![War Memorial Ecclesfield Church](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/War_Memorial_Ecclesfield_Church.jpg)
The Church of St Mary, Ecclesfield, is situated on Church Street in the village of
Ecclesfield
Ecclesfield is a village and civil parish in the City of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, about 4 miles (6 km) north of Sheffield City Centre. Ecclesfield civil parish had a population of 32,073 at the 2011 Census. Ecclesfield wards ...
,
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. It is situated north of the city centre. It is a Grade I
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 ...
, one of only five within the Sheffield city boundary. It was originally the parish church for
Hallamshire
Hallamshire (or Hallam) is the historical name for an area of South Yorkshire, England, approximating to the current City of Sheffield local government area.
The origin of the name is uncertain. The English Place-Name Society describe "Halla ...
, one of the largest parishes in England and in the seventeenth century was known as the “Minster of the Moors” due to its then rural situation.
History
The exact date for the creation of a church on the site of St Mary's is unknown. The name Ecclesfield, which may mean “Church in the Field” in the
Old English language
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th cen ...
, is mentioned in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
(though the church is not), so it is possible that there might have been some sort of place of worship there before the
Norman conquest of England
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, Duchy of Brittany, Breton, County of Flanders, Flemish, and Kingdom of France, French troops, ...
. It has been implied by historians that the
Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
founded a church on the site between 625 and 650.
After the conquest and the repercussions of the
Harrying of the North
The Harrying of the North was a series of campaigns waged by William the Conqueror in the winter of 1069–1070 to subjugate northern England, where the presence of the last House of Wessex, Wessex claimant, Edgar Ætheling, had encouraged An ...
the lands around Ecclesfield passed to
William de Lovetot
William de Lovetot, Lord of Hallamshire, possibly descended from the Norman Baron Ricardus Surdus,* (wikisource:Hallamshire. The History and Topography of the Parish of Sheffield in the County of York, wikisource) was an Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norma ...
at the start of the twelfth century. It was de Lovetot who built the first substantial church on the site, with a date of 1111 often given, however there is no written evidence to support this date. The church was given to the monks of
Fontenelle Abbey, near
Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...
,
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
, becoming an “alien priory”, a small group of monks came from France to live there. In 1386
Richard II
Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father died ...
dissolved the alien priories and handed over the church to the
Carthusian
The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians ( la, Ordo Cartusiensis), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has its ...
Monks of Coventry who held it until the
Dissolution of the Monasteries in the late 1530s, when it was handed over to the Lords of
Hallamshire
Hallamshire (or Hallam) is the historical name for an area of South Yorkshire, England, approximating to the current City of Sheffield local government area.
The origin of the name is uncertain. The English Place-Name Society describe "Halla ...
. The parish at the time was 82 square miles, one of the largest in England and because of this size, Ecclesfield had four churchwardens instead of the usual two and this tradition has been retained
Construction of the present day church began in 1478 and was completed around 1500, being built in the
perpendicular style
Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-c ...
. However, parts of the nave and the main pillars supporting the nave roof and the tower are from the earlier twelfth century building. Under
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
influence in the 1640s many of the church's decorative pieces and all the stained glass was smashed after a 1643 Act of Parliament that stated "all representations of any angel or saint in any… parish church…was to be taken away, defaced and utterly demolished." Some of the surviving glass from the windows was pieced together and put into windows in the north aisle and vestry. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw much re-ordering in the church especially to the nave and chancel under the respective vicars William Ryder and
Alfred Gatty
Alfred Gatty (18 April 1813 – 20 January 1903) was a Church of England vicar and author.
He was born in London to Robert Gatty, a solicitor, and Margaret Jones. In 1831 he entered Exeter College, Oxford, graduating in 1836. He was ordained a de ...
.
[stmarysecclesfield.org.uk.](_blank)
Gives church history.
Gives church history.
In 1878, a football club representing Ecclesfield Church joined the
Sheffield Football Association
The Sheffield and Hallamshire Football Association is a County Football Association in England. It was formed in Sheffield in 1867 as the Sheffield Football Association, and is the second-oldest football governing body after the Football Associ ...
.
Present day
The church thrives in the twenty-first century with a few modern touches such as a kitchen, lavatory and modern heating and lighting. In 2019, the building was registered as a Major Parish Church and in 2021, work was completed to open a revised entrance at the West End which provided level access with electric doors helping the able and less able to access without external assistance.The church is built of local stone and has an octagonal font. The pulpit dates from 1876 with four panels carved with scenes from St Paul's life, the lectern was installed at the same time. Since the Second World War, both the
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ove ...
and 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 ...
have been given new roofs. The tower contains a peal of ten bells, two of which date from the seventeenth century. Music in the church is provided by a pipe organ. The church yard contains a war memorial made from light coloured limestone, it was designed by
R. B. Brook-Greaves and has the names of 54 local people engraved on it who gave their lives in the First World War, 36 local people who gave their lives in the Second World War and one name of a man who gave his life in the Falklands War.
[stmarysecclesfield.org.uk.](_blank)
The vicar is the Revd. Dr. Tim Gill - the forty-third vicar of Ecclesfield. The memorial is Grade II listed.
A carved cross shaft lies inside the church. It is around five feet high and lies in a double base. In the churchyard is a
sundial
A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...
mounted on a base with what may be an ancient lower part.
The grave of
Joseph Hunter (1783–1861), a prominent antiquarian and archivist, and author of the important local history ''Hallamshire'' (1819), can be found in the churchyard, at plot 3, grave 1125. Also buried in the churchyard are
Alexander John Scott
The Reverend Doctor Alexander John Scott (1768–1840) was an Anglican chaplain who served in the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He served as Horatio Nelson's personal chaplain at the Battle of Trafalgar, an ...
, chaplain to
Horatio Nelson
Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was a British flag officer in the Royal Navy. His inspirational leadership, grasp of strategy, and unconventional tactics brought abo ...
, who was present at his death at the
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (180 ...
and his daughter
Margaret Gatty
Margaret Gatty ( Scott; 3 June 1809 – 4 October 1873) was an English children's author and writer on marine biology. In some writings she argues against Charles Darwin's ''Origin of Species''. She became a popular writer of tales for young pe ...
, a writer and botanist.
The grave of
Parkin Jeffcock
Parkin Jeffcock (27 October 1829 – 13 December 1866) was an English mining engineer who died trying to effect the rescue of miners during the Oaks mining disaster which eventually killed more than 350 people.
Biography
Parkin was born on 2 ...
, an English mining engineer who died trying to effect the rescue of miners during the
Oaks mining disaster can also be found there.
The current vicar is Revd. Dr. Tim Gill who was instituted on 28 July 2016 by the Bishop of Doncaster.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ecclesfield, Saint Mary
12th-century church buildings in England
Churches completed in 1500
15th-century church buildings in England
Churches in Sheffield
Church of England church buildings in South Yorkshire
English Gothic architecture in South Yorkshire
History of Sheffield
Saint Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...
Grade I listed churches in South Yorkshire
Grade I listed buildings in Sheffield