St Michael's Cemetery is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

burial ground in the

Rivelin Valley The River Rivelin is a river in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It rises on the Hallam moors, in north west Sheffield, and joins the River Loxley (at Malin Bridge). The Rivelin Valley, through which the river flows, is a -mile-long woodl ...

area of

Sheffield Sheffield is a 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 historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and metropolitan county, metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of City of Doncaster, Doncaster and City of Sh ...

, England. The cemetery stands on a steep hillside on the south side of Rivelin Valley Road at its junction with Rivelin Road and Hollins Lane.

History

In the early 1860s there was no consecrated ground for the burial of Catholic people within the boundaries of Sheffield. This came about largely because of past persecution resulting from the English Reformation of the 16th century. Father Burke of St Vincent's Church on Solly Street in the city, being quite concerned about this began a search for a suitable burial ground and finally purchased an eight-acre site on a sloping hillside in Rivelin Glen. The plot of land was bought for £600 in the Spring of 1862 from Mr. Wilson of Loxley, a member of the famous Wilson family of

snuff Snuff may refer to: Tobacco * Snuff (tobacco), fine-ground tobacco, sniffed into the nose ** Moist snuff or dipping tobacco ** Creamy snuff, an Indian tobacco paste Media and entertainment * Snuff film, a type of film that shows a murder Literat ...

manufacturers. The site was quickly enclosed and walled off at a further cost of £250 and received official Government approval as a burial ground on 25 August 1862. On 29 September 1862 (

Michaelmas Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, ...

day) Robert Cornthwaite, Bishop of

Beverley Beverley is a market and minster town and a civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located south-east of York's centre and north-west of City of Hull. The town is known fo ...

laid and consecrated the

cornerstone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over tim ...

of the original St Michael's chapel. When later writing about the laying of the cornerstone, Father Burke revealed the names of some of the benefactors who helped pay for the cemetery. He wrote, "a few humble Irish Catholics who had by good conduct and honest industry, realised a little property, offered to supply £500 or £600 to purchase a graveyard". They were Michael Monaghan, Lawrence Brown and James Callaghan. A further £200 was donated by a Mr. Hodgkinson "a worthy English gentleman" and these four along with Father Burke and Arnold Sutton of

Revell Grange Revell Grange is a Grade II listed English country house situated on Bingley Lane in the suburb of Stannington overlooking the Rivelin valley within the City of Sheffield, England. The house played an important role as a focal point of early Cat ...

were named as trustees of the cemetery. Walsh memorial, Rivelin cemetery

It is believed that the first interments in the new cemetery took place on 23 September 1862 when two young children Mary Mulvey, aged three and Catherine Hopkins, aged seven were buried at St Michael's. By the summer of 1863 the work on the cemetery and its chapel were complete with the final cost coming to £1,400. On 26 October 1863 the chapel was blessed by Father Burke and dedicated to St Michael the Archangel. In December of that year the St Vincent Catholic Young Men's Society donated a statue of Saint Patrick and a set of bas relief Stations of the Cross which were erected in the chapel. The original chapel was always meant to a temporary building and in 1877 a new permanent building was erected at a cost of £2,000, which was donated by George Harvey Foster, a local businessman in the tailoring trade, and his wife Mary Ann. This gift is marked by a marble plaque on the right (epistle) side of the chapel. The Foster family also have a family crypt close to the chapel, which is marked by an ornate pointed monument. The new chapel was opened and blessed, again by Robert Cornthwaite (now Bishop of Leeds), on 11 December 1877.''"A Detailed History of St Vincent‘s Church, Sheffield"'', No ISBN, pp. 40–51, Gives the general history of church and parish.

Chapel architecture

The chapel is in the

Early English style English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...

and was designed by the architects Messrs Hadfield and Son with Mr. M.J. Dowling used as the contractor. It is built of dressed Greenmoor wallstone with Worrall stone dressing, internally it is 22 feet wide and 72 feet long, the roof is covered by Staffordshire tiles. At the chapel's western end is a sixty foot high bell turret in which hangs a five cwt bell by Mears of London. The chapel was designated 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 ...

in December 1984. Gives details of chapel architecture. The cemetery's most notable grave is the Walsh monument, which is a Grade II listed structure. This is a vault and memorial constructed for the Walsh family, it consist of mostly

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

and

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

with decorative cast-iron railings and a figure on top. Gives details of Walsh memorial.

Interior

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 ...

is made of polished

and veined

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that include ...

and has a figure of the dead Christ lying beneath it, sculpted by Messrs R. L. Boulton & Sons of Cheltenham. 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. Ov ...

has a floor made of patterned

encaustic tile Encaustic tiles are ceramic tiles in which the pattern or figure on the surface is not a product of the glaze but of different colors of clay. They are usually of two colours but a tile may be composed of as many as six. The pattern appears inla ...

John Francis Bentley John Francis Bentley (30 January 1839 – 2 March 1902) was an English ecclesiastical architect whose most famous work is the Westminster Cathedral in London, England, built in a style heavily influenced by Byzantine architecture. Life Bentle ...

designed the three east windows which feature, The Risen Christ, The Blessed Virgin and St John, they were produced by the firm of

Lavers, Barraud and Westlake Lavers, Barraud and Westlake were an English firm that produced stained glass windows from 1855 until 1921. They were part of the 19th-century Gothic Revival movement that had a significant influence on English civic, ecclesiastical and domestic ...

. In 1884 the Foster family financed improvements to the interior to the tune of £430. These featured designs by

Nathaniel Westlake Nathaniel Hubert John Westlake FSA (1833–1921) was a 19th-century British artist specialising in stained glass. Career Nathaniel Westlake was born in Romsey in 1833. He began to design for the firm of Lavers & Barraud, Ecclesiastical Design ...

and Matthew Hadfield and included the west window (in memory of Father James Fitzgerald), the Sienese crucifix and wall paintings of the four Resurrections.''"The Lord's House – A History of Sheffield Roman Catholic Buildings 1570–1990"'', Denis Evinson, Sheffield Academic Press, , pp. 72–73, Gives details of interior.

War graves

The cemetery contains the graves of 30 Commonwealth service personnel, registered and maintained by the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations m ...

, 24 from

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and 6 from

World War II 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 opposing ...

.
CWGC Cemetery report.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Michael's Cemetery, Sheffield Cemeteries in Sheffield, General Roman Catholic cemeteries in England and Wales Grade II listed buildings in Sheffield 1862 establishments in England Grade II listed churches in South Yorkshire