The Church of St. Silas in Sheffield

 

Gritty sandstone used for a capital at the church of St. Silas

Leaving the Broomhall Estate, after a good walk that had started at Banner Cross Methodist Church and included a quick survey of the Sheffield Board Schools at Greystones, Hunters Bar and Pomona Street, I finished by taking a look at the church of St. Silas on the corner of Broomhall Street and Hanover Street.

 

A general view of the south-west elevation

Apart from being on my list of buildings that I wanted to photograph for the British Listed Buildings website, it was built in 1869 to a design by JB Mitchell-Withers, the architect who was later responsible for extensions to the Sheffield School Board’s Central Schools on Leopold Street. I don't know much about this architect and I was curious to know what sandstones he had specified.

 

The upper stage of the tower

As with most Victorian churches, I saw very little of archaeological value and I was most interested in the detailing to the upper part of the tower, with its elaborately decorated string course and corbel table and winged grotesques on each corner.

 

A grotesque on the tower

The walling stone is well bedded and is laid in relatively thin courses, similar to the Crawshaw Sandstone, but the high iron content and frequently deeply weathered and scoured surface is not typical of this stone - as seen in numerous Sheffield Board Schools.

Ornamented string courses on the tower

This sandstone certainly differs from the other principal Sheffield sandstones I had encountered in my investigations to date, including the Greenmoor Rock, Grenoside Sandstone, Silkstone Rock and Parkgate Rock.

 

A deail of the tower

 

It contrasts strongly with the massive sandstone used for dressings, which has been used throughout throughout the church and can be closely observed around the south door. Here, on each side, there are double shafts with simple floriated capitals that look quite crudely carved.

 

Shafts and capitals to the south door

Looking closely, it can be seen that the capitals and other low level dressings are made in very coarse gritty sandstone, which is not suitable for fine carving and has weathered quite badly, to leave large angular grains of quartz standing proud of the surface.

 

A detail of the capitals