Banner Cross Methodist Church is situated in the district of

Banner Cross Nether Edge and Sharrow Ward , which includes the districts of Brincliffe, Nether Edge, Sharrow, and part of Highfield, is one of the 28 electoral wards in the City of Sheffield, England. It is located in the southern part of the city and cove ...

in the city of

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, England. The church stands on Ecclesall Road South, south-west of the city centre. The church and attached schoolroom as well as the boundary wall and gate piers are all Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

First church

Plans for a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

church in the Banner Cross district were formed in the early years of the 20th century when it was revealed that housing was to be built in the area. Prior to that Banner Cross had consisted mostly of farmland and secluded large halls and houses. In 1902 a group of trustees was formed to raise funds for a place of worship. Land was eventually purchased on Glenalmond Road, near its junction with Ecclesall Road South, and a church and school room was built at a combined cost of £3,034. The building was designed by the London architects George Baines and Son of Victoria Street and built by Charles Ward of Sheffield. It was opened on 27 June 1907 with the first minister being the Reverend W.H. Wheeldon. In 1921 a Church Extension Scheme was set up to raise funds for a larger place of worship on Ecclesall Road South next to the old church and on the same plot of land. By 1921 church membership had reached 200 and by 1928 £5,000 had been raised towards a new church.

New church is built

The architect of the new church was

William John Hale William John Hale (March 1862 – 25 November 1929) was an architect based in Sheffield, England, who produced the city's most striking early 20th-century architecture.''"Pevsner Architectural Guides – Sheffield"'', Ruth Harman & John Minnis, ...

who had previously built several churches and schools in Sheffield. The trustees authorised an overall budget of £10,000 for the church with £7,434 of this going to the builders W. Marlow and Sons Ltd. The official laying of the first stone took place on 21 April 1928 although on 30 June 1928 there was another stone laying ceremony organised by the Sunday School with 70 scholars taking part. The church was opened on 13 July 1929 with the dedicatory prayer given by the Reverend Richard Pyke. The old church was converted into a schoolroom and this enabled the

Sunday school A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Su ...

to expand and incorporate all its departments into one unit. A

manse A manse () is a clergy house inhabited by, or formerly inhabited by, a minister, usually used in the context of Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and other Christian traditions. Ultimately derived from the Latin ''mansus'', "dwelling", from '' ...

was built for the church in 1931 on Millhouses Lane and in 1937 a lecture hall was added to the church replacing an earlier wooden hut which had served the purpose for almost 20 years. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

one of the

vestries A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquially ...

was used as a library for the general public while the schoolroom was used as a Rest Centre. In 1962 the

congregation A congregation is a large gathering of people, often for the purpose of worship. Congregation may also refer to: *Church (congregation), a Christian organization meeting in a particular place for worship *Congregation (Roman Curia), an administra ...

was enlarged when the nearby Greystones and Montgomery Methodist Churches were closed. Banner Cross Methodist Church, A History of the Life of the Church
Gives history.

Present day

The current minister at Banner Cross is Reverend Tim Crome, the 20th serving cleric since the church was established in 1907. Reverend Crome started his ministry at the church on 1 September 2012, taking over from Robert D. Lewis. The church is open daily for various activities such as Coffee Mornings, Parent and Toddler group, Lunch and Friendship group.

Boys' Brigade The Boys' Brigade (BB) is an international interdenominational Christian youth organisation, conceived by the Scottish businessman Sir William Alexander Smith to combine drill and fun activities with Christian values. Following its inception ...

, Youth Club, Bible study, Brownies,

Rainbows A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows cau ...

and

Girl Guides Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) is a worldwide movement, originally and largely still designed for girls and women only. The movement began in 1909 when girls requested to join the then-grassroot ...

Architecture

The church is built in the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style and is constructed from coursed squared stone with red brick dressings around some of the more decorative windows. The main tower of the church has a

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

al look about it which has been compared to

The Cenotaph The Cenotaph is a war memorial on Whitehall in London, England. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, it was unveiled in 1920 as the United Kingdom's national memorial to the British and Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth dead of the First World W ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The design of the building is different from Hale's earlier churches, with a move away from complex detailing to a more simple style characterised by bold massing and rigid geometry. The adjacent 1907 church which now serves as the schoolroom is built in the Arts and Crafts style from rock-faced stone and brick, with

ashlars Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruvi ...

dressings and gabled and hipped slate roofs. Looking at Buildings: Banner Cross Methodist Church
Gives architecture and some history.

References

{{Churches in Sheffield Methodist churches in South Yorkshire Churches in Sheffield History of Sheffield Churches completed in 1929 20th-century church buildings in England Grade II listed churches in South Yorkshire Grade II listed buildings in Sheffield 20th-century Methodist church buildings