Notre Dame High School in Ranmoor

 

A general view of Oakwood

When approached by the Ranmoor Society to give an illustrated talk on the historic architecture of Ranmoor, with particular emphasis on the connection with the local geology, I was asked if I might be able to include places like Endcliffe Hall, Tapton Hall and Oakbrook – once owned by the steel magnates John Brown, Mark Firth and Edward Vickers respectively.

 

A History of Notre Dame High School

 

Endcliffe Park is a military site and is inaccessible to the general public, but I did manage to visit Tapton hall and after my guided tour of Ranmoor with Gerald Eveleigh, the society secretary, I popped into Notre Dame School to ask if it would be possible to have a look at the exterior of Oakwood, now the 6th form block, before the school summer holiday ended. 

 

The west elevation

In the last week in August 2022, following up my day out to Hickleton and Doncaster, the deputy headmistress showed me around the exterior of the Grade II Listed house (c.1855), designed in an Italianate style by Flockton, Lee and Flockton. 

 

The porch

The owner, Mark Firth, was one of the most important steel manufacturers and philanthropists in Sheffield in the C19 and became the Lord Mayor of Sheffield and the Master Cutler. The porch was added in 1875 by Flockton and Abbott when the Prince and Princess of Wales visited as Firth’s guests on a visit to the city. 

 

A balustrade marking the position of the Oak Brook

 

Approximately 200 metres to the north of Oakbrook, the Oak Brook rises from the junction of the Rough Rock and underlying mudstones, before flowing south and being culverted under Fulwood Road and then re-emerging in the grounds of Oakwood, where this marked by a balustrade. 

 

The burial ground for the nuns of the Sisters of Notre Dame

 

After being purchased c.1894 by W. S. Laycock, the house and grounds were sold in 1919 to the Roman Catholic Sisters of Notre Dame, who had been invited to England in 1845 to teach and had moved to the St. Vincent's district of Sheffield by 1855. The school that was founded was soon moved here and eventually a small area of was set aside as a burial ground for the nuns who worked, lived and died here. 

 

The south elevation

 

Moving back to Oakwood, I had a quick look at the medium grained sandstone that has been used in its construction. It has a very uniform slightly yellow colour and there is no obvious iron staining and it has a very even texture, which to me suggests that it might be Huddersfield stone, which became available in Sheffield after the Huddersfield and Sheffield Junction Railway opened in 1850.

 

Ionic capitals on the porch

 

The sandstone ashlar is still in very good condition, as are the carved details to the porch, which has a dentilated cornice and Ionic capitals. I didn’t spend any time examining the stonework and just walked around the building at a distance.

 

The west elevation

 

Except for the later porch, the only elaborate carving on the building is on the surrounds to the south doorway and its round arch, with a head carved on its keystone, and the first floor window surrounds above, which has elaborately carved corbels that incorporate animal’s heads. 

 

A detail of the south door

Having taken enough photographs of the exterior to illustrate my forthcoming talk, I was taken inside to one of the offices and given a couple of copies of A History of Notre Dame High School. Here, I took a record photo of a fine marble fireplace, which I presume is just one of many found in the interior of the house.

A marble fireplace