Church Of St Mary, Ecclesfield
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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, approximately 6 miles (9 km) north of Sheffield City Centre. Ecclesfield civil parish had a population of 32,073 at the 2011 Census. Ecclesfiel ...
,
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. It is situated north of the city centre. It is a Grade I
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 ...
, 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 "Hall ...
, 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 , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo- ...
, 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
(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, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...
. It has been implied by historians that the
Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
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 military 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 encour ...
the lands around Ecclesfield passed to
William de Lovetot William de Lovetot, Lord of Hallamshire, possibly descended from the Norman Baron Ricardus Surdus,* (wikisource) was an Anglo-Norman Baron from Huntingdonshire, often credited as the founder of Sheffield, England. It is unknown when de Lovetot a ...
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 northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...
,
Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...
, 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, Prince of Wales (later known as the Black Prince), and Joan, Countess of Kent. R ...
dissolved the alien priories and handed over the church to the
Carthusian The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians (), 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 own rule, called th ...
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 "Hall ...
. 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-ce ...
. 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 rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...
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, and was educated first at Charterhouse and then at Eton College. In 1831 he entere ...
.stmarysecclesfield.org.uk.
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 Assoc ...
.


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 (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...
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 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 , abbreviate ...
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. The church houses a rare carved Anglo-Saxon cross shaft dating to the early 11th century AD. It is around five feet high and is fitted into a double base. Found in 1892 buried outside the west door it has been reconstructed inside the church. Pieces of a second cross were uncovered in 2020 in the same location as the original find. In the churchyard is a
sundial A sundial is a horology, horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the position of the Sun, apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the ...
mounted on a base with what may be an ancient lower part. The grave of Joseph Hunter, a prominent antiquarian and archivist, and author of the important local history ''Hallamshire'' (1819), can be found in the churchyard. Also buried in the churchyard are
Alexander John Scott Alexander John Scott (23 July 1768 - 24 July 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, and had ...
, chaplain to
Horatio Nelson Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte ( – 21 October 1805) was a Royal Navy officer whose leadership, grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics brought about a number of decisive British naval victories during the French ...
, who was present at his death at the
Battle of Trafalgar The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement that took place on 21 October 1805 between the Royal Navy and a combined fleet of the French Navy, French and Spanish Navy, Spanish navies during the War of the Third Coalition. As part of Na ...
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 explosion, Oaks mining disaster which eventually killed more than 350 people. Biography Parki ...
, 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 was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...
Grade I listed churches in South Yorkshire Grade I listed buildings in Sheffield