St Mary's Church, Bramall Lane is a
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...
in the
City of Sheffield
The City of Sheffield is a metropolitan borough with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in South Yorkshire, England. The metropolitan borough includes the administrative centre of Sheffield, the town of Stocksbridge and the larger ...
, England.
History
St Mary's Church is one of three churches that were built in Sheffield under the
Church Building Act 1818
A Commissioners' church, also known as a Waterloo church and Million Act church, is an Anglican church in England or Wales built with money voted by Parliament as a result of the ( 58 Geo. 3. c. 45) and the ( 5 Geo. 4. c. 103). The 1818 ...
(the other two being
St George's Church, Portobello and
St Philip's Church, Netherthorpe), and is the only one still to be used as a church. The church was designed by
Joseph Potter and cost £13,927 (). A grant of £13,941 was received from the Church Building Commission to cover the cost of building and other expenses. The foundation stone was laid on 12 October 1826 by the Countess of Surrey, and the church was consecrated on 21 July 1830.
The church is built in the
Perpendicular
In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...
style, with a high tower,
It was damaged by bombing during the "
Sheffield Blitz
The Sheffield Blitz is the name given to the worst nights of German ''Luftwaffe'' bombing in Sheffield, England, during the Second World War. It took place during nighttime on 12 and 15 December 1940.
In 1940, Sheffield was a city of about ...
" and when restored was divided: the
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...
and two east
bays
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...
of the
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
remained in use as a church, the rest of the building used as a community centre.
In 1839 some
Chartists
Chartism was a working-class movement for political reform in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom that erupted from 1838 to 1857 and was strongest in 1839, 1842 and 1848. It took its name from the People's Charter of ...
, suspicious of the big new Anglican churches, unsuccessfully attempted to fire-bomb St Mary's.
It is recorded in the
National Heritage List for England
The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...
as a designated
grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
.
Present day
In 2000, a major internal refurbishment took place resulting in the church and community centre becoming a combined space. The space is also used to host conferences.
There are close links between the church and
Sheffield United F.C., whose ground is situated on Bramall Lane. During the refurbishment in 2000, church services took place at the football club.
See also
*
Listed buildings in Sheffield
There are about 1,000 listed buildings in Sheffield. Of these only five are Grade I listed, and 67 are Grade II*, the rest being Grade II listed. The buildings vary from a listed facade to the largest listed building in Europe (Park Hill, She ...
*
List of Commissioners' churches in Yorkshire
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bramall Lane, St Mary
Churches completed in 1830
19th-century Church of England church buildings
Grade II* listed buildings in Sheffield
Churches in Sheffield
Church of England church buildings in South Yorkshire
Commissioners' church buildings
Grade II* listed churches in South Yorkshire
1830 establishments in England