St. Marie's Cathedral Church in Sheffield

 

A detail of the effigy of Fr. Charles Pratt

 

My visit to Walkley to take advantage of the properties opened for the Heritage Open Days festival of 2024 wasn’t very successful and I made a mental note to return the following year, when all of the buildings are open and hopefully the lighting conditions in St. Mary’s church will be better.

 

A view from Fargate

Alighting from the No. 95 bus in Sheffield city centre, I made my way down Norfolk Row to the Gothic Revival style Grade II* listed Cathedral Church of St. Marie (1847-1850), designed by Weightman and Hadfield, which is built on a very restricted site and is not easy to photograph.

 

A view up the tower

I had walked down Norfolk Row very many times over the years, without taking much notice of it, but since taking an interest in the building stones used for Sheffield’s historic architecture while undertaking my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenges, I had become very curious about the yellowish Upper Carboniferous sandstone that is used for the walling.

 

A view along the south elevation

Since leaving Walkley, the very gloomy weather hadn’t improved and, although I didn’t stop to examine the stonework, I have often thought that this could well be Grenoside Sandstone, but I haven’t seen any documentation to confirm this.

 

The sculpture of the Annunciation by Thomas Earp

 

At the south-east corner of the cathedral, at the junction of Norfolk Row and Norfolk Street, there are various extensions – one of which is decorated with a deep relief sculpture, which is set in a canopied niche with two ogee arches and cinquefoils. The long Historic England (HE) description, with its usual complete lack of sentences and paragraphs, provides no information about these and although the cathedral website has a photo of the sculpture, it is not annotated.

 

A detail of the sculpture of the Annunciation

 

 Referring to the Pevsner Architectural Guide for Sheffield, Ruth Harman says that the building is a sacristy that was added in 1879 by M.E. Hadfield and Son. She adds that the sculpture is the Annunciation and made by Thomas Earp’s studio and, looking at the pale cream colour of the stone, my educated guess is that Ancaster limestone from Lincolnshire has been used for this.

 

A view along the nave to the chancel

 
Entering by the south porch, where Heritage Opens Days banners had been placed, I expected to be greeted by a volunteer - as had been my experience at every property that I have visited during many of these festivals – but I could not find a single person in the cathedral who might be able to provide some help and I didn't see any printed guide for a tourist. 

 

A shrine made with alabaster and Frosterley and Derbyshire marbles

 

I had been informed that the cathedral has a set of C15 alabaster relief sculptures and also that there is an example of the use of Frosterley marble from County Durham, which I have seen used as flooring in the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Leeds and in the C12 font at the Church of St. Mary and All Saints in Chesterfield. Wandering around the cathedral, I found this in the colonnettes of what I presume to be some kind of shrine, with back panels made of alabaster.

 

A Frosterley mable colonnette

 

The principal feature of Frosterley marble is the abundance of large solitary rugose corals set in an a black micritic matrix, the like of which I have seen in the field at Mullaghmore in Co. Sligo in the Republic of Ireland and at Hob's House landslip in Monsal Dale, Derbyshire.

Derbyshire fossil 'marble' with crinoid stems

This structure is topped with a slab of Lower Carboniferous Derbyshire fossil 'marble', from the Peak District National Park, which contains large crinoid stems that are also broken down into their ossicle components. The limestone formed as knoll reefs, which are common in the Eyam Limestone Formation, and was once widely quarried and polished as a decorative stone but the only supplier now is at Rowsley, which still obtains Mandale stone from the Once-a-week Quarry.

 

A column made with Derbyshire fossil 'marble'

 
Having a very quick look around the chancel and sanctuary, I noticed that crinoidal limestone has also been used for several columns, but I didn’t see it anywhere else. Continuing my wander, an altar in the mortuary chapel is made of what I thought was probably a green marble but, looking closely at my photo, I am wondering if it might actually be scagliola. 

 

The altar in the mortuary chapel

 

There is also an effigy of Fr. Charles Pratt (d.1849) by Thomas Earp that is holding a model of the church, which was heavily influenced by St. Andrew’s church in Heckington, Lincolnshire. I didn’t look at the material that it is made of, which seems to be coated with a grey pigment and the angel on the corner looks like it has been replaced. 

 

A detail of the effigy of Fr. Charles Pratt

 

HE state that it is made of alabaster but, as described in my recent post on the architecture in Huddersfield, in my experience their field workers very often make schoolboy errors when trying to identify the stone used in a building.

 

A headstop 

 
Ruth Harman also mentions that the reredos in St. Joseph’s chapel, also by Thomas Earp, is made of Caen stone and that green Pyrenean marble has been used for the shrine in this chapel and other marbles can be seen around the cathedral.

A headstop

On this occasion, I just took a few photos of the headstops and grotesques when leaving by the south porch but I will make a point of coming back in the near future and make a formal appointment to see the alabaster carvings.

 

A grotesque