St Mary, Ecclesfield
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The Church of St Mary, Ecclesfield, is situated on Church Street in the village of Ecclesfield, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It is situated north of the city centre. It is a Grade I listed building, one of only five within the Sheffield city boundary. It was originally the parish church for Hallamshire, 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, is mentioned in the Domesday Book (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 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 Fontenelle Abbey or the Abbey of St. Wandrille is a Order of Saint Benedict, Benedictine monastery in the commune of Rives-en-Seine. It was founded in 649 near Caudebec-en-Caux in Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France. First foundation It was foun ...
, 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, 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 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. 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. 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 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.
Gives church history.

Gives church history.
In 1878, a football club representing Ecclesfield Church joined the Sheffield Football Association.


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 and the nave 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 R. or r. may refer to: * ''Reign'', the period of time during which an Emperor, king, queen, etc., is ruler. * '' Rex'', abbreviated as R., the Latin word meaning King * ''Regina'', abbreviated as R., the Latin word meaning Queen * or , abbreviat ...
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.
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 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