Church Of St Luke

This Anglican church was built in 1915–16 to the design of F Norman Masters of Doncaster. It is constructed of red brick with stone dressings, with slate roofs to the nave and aisles, and plain red tiles covering the two apse roofs.

The building takes the form of a basilica with a semi-circular apse at each end—one containing the sanctuary, the other the baptistery—and includes a narthex.

Exterior

The nave comprises eight bays divided by brick pilasters, with a brick corbelled and dog-tooth eaves cornice, and stone copings topped by a cross at the east end. At the east end, the two chancel clerestory bays each contain two round-headed windows with continuous brick head-moulds and stone sills. The window frames are metal with small-pane glazing. Each nave clerestory bay has three similar round-headed windows, except the westernmost bay, which is blind.

The south aisle consists of eight corresponding bays with a similar eaves cornice. The left (westernmost) bay has a round-headed doorway opening into a porch, which has a wide round-headed opening with a metal grille to the side elevation. Behind the porch is a round-headed archway fitted with wooden double doors in a square trellis pattern, with a wooden overlight of diagonal trellis-work. The sixth bay from the left contains a second, flat-headed doorway opening into the aisle, with a wooden square trellis-work door. The remaining bays each have two round-headed windows similar to those in the nave clerestory.

The north aisle is of six bays with a projecting single-storey gabled vestry at the east end and a projecting two-storey structure at the west end. This western structure houses the narthex porch and was intended to form the base of a campanile, which was not built due to lack of funds. The aisle has a flat-headed doorway in its left (easternmost) bay leading into the vestry lobby, with a narrow adjacent round-headed window. The remaining bays are similar to those in the south aisle, each with two round-headed windows with metal frames with small-pane glazing. The vestry gable wall has two round-headed windows with stone sills, set under a single semi-circular brick relieving arch. The north elevation of the campanile base has two tall round-headed recesses incorporating three narrow windows, with a stone band above originally intended to carry the second stage of the campanile. This was instead modified to form a double-pitched roof with a wooden louvre for a bell.

The narthex porch has a large doorway in the west elevation with a stone surround featuring an engaged column on each side set against two square pilasters, with composite capitals incorporating stylised Byzantine basket-weave and Ionic capitals. Giant fluted consoles support a dentilled cornice and stone tympanum incised with a central circle and spandrel to each side. The tympanum is set within a receding round-headed brick arch. There are double wooden doors in a square trellis pattern. To the right (south) side of the doorway is an open-fronted five-bay arcade at first-floor level, with round-headed arches and stone columns with Byzantine basket capitals. The central bay has a projecting rectangular pulpit of carved stone supported on a central moulded stone corbel and console. Either side of the console, at ground-floor level, is a pair of small round-headed windows with stone sills, brick head moulds, and metal frames with small-pane glazing.

At both east and west ends is a semi-circular apse. The east apse is larger, with three round-headed windows separated by brick pilasters. They have stone sills, brick head moulds, and metal window frames. The west apse projects straight out one bay before returning to the semi-circular form. The three round-headed windows have similar detailing.

Interior

The building has brick round-headed arches, with