Sacred Heart Church is located in Forbes Road in the Hillsborough district of the city of

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

, England at . It is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church in the

Diocese of Hallam The Diocese of Hallam () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in England. The diocese comprises the whole of the City of Sheffield, and the surrounding towns of Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley, Chesterfield ...

and is a 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 ...

. The church is situated in an elevated position and its tower is a prominent landmark in the area.

History

Since the 1850s the Catholics of Hillsborough and Lower

Walkley Walkley is a suburb of Sheffield, England, west of Burngreave, south of Hillsborough and north-east of Crookes. The area consists mainly of Victorian stone-fronted terraced housing and has a relatively high student population. It also has ...

had worshipped at the

Hillsborough Barracks Hillsborough Barracks is a walled complex of buildings between Langsett Road and Penistone Road in the Hillsborough District of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Early history The complex, which covers an area of circa , dates from 1848, re ...

chapel. However the increase in population necessitated that larger premises were needed and on 19 July 1903 the Sacred Heart school-chapel was opened on land between Forbes Road and Ripley Street which had been purchased for £1,080. The chapel-school which was designed by C.M. Hadfield acted as a

Chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...

for the St Vincent's parish and cost £3,000. The building still exists today and it houses the Sacred Heart Primary School. The parish of Sacred Heart Hillsborough was created in 1920, becoming independent of St Vincent's on 5 August that year. R.J. Dunford was the first priest and at that time the parish had no church, Father Dunford initially conducted

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

in the chapel-school. A temporary church was eventually established and opened in February 1921 at a cost of £3,000. It was not until May 1935 that work started on the parish’s permanent church and on 7 July that year the foundation stone was laid by

Joseph Cowgill Joseph Robert Cowgill (23 February 1860 – 12 May 1936) was an English people, English prelate of the Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church. He served as the third Roman Catholic Bishop of Leeds, Bishop of Leeds. Life and ministry Jose ...

Roman Catholic Bishop of Leeds The Bishop of Leeds is the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Leeds in the Province of Liverpool, England. The Vicariate Apostolic of the Yorkshire District was elevated to diocese status as the Diocese of Beverley on 29 September 1850 ...

. The cost of construction of the church was £13,000 and £10,000 of that was donated by the widow of Philip Wake KSG, JP, magistrate for the

West Riding The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The lieutenancy at that time included the city of York a ...

. The church was opened on 25 March 1936 with a celebration of High Mass and sermon read by

Richard Downey Richard Downey (5 May 1881 – 16 June 1953) was an English prelate of the Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Ch ...

Archbishop of Liverpool The Metropolitan Archbishop of Liverpool is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool and Metropolitan bishop, metropolitan of the Province of Liverpool (also known as the Northern Province) in England. Th ...

.''"A Detailed History of St Vincent's Church, Sheffield"'' Gives historical information.

The Church

The church was designed by the architect C. M. Hadfield (of Hadfield & Son) and was constructed from specially made thin red bricks with an unusual surface texture. The external brickwork facing is unusual in that it employs Monk bond coursing which is rarely used. It has been called "one of the best interwar churches in Sheffield". Originally, the church had just one large bell supplied by

John Taylor Bellfounders John Taylor Bell Foundry (Loughborough) Limited, trading as John Taylor & Co and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry, Taylor's of Loughborough, or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell foundry. It is located in Loughborough, ...

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood (borough), Charnwood Borough of Leicestershire, England; it is the administrative centre of Charnwood Borough Council. At the United Kingdom 2021 census, the town's built-up area had a popula ...

. It weighs over one ton and is in the tone of "D". In 1948 the bell tower was strengthened and a peal of smaller bells was added by the same company to complement the tenor bell. The bells are played in the manner of a

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a musical keyboard, keyboard and consists of at least 23 bells. The bells are Bellfounding, cast in Bell metal, bronze, hung in fixed suspension, and Musical tuning, tu ...

. The sculptor

Philip Lindsey Clark Philip Lindsey Clark (1889–1977) was an English sculptor. Background Philip Lindsey Clark was born in London. His father was the sculptor Robert Lindsey Clark. He worked with his father at the Cheltenham School of Art from 1905 to 1910 and ...

(1889–1977) carved the 14

Stations of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Via Dolorosa, Way of Sorrows or the , are a series of fourteen images depicting Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and acc ...

which are arranged around the internal walls, his other contributions are the statue of the Sacred Heart at the main door and the carvings in the tympanum above the door which is made of

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone geological formation (formally named the Portland Stone Formation) dating to the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic that is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The quarries are cut in beds of whi ...

. The tympanum depicts scenes from a pilgrimage to

Lourdes Lourdes (, also , ; ) is a market town situated in the Pyrenees. It is part of the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. Prior to the mid-19th century, the town was best known for its Château fort, a ...

and the figure in the water may be that of Alfred Wood, a parishioner who was cured of his paralysis during a pilgrimage in 1930.The Tablet 21 June 1930 p 24, http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/21st-june-1930/24/lourdes-a-paralytic-recovers-among-the-pilgrims-to Canon Dunsford and the architect are depicted in the tympanum among the pilgrims. SHapse

Eric Newton created the

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

s for the

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a Church (building), church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular a ...

behind the

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

and above each of the two side chapels, the most striking of which is a figure of the

Sacred Heart The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus () is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is p ...

with supporting angels in the

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

. He added more mosaics in the side chapels in 1961 to commemorate the church’s silver jubilee. More changes were made to the sanctuary in the late 1960s as a result of the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

. The altar was moved forward to enable Mass to be celebrated ''

versus populum ''Versus populum'' (Latin for "towards the people") is the liturgy, liturgical stance of a priest who, while celebrating Mass (liturgy), Mass, faces the people from the other side of the altar. The opposite stance, that of a priest facing in the ...

'' and at the same time it was shortened, the left-over stone being used to form a table for the

tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle (), also known as the Tent of the Congregation (, also Tent of Meeting), was the portable earthly dwelling of God used by the Israelites from the Exodus until the conquest of Canaan. Moses was instru ...

which remains in its original position at the rear of the sanctuary. In 1983 a slightly pitched roof replaced the flat one after the church had trouble with leaks for a number of years."''Sacred Heart Church 1936–1986 Golden Jubilee''" (Booklet), Gives history and church details. This is available on the parish website."''Pevenser Architectural Guides – Sheffield''", Ruth Harman & John Minnis, Gives architectural details and the quote: "one of the best interwar churches in Sheffield". The roof was once again replaced in the late 2000s.

References

External links

Parish website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hillsborough, Sacred Heart

Roman Catholic churches in Sheffield Roman Catholic churches completed in 1936 Roman Catholic churches in South Yorkshire Grade II listed buildings in Sheffield Grade II listed churches in South Yorkshire Matthew Ellison Hadfield buildings 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom