stepped platform with a triangular polished wood reredos of tongue and groove panelling with two carvings on either side, brought back from missionary work in Peru. Chairs provide flexible seating.

Entry amended by AHP 18.12.2020

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The church was established to serve housing estates built in this part of Chesterfield from 1924. Mr W. J.  Nolan (or Martin Nolan, as he is named in The Tablet) provided a site next to his own house on Derby Road, and designed and built the church himself in 1930 with furnishings supplied by Messrs Eyre & Son. It was opened by Bishop Dunn of Nottingham on 23 June that year. The building acted as a chapel-of-ease to the church of the Annunciation (q.v.) until 1942, when a separate parish was formed. Following the death of Mr Nolan in that year the diocese bought his house, which stands immediately beside the church, for use as a presbytery.  Confessionals and a baptistery were added in 1950 and in 1955 a parish hall was built to the rear of the presbytery at a cost of £5,000.

The sanctuary was reordered and the sacristy enlarged in 1968 by John Rochford & Partner, when a new altar and other furnishings were installed. Another reordering, by Horsley Huber, took place in 1999.  A new west window to a design by David Pilkington was inserted in recent years.

Description

A modest building of 1930, constructed of red brick laid in stretcher bond with a pitched slate roof. There is a gabled porch at the west end, possibly a later addition but extant by 1943, with Tuscan columns and the name of the church in gold lettering. An openwork cross finial is attached to the main west gable. Windows generally have flat heads, except the east window which is cambered. The interior has not been inspected; photographs show an arch-braced timber roof and oak bench seating. The east window has stained glass probably of mid-twentieth century date. There is a plinth against the east wall with an ornate metalwork tabernacle designed by David John in 1999.

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A pre-Reformation chapel stands in Newbold, now part of Chesterfield. It incorporates Norman masonry, with signs of rebuilding, including the replacement of the roof structure in the fifteenth or sixteenth century. It was a manorial chapel of the recusant Eyre family and was sacked by a Protestant mob in 1688. Repairs of unknown precise date were instituted, probably by the Eyre family. It was given to the Catholic Church in 1949, and Mass was said here regularly. Since 1987 the building has been leased by the Diocese of Hallam to the Eyre Chapel Trustees, and is used for various community purposes.

The Eyre chapel is often seen as the ‘mother church’ of Chesterfield, and the church of St Hugh of Lincoln as its spiritual successor. The impetus behind the creation of the parish was the development of a large housing estate in the area. In 1963 the site on Duke’s Drive was acquired by the Diocese of Nottingham and a parish priest appointed, and the work of raising money for the new building began. The architects John Rochford & Partner were asked to prepare plans for a multipurpose church hall and Mass centre. Building work started in the spring of 1965 and the Eyre Chapel continued in use until the new building was ready in April 1966.

The new building was positioned on one side of the plot to allow room for a separate church. However, this plan was not realised and the dual-purpose building, then emerging as a fashionable solution under the auspices of groups such as the University of Birmingham’s Institute for the Study of Worship and Religious Architecture, has remained. In about 1967 a neighbouring house was bought to serve as a presbytery. This was replaced in 1978-9 by a purpose-built presbytery immediately beside the church, built to the designs of John Smith.

During the 1980s improvements were made to the facilities in the hall. A phase of refurbishment has been undertaken in recent years.

Description

All orientations given are liturgical. The church and hall building is long and low, constructed of brick laid in stretcher bond with a flat roof, painted timber trim, and glazed screens along the north side of the building. The main entrance is on the south-east side, and there is a separate entrance to offices at the east end. The building takes the form of a large hall on the north side which can be divided into three separate spaces using folding shutters. The east end is set up permanently for worship, where the sanctuary is slightly raised and set beneath an elliptical timbered ceiling. Modern sanctuary furnishings include a forward altar and a tabernacle designed by David John. This area is divided from the south side of the building by a partition. On this side a spacious corridor serves WCs, a spacious kitchen and meeting rooms.

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