Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Rood, Central, Barnsley

Summary

Roman Catholic church. 1903 to 1905 to designs by Edward Simpson of Bradford assisted by his son Charles. Late Victorian Gothic style.

Description

Roman Catholic church. 1903 to 1905 to designs by Edward Simpson of Bradford assisted by his son Charles. Late Victorian Gothic style.

MATERIALS: the church is built of coursed, squared sandstone with ashlar dressings and Welsh slate roofs. The east end sacristy porch is built of sandstone ashlar. The interior walls are of red brick with stone dressings.

PLAN: the church has a tall five-bay nave and a two-bay apsidal sanctuary under one roof, with a south-east Lady Chapel and north-east sacristy, shallow, two-bay transepts, four-bay lean-to aisles to the nave, a north-west tower and a south-west baptistry. Attached to the east end are single-storey rooms (originally used as youth rooms) and the former Nelson Street façade.

EXTERIOR: the church has a plinth. The west gable end faces onto George Street. The main west entrance has two cusped doorways within a pointed arch with a hood mould with foliate stops and a relief-carved Crucifixion in the tympanum. The double plank doors have decorative ironwork strap hinges. Above is a large six-light west window with Decorated tracery and a quatrefoil to the head. To the left is a square tower, which becomes octagonal as it rises with tall single-light louvered belfry openings and a stone spire with gargoyles and moulded bands. There is a small single-light window in the west elevation and a pointed-arch doorway in the north elevation with a hood mould with carved stops and fielded-panel double doors. To the right is a small baptistry with an apsidal end and a hipped roof. To each side of the nave are low outer projections for shrines and confessionals, which carry buttresses to lofty aisles. Each aisle bay has a pointed arch containing a narrow, two-light window with cusped heads and a small trefoil. The south transept has two tall three-light windows with Perpendicular tracery. The north transept has two shorter four-light windows with trefoils and central cinquefoils. The chancel has three-light windows with trefoils and cinquefoils. The Lady Chapel has a three-light window flanked by two-light windows above three blocked basement windows.

At the east end is a single-storey room with a lean-to slate roof, hipped on the left-hand side. Standing in front of the original front elevation is the stone-built front façade of the former church on Nelson Street, with a flat roof of corrugated plastic bridging the gap. The classical façade has an entablature, a wide central entrance with three steps flanked by paired pilasters and a round-headed window to each side. The windows have moulded heads with giant keystones and recessed aprons beneath the sills. The doorway has modern, vertical metal-bar gates and window apertures have similar grilles.

INTERIOR: there are six-bay, pointed-arch stone arcades of white Bath stone with blue Yorkshire stone bases and a taller, pointed sanctuary arch. The elongated piers are octagonal with attached colonettes. The walls are of red brickwork in stretcher bond. The aisles are transverse vaulted in brickwork with stone ribs. Bays five and six form the crossing and the two-bay transepts, which are similarly vaulted but higher. The nave and sanctuary have an arch-braced hammer-beam panelled roof. The nave and aisles have terrazzo flooring, with oak block flooring beneath the pews, and the sanctuary has diagonally set squares of Swedish green and white marble. The aisles have two traceried recesses to each side, alternating with the confessionals, which contain two marble sculptures of the Pieta and St Patrick, and two stone sculptures of St Michael and St Anthony. Above these is a blind, traceried frieze into which are set fourteen tessellated Stations of the Cross, the work of the artist Gabriel Pippett, which were erected by the congregation as a First World War Memorial. The dedicatory stone is inscribed THE / STATIONS OF THE CROSS / ARE ERECTED BY THE CONGREGATION / IN MEMORY OF THE MEN / WHO LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES / IN THE GREAT WAR / 1914-1918 / RIP. The octagonal pulpit is of carved stone with red marble colonettes and moulded coping and a mosaic panel of Christ the Shepherd. The south transept has the Shrine to English Martyrs (war memorial) with a Uttoxeter alabaster Gothic frame with opus sectile panels and mosaic panels beneath, and the Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. The north transept has the Shrine of St Teresa of the Child Jesus, also with a opus sectile panel, Gothic alabaster frame and altar.

