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

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

, England at . It is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

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 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 ...

. 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 a ...

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. Often a chapel of ea ...

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 property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

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 prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the third Bishop of Leeds. Life and ministry Joseph Cowgill was born in village Broughton in North Yorkshire ...

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 185 ...

. 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 is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

. 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. He served as Archbishop of Liverpool from 1928 until his death. Life Born in Kilkenny, he was ordained to the priesthood on 25 May 1907. He was ...

Archbishop of Liverpool The Archbishop of Liverpool is the ordinary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool and metropolitan of the Province of Liverpool (also known as the Northern Province) in England. The archdiocese covers an area of of the west of the C ...

.''"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 of Leicestershire, England, the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University. At the 2011 census the town's built-up area had a population of 59,932 , the second larg ...

. 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 keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...

. 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 an ...

(1889–1977) carved the 14

Stations of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows or the Via Crucis, refers to a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and accompanying prayers. The station ...

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 from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

. The tympanum depicts scenes from a pilgrimage to

Lourdes Lourdes (, also , ; oc, Lorda ) 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 the Château ...

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 Eric Newton is an American journalist, Innovation Chief at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and a consultant for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, an organization created by one of ...

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, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

s for the

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

behind the

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...

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 ( la, Cor Jesu Sacratissimum) is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devo ...

with supporting angels in the

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

. 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 Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions) ...

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

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

'' 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 ( he, מִשְׁכַּן, mīškān, residence, dwelling place), also known as the Tent of the Congregation ( he, link=no, אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, ’ōhel mō‘ēḏ, also Tent of Meeting, etc.), ...

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