Cathedral Church of St Peter and St Paul and Attached Wall and Gates, City, Sheffield

Description

SHEFFIELD

SK3587NW CHURCH STREET
784-1/19/172 (North side)
01/05/52 Cathedral Church of St Peter and St
Paul and attached walls and gates

GV I

Parish church, raised to cathedral status 1914. Crossing
tower, spire, chancel and chancel chapels c1430. Shrewsbury
chapel 1520. North chancel chapel remodelled as vestries 1777
by Thomas Atkinson, and converted to a chapel 1914. Nave and
east end reconstructed 1790-1805, allegedly by John Carr. Nave
extended and transepts added 1810. Restored 1841 by Robert
Potter. Transepts, nave arcade and west end, and east windows
remodelled and restored 1880, by William Flockton. Chapter
house, offices, and Chapel of Holy Spirit 1936-48, by Sir
Charles Nicholson. Narthex, link and west end 1960-66 by GG
Pace and Ansell & Bailey.
Ashlar with ashlar dressings and lead roofs. Pre-1880 parts in
Perpendicular style. Nicholson additions in Decorated style.
1960s additions in Free Gothic style.
PLAN: chancel with side chapels, crossing tower with spire,
transepts, nave with clerestory and aisles, baptistry and
narthex, north-west chapels, chapter house, vestries and
offices.
EXTERIOR: chancel, chapels, transepts, nave and aisles have
moulded plinths, buttresses, those to the chancel and chapels
topped with pinnacles, moulded eaves bands and crenellated
parapets.
East end has 3 late Decorated 4-light pointed arch windows
with hoodmoulds. Side chapels have three 3-light double
transomed pointed arch windows with panel tracery. South
transept has a 5-light Decorated, pointed arch window to south
and a 3-light pointed arch window to east and west. North
transept has to east a 5-light gabled headed, pointed arch
window with panel tracery, and its north gable extended by an
organ chamber, c1936, with plain coped parapet and to east,
the head of a C19 5-light Decorated pointed arch window, with
below it a pointed door and a flat-headed lancet. Its north
gable has 3 lancets. To west of the organ chamber, an
extension of the transept, with a 4-light Decorated pointed
arch window. South aisle has four 3-light double transomed
pointed arch windows with panel tracery. North aisle has a
similar window, to the west of the St George's Chapel.
Crossing tower, 2 stages, has to south 2 square headed windows
with a sundial between them. Bell stage has on each side a
transomed 4-light traceried bell opening with hoodmould. Below
the south one, a clock. Setback octagonal broach spire with
crockets.
Nave has five 2-light pointed arch windows on each side of the
clerestory. West end and narthex tower have flat square topped
buttresses at angles and to each bay. West end has projecting
centre with three 2-light windows, flanked on each side by 2
similar windows. South side has windowless 3-bay corridor to
the Narthex tower. Buttressed square narthex tower, 3 stages,
has a triple opening on 3 sides with louvred panels above
them. Windowless upper stages are successively smaller. North
side has a single bay projection with a C19 6-light Decorated
pointed arch window with moulded surround.
North side Chapel of St George, buttressed and in a similar
style to the west end, has to west four 2-light windows and to
their left, a projection with a transomed 3-light window to a
transverse passage between this chapel and the Chapel of the
Holy Spirit. To the west of the chapel, at a lower level, a
late C20 flat-roofed single storey concrete meeting room with
6 pointed arched windows and concrete canopied porch to its
left.
Chapel of the Holy Spirit has moulded plinth and heavy gabled
buttresses, 2 setoffs, and moulded coped parapet. On either
side, 4 tall 2-light pointed arch windows with Decorated
tracery and hoodmoulds. North gable has a 5-light Decorated
pointed arch window.
On the north side of the chancel, a single storey Church
Burgesses room in the style of a C15 chantry chapel, with
buttresses, moulded plinth and crenellated parapet. To east, 2
flat-headed double lancets, flanked to left by a recessed
pointed doorway with hoodmould. North side has a 4-light and a
3-light flat-headed lancet.
To north again, a 2-storey range of vestries, c1936, with
ground floor lintel band and linked hoodmoulds above, forming
a corridor to the chapter house. 4 double lancets with slight
Y-tracery and below, a 3-light mullioned window flanked to
left by two 2-light windows and to right by a single one.
Buttressed Chapter House, c1936, has deep plinth, moulded
coped parapet and flat roof. 3 x 2 bays. Untraceried 2-light
pointed arch windows are set in recessed panels between
buttresses, and above each window is a pointed loop. South
side has a single window, to east. North side has to west,
steps to a buttressed flat-roofed porch with moulded segmental
pointed door. To its right, a set back single storey vestry
with a 2-light mullioned window. To right, between the vestry
and the adjoining chapel, a single storey flat-roofed late C20
addition with single window and glazed double door.
INTERIOR: chancel has 2 double chamfered arches on each side,
with octagonal piers and responds. East window with moulded
surround and hoodmould, and above it, a small 2-light window.
To north-east, a restored cusped 4-seat sedilia, with aumbry
in eastern opening. Restored steep pitched hammer beam roof
with arch braces and gilt angel bosses. Shrewsbury Chapel, to
south, has double chamfered west arch and a similar lower
pitched roof with moulded timbers and gilt bosses. North side
has a piscina and a canopied table tomb. South side has 3
stained glass windows. North chancel chapel (St Katharine) has
similar roof and 2 stained glass windows. South-east side has
a blocked opening and a C13 cusped piscina. To west, arches
into the chancel.
Crossing has 4 clustered piers and triple coved and roll
moulded arches with hoodmoulds, c1430.
South transept has low pitched roof and stained glass south
window, c1876. North transept has low pitched roof with bosses
and to east, a double chamfered arch and C20 carved wooden
screen, into north chancel chapel. North end has late C20
ceiling and to east, a moulded doorway to the sacristy. To its
right, a chamfered double arch to the organ chamber, then an
altered window, now a doorway. Passage at south-east end has a
chamfered arch to the organ chamber, and to east, a doorway
and a stained glass window, 1938.
Nave has 5 bay arcades with narrower eastern bays, and C20
west piers. Plain octagonal piers with crenellated capitals,
chamfered arches with hoodmoulds, and shields in the
spandrels. Low pitched panelled ceiling with bosses and
billeted span beams. Western crossing has flattened pointed
chamfered arches with chamfered quatrefoil piers, and a
stained glass roof lantern, all c1960. West end baptistry has
a single moulded arch with responds to north and south.
Passage to narthex has glazed screen and doors.
Aisles have double purlin lean-to roofs with bosses, and
chamfered eastern arches. North aisle north-west end has a 3
bay C20 arcade to St George's Chapel, and a single C20 arch
flanking it to east.
St George's Chapel has panelled flat ceiling with gilt bosses.
North end has a moulded C13 style triple arcade with billeted
arches and clustered chamfered piers without capitals. Cross
passage, to north, has on the south side a square window
flanked to left by a small double window and to right by a
pointed window and a doorway, all mid C20, into a 3 x 3 bay
vaulted C20 columbarium. On the north side, a mid C20 5 bay
arcade with double chamfered arches, the outer ones blank.
Larger central bay has a moulded pointed doorway with
hoodmould and angel bosses, under a square stepped gable.
Linenfold panelled double doors. On either side, similar
single doors.
Chapel of the Holy Spirit has 3 bay vault with moulded ribs
and bosses and clustered round wall shafts. East end has a
moulded segment-arched aumbry to north and a Decorated style
piscina to south. Perpendicular style screen at west end, and
canopied oak stalls on each side, by Comper, removed from
Burgh, Lincs.
MEMORIALS include a chest tomb under a flat topped panelled
arch with billeted crest, between the chancel and the south
chapel, 1538, to the 4th earl of Shrewsbury. Tomb chest with
twisted corner shafts and shields in quatrefoils, with triple
alabaster effigy. Monument to 6th Earl, 1590, on south chapel
wall, with panelled base and flanking columns carrying a large
crested achievement. Life size painted reclining effigy and
panel with Latin inscription by John Fox. Large draped obelisk
with scroll, bust and sarcophagus bracket, to George Bamforth,
1739. In the chancel, a cusped triple blind arcade with a
central tablet and bust by Chantrey to Rev. James Wilkinson,
1805. Bust on chamfered base with standing allegorical figures
flanking the inscription, to Rev. A Mackenzie, 1818, and
tablet with seated allegorical figure in front of 2 urns, with
profile portraits, to Thomas and Elizabeth Harrison, 1823,
also by Chantrey. Portrait medallion, 1828, and bust 1832, by
Edward Law. Bust of Archdeacon Blakeney, 1896, by Onslow Ford.
Marble and alabaster tablet with portrait, 1916, to W
Sterndale Bennet, d.1875. Freestanding late C19 war memorial
with standing figures, and alabaster war memorial tablet
c1920.
STAINED GLASS includes C14 north transept north window,
removed from Church of St Luke, Hollis Croft. East and west
windows, 1880-81, and south aisle windows 1884-88 by WE Dixon.
North chancel chapel east window, 1935, and Chapel of the Holy
Spirit east window, 1940, by Christopher Webb.
FITTINGS include C15 canopied oak sedilia with traceried
panels. Restored C16 altar slab, with C20 octagonal posts and
wooden reredos. North chancel Chapel screen, 1935, by WH
Randall Blacking, bishop's throne, 1937 by Sir Charles
Nicholson, traceried octagonal oak pulpit, 1887, and round
granite font with bronze supports, 1881.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: outside, a late C19 boundary wall with
chamfered coping, bordering Campo Lane and East Parade. North
side has a pair of square gate piers topped with globe lamps,
with splayed screen walls, wrought-iron gate and overthrow, to
the Chapter House north porch. To left and right, a plain
vehicle entrance.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Yorkshire: The West
Riding: London: 1967-: 450-451; Sheffield Cathedral Guide:
Rev. ID Neill: Sheffield: 1974-).

Listing NGR: SK3538187490

This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Register. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 31 January 2017.

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