The bays of the apsidal sanctuary are marked by slender, pale green and dark green marble colonnettes with four sculpted heads to each side. The elaborate, traceried and pinnacled altar and reredos is the work of A B Wall of Cheltenham: the altar frontispiece has a carved panel of the Last Supper and two panels in the reredos depict 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. In a recess above is the Holy Rood. The organ gallery is at the rear with an ambulatory under. The Lady Chapel to the south is lined with white marble with opus sectile images. The Sacred Heart altar is relocated from the old church and the new reredos is designed by Gabriel Pippett. The baptistry has wood block flooring and an octagonal, relief-carved stone font.

History

There was a revival of Catholicism in Barnsley at the end of the C18, driven by the arrival of a French émigré priest, the Revd Vincent Louis Dennis, from revolutionary France. He started a mission, with Mass celebrated in a private house until 1804, when a chapel was set up over a stable in Quiet John’s Yard. In 1824 a classical chapel opened on Nelson Street, but in time became too small to serve the growing congregation. The Revd John Rigby acquired a site and a new church and basement school was built in 1832. A separate school followed in Dodworth Road in 1858 to 1859, built to designs by M E Hadfield.

The 1832 church also became inadequate due to a growing Catholic population, and in 1894 plans were initiated by the Revd John Hill to build a replacement designed by Edward Simpson of Bradford and his son Charles. The school buildings on Dodworth Road were demolished at the start of the C20 and the stone used in building the new church. The foundation stone was blessed and laid on 14 September 1903 by the Right Revd Dr R Brindle, Bishop of Nottingham. The church opened in 1905 and it was consecrated on 10 May 1919 by Bishop Cowgill of Leeds. The interior was richly fitted, including sculpted shrines of stone, and alabaster with opus sectile panels. The elaborate reredos behind the high altar was by A B Wall of Cheltenham.

Around 1920 the congregation commissioned Stations of the Cross from Gabriel Pippett as a war memorial to those who lost their lives in the First World War.

In the 1990s the façade of the Nelson Street church was relocated to the exterior of the youth rooms at the east end of the present church.

The architect Edward Simpson (1844-1937) was the son of a Hull builder, who was articled to a local firm before moving to London and then Bradford, where he set up practice, specialising in Catholic ecclesiastical commissions. His son Charles subsequently joined him. Simpson retired in 1914. Charles continued to practice until 1939.

Gabriel Pippett (1880-1962) was born in Solihull into a family of artists and designers. He was an illustrator, wood engraver, carver and designer. His work was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and the Arts and Crafts Movement. Pippett designed murals and mosaics in a number of churches, including the extraordinary series of mosaics covering the walls of the Roman Catholic Church of Sacred Heart and St Catherine of Alexandria, Droitwich Spa (Grade II*).

Alfred Bernard Wall (1849-1923) came from a long-established family of stone masons and builders. Alfred became a Catholic and it is likely that he added the name Bernard at this time. He move from London to become an apprentice to R L Boulton and Sons of Cheltenham. He then set up his own business and throughout his career was responsible for many ecclesiastical sculptural pieces for Catholic churches.

Reasons for Listing

The Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Rood, Barnsley, of 1903 to 1905 by Edward Simpson of Bradford, assisted by his son Charles, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a commanding Gothic design, well massed and detailed, with a prominent corner location creating a strong visual presence in the townscape;
* the lofty interior has an attractive detailing with contrasting red brickwork and white stonework and an elaborate arch-braced hammer-beam roof;
* richly decorated with very fine fixtures and fittings demonstrating high-quality craftmanship and materials, including notable Stations of the Cross by Gabriel Pippett and pinnacled altar and reredos by A B Wall of Cheltenham;
* designed by the architect Edward Simpson (1844-1937) and his son, whose practice specialised in Catholic ecclesiastical commissions, with a number of listed churches.

Historic interest:

* since the revival of Catholicism in Barnsley at the end of C18, driven by the arrival of a French émigré priest from revolutionary France, three churches had been built to serve the rapidly growing congregation, with Holy Rood replacing the original 1824 church and the subsequent 1832 church.

Group value:

* Holy Rood has a functional group value as a place of worship with the nearby Salem Wesleyan Reformed Church, and also the gate piers, walls and railings of the churchyard of the now demolished Anglican St George’s Church, both listed at Grade II.

External Links

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