Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart, Walkley, Sheffield

Description

This list entry was subjected to a Minor Enhancement to update text on the 11 March 2022

SK38NW
784-1/5/324

SHEFFIELD
FORBES ROAD (East side)
Church of the Sacred Heart

GV
II

Roman Catholic church, 1935 to 1936 to designs by C M Hadfield. Romanesque Revival style.

Until the beginning of the C20 the local Catholic population heard Mass at Owlerton Barracks, when civilians were no longer able to attend the barracks chapel. In 1903 the Sacred Heart primary school opened and Mass was said here as a temporary measure. In 1920 the Revd Robert Dunford was appointed parish priest to the new parish of Sacred Heart. He built a temporary church which opened in 1921. Shortly afterwards Dunford purchased a property to serve as a presbytery and a site on Forbes Road on which to build a permanent church. C M Hadfield of Hadfield & Cawkwell was commissioned and the foundation stone was laid on 7 July 1935 by Bishop Cowgill of Leeds. The church was opened by the Archbishop of Liverpool, Richard Downey, on 25 March 1936. The church accommodated 500 people and cost £13,000, of which £10,000 was donated by Mrs Wake, a widow. The builders were W G Robson Ltd. Philip Lindsey Clarke designed relief sculptures and Eric Newton of the Oppenheimer workshop, Manchester, designed the mosaic reredos behind the high altar.

The church was dedicated on 7 March 1947. In July 1953 the church was presented with a new Portland stone font and screen for the baptistry, and in 1961 Father Farrell commissioned Eric Newton again to add mosaics to the side chapels to commemorate the church’s Silver Jubilee.

In the late C20 a new forward altar was created by cutting down the original high altar and using the stone and green marble in the new altar and a tabernacle stand. (the new altar replaced a temporary oak altar placed in front of the high altar in 1966).

Charles Matthew Ellison Hadfield (1867-1949) belonged to the Sheffield-based Hadfield architectural dynasty, being the son of Charles Hadfield and grandson Matthew Ellison Hadfield. Hadfield was taken into partnership with his father in 1897, working as C and C M Hadfield until his father’s death in 1916. He then ran an independent practice until Robert Cawkwell (1894-1968) became a partner in 1924. C M Hadfield retired in 1937, though the firm remained Hadfield & Cawkwell until 1946. The Hadfield family were Roman Catholics and designed a significant number of Catholic churches, schools and convents.

Red brick with brown brick and ashlar dressings and a plain tile roof.

PLAN: the church has a chancel with an apse, side chapels, transepts, vestries, and a nave with a clerestory and aisles, a west tower and porches.

EXTERIOR: the church has a plinth and coped parapets. The windows are mainly metal framed casements. The chancel has five incised string courses and on either side are three windows. Below them are windowless square side chapels. The apse is windowless. The square-ended transepts each have a large round window, and to the west, a single window. The south transept has a single-storey vestry with two sets of three windows. The north transept has to the west a square projection with three flat-headed windows, containing confessionals. The clerestory has eleven windows on each side, arranged as a single window, three groups of three windows, a single window. The aisles are windowless. The north side has an off-centre canted baptistry, also windowless. The west tower has three stages with corner pilasters forming panelled sides, stepped cheeks to the north and south, and a deep parapet. The ground stage has a central round-arched west doorway with a projecting brick surround and an ashlar central pier with relief carving, flanked by double board doors. The Portland stone relief carving in the tympanum is by Philip Lindsey Clarke. It shows the Marian Apparitions at Lourdes and includes depictions of the architect C M Hadfield and Canon Dunford, parish priest and builder of the church. Above the doorway are two windows. The second stage has two flat-headed windows to the north and south faces. The bell stage has three round-arched louvred openings to the east and west faces and two similar openings to the north and south faces. Flanking the tower are single square porches with round-arched openings to the west and in either side, with corresponding inner doorways. The north and south openings have brick balustrades. To the north side is a single-storey corridor linked to the Presbytery (not included).

INTERIOR: the nave and chancel have a continuous cross beam ceiling. The sanctuary has a large mosaic reredos of the Sacred Heart by Eric Newton, with a recessed tabernacle. The chancel has a round-arched recess on each side into the side chapels. The side chapels have segmental east ends with Portland stone sculptured figures by Philip Lindsey Clarke, and panelled ceilings with rooflights. The transepts have to the east round arches into the side chapels, and above them, mosaic panels by Eric Newton of 1961. The south end has a figure niche, and the north end has a round-arched recess with double doors to the vestries. The nave has five-bay, round-arched arcades to narrow side passages, which have blind arcades. At the west end there are projecting single bays with round-arched doorways. The north-east side has panelled double doors with a blank overlight, to the confessionals. The north side has the baptistry entrance with wrought-iron screen and overthrow. The west end has three round arches, the larger central one with double doors and an overlight, the flanking ones with single doors. Above, is a gallery with a round-arched wooden balustrade. The entrance lobby has doors on three sides and a cast-iron spiral stair to gallery. Fittings include an octagonal stone font with panelled octagonal wooden canopy topped with a spire supported by volutes of 1953, teak benches and a plain octagonal panelled pulpit and lectern. There are no memorials.

Listing NGR: SK3339089492

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British Listed Buildings

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Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart

A Grade II Listed Building in Walkley, Sheffield

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