St Thomas is a former Anglican

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Ch ...

in the Brightside area 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 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

which now serves as a

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and uni ...

training school. The Sheffield and Rotherham Railway opened in 1838, and both industry and housing spread along its route through the

Lower Don Valley The Lower Don Valley, or historically the East End of Sheffield, is the mainly Industrial sector, industrial north-east quarter of Sheffield, England. Located on the River Don, South Yorkshire, River Don, it encompasses the areas of Attercliffe, ...

. Despite its booming population, the district of Brightside did not have an Anglican church, the local congregation instead meeting in a licensed room with a capacity of only seventy people. However, the district had two large

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

chapels, and the

Church Commissioners The Church Commissioners is a body which administers the property assets of the Church of England. It was established in 1948 and combined the assets of Queen Anne's Bounty, a fund dating from 1704 for the relief of poor clergy, and of the Ecc ...

supported the construction of an Anglican church with a grant of £100.M. H. Port (2006), ''600 New Churches: The Church Building Commission 1818–1856'' (2nd ed.), Reading: Spire Books, The total cost of construction was £1600, with the remainder being raised by subscription. A site of around one acre off Holywell Road was donated by the

Earl Fitzwilliam Earl Fitzwilliam (or FitzWilliam) was a title in both the Peerage of Ireland and the Peerage of Great Britain held by the head of the Fitzwilliam family (later Wentworth-Fitzwilliam). History The Fitzwilliams acquired extensive holdings in th ...

, and construction began in 1852, Canon Blackburn laying the foundations stone.William Odom, ''Memorials of Sheffield'', p. 143 It was completed the following year, with consecration by the

Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers ...

, Thomas Musgrave, taking place in 1854. It was designed by Flockton & Son, local architects who had already designed many buildings in Sheffield, including Christ Church, Pitsmoor, and the Anglican Chapel at the

Sheffield General Cemetery The General Cemetery in the City of Sheffield, England opened in 1836 and closed for burial in 1978. It was the principal cemetery in Victorian Sheffield with over 87,000 burials. Today it is a listed Landscape (Grade II*) on the English Herita ...

. In the Gothic revival style, it has a

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-typ ...

and single south aisle, with a tower and spire at the south-western corner. Initially, the church remained part of the parish of Grimesthorpe, but in 1864, it was given its own parish. In 1873, a memorial was erected to William Mannifield, who had been killed in an accident at the nearby Brightside Colliery.

George Pace George Gaze Pace, (31 December 1915 – 23 August 1975) was an English architect who specialised in ecclesiastical works. He was trained in London, and served in the army, before being appointed as surveyor to a number of cathedrals. Mo ...

conducted much work on the church, providing new decorations in 1957, then a new

altar An altar is a Table (furniture), table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of wo ...

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 ...

and

lectern A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon. A lectern is usually attached to a stand or affixed to some other form of support. ...

in the 1960s. It was

Grade II listed 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 Ir ...

in 1973, but was closed and deconsecrated in 1979. During the 1980s, it was used as the Sheffield School of Gymnastics, then in 1995 it was restored as part of the TV series ''

Challenge Anneka ''Challenge Anneka'' is a British reality programme that aired on BBC1 from 8 September 1989 to 15 October 1995 and was hosted by Anneka Rice. It was announced in 2006 that the series was returning, but this time on ITV. The first of the two ...

'', to serve as a training centre for

Greentop Circus Greentop Community Circus Centre is the only circus school in Yorkshire, England, and was established in 1995 on the TV programme ''Challenge Anneka ''Challenge Anneka'' is a British reality programme that aired on BBC1 from 8 September 1989 ...

.Big top tips for budding performers
, '' The Star'', 18 April 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brightside, St Thomas Grade II listed buildings in Sheffield Grade II listed churches in South Yorkshire Churches in Sheffield Churches completed in 1853 19th-century Church of England church buildings Church of England church buildings in South Yorkshire Commissioners' church buildings Former churches in Yorkshire

See also

References