Details
This list entry was subjected to a Minor Enhancement to update text on the 11 March 2022
SK38SW
784-1/9/505
SHEFFIELD
MEADOWHEAD (West side)
Church of Our Lady of Beauchief & St Thomas of Canterbury and presbytery
II
Roman Catholic church and adjoining presbytery, 1931-32 to designs by Adrian Gilbert Scott. The sacristies were built in 1959 to 1960. There were internal alterations in 1968.
In 1908 Bishop Brindle of Nottingham agreed to a new church being built in the expanding southern suburbs of Sheffield and paid for a suitable plot of land in Meadowhead. Initially a temporary timber church was built to accommodate 250 people, which was opened on 16 June 1910. In 1918 the Revd James Rooney instigated a building fund for a permanent church. The foundation stone was eventually laid in 1931 and the church was officially opened on 2 June 1932. The presbytery had been built in 1928. The architect for both buildings was Adrian Gilbert Scott and the builders were Messrs M J Gleeson Ltd. The cost was £13,000. The dedication recalled the nearby Beauchief Abbey, the remains of which had been presented to Sheffield Corporation in 1931.
In 1958 the original woodblock flooring was replaced with the present terrazzo flooring. New sacristies and stairs to the organ loft were added in 1959 to 1960. The architect was D Wilkinson of John Rochford & Partners. In 1968 post-Vatican II reordering took place. This involved the removal of the altar rails, lowering of the chancel floor level and installation of a new altar of Ancaster stone. The Ancaster stone from the old altar was used for the lectern and tabernacle stand and the font was relocated to the sanctuary. The architects were John Rochford & Partner.
Adrian Gilbert Scott (1882-1963) was a member of the architectural Scott dynasty and brother to Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. He was a notable architect who trained under Temple Moore and specialised in ecclesiastical commissions, particularly for the Roman Catholic Church.
Brick with ashlar dressings and hipped Roman tile roofs. Lombard Romanesque style.
PLAN: the church has a chancel with an apse and vestry, a crossing tower, nave and transepts.
EXTERIOR: the church has chamfered eaves and the windows have mainly round arches. The east end has a hipped apse with two small windows. Below is a flat-roofed sacristy and vestry. The chancel has on either side a round-arched, two-light window with an ashlar shaft and transom, under a fanlight. The squat, square crossing tower has a pyramidal roof with moulded wooden eaves and a cross finial. On each side there are four rectangular clerestory windows under the eaves. The nave has on either side a round-arched, two-light window with an ashlar shaft and transom, under a fanlight. To the west, on either side, is a small window set low down. The west end has two small windows set high, and a central ashlar doorcase with a cornice and framed panelled double doors. Outside is a landing with a wrought-iron balustrade approached by steps on each side with a balustrade wall and slab coping. The transepts have to the east a hipped apse, and to the west, a round-arched, two-light window with an ashlar shaft and transom, under a fanlight. The south transept has a door under the window. The north and south ends have a round-arched, three-light window in the same style. In the return angles, to west, is an angled extrusion with a single small window. Below, is a half-hipped canted confessional with two small windows.
The presbytery, to the south of the sacristy, has a hipped roof and two large ridge stacks. The windows are mainly margin-glazed steel framed casements. It is of two storeys with a five-window front range. It has a symmetrical front with a late-C20 addition to the left. The rear has a recessed centre flanked by hipped wings.
INTERIOR: the church has plain round-arched barrel vaults throughout, with mosaics in the apses of the Ascension, Madonna and Child and the Sacred Heart designed by George Mayer-Martin (1897-1960) and carried out by his assistant Geoffrey Wheeler in 1960-62. The crossing has chamfered re-entrant angles with round arches carried on round piers with Romanesque capitals. It has a panelled wooden ceiling with a coffered square wooden dome. The north-east angle has a doorway to the sacristy. The south-east angle has the foundation stone dated 1931, and an aumbry and piscina with shaped wooden surrounds like the doors.
The western angles have pairs of panelled doors, partly glazed, to the confessionals. All these doors have wooden surrounds with shaped heads. The north transept has to the east a pair of doors, also with shaped heads. The south transept has a door to the west, under the window. The transept niches have stone altars. The nave has to the west a panelled wooden gallery carried on a bressumer with shaped wooden brackets. On the gallery is a two-tower organ case. Under the gallery is a framed panelled double door, partly glazed, with a wooden surround and shaped head. To the left is a round-arched doorway to the gallery stair. To the right is a round-arched window to the former baptistry. The entrance hall has a window at each end, and a stoup.
FITTINGS include a plain octagonal font and late-C20 altar and lectern. The plain benches have open backs.
Listing NGR: SK3457682447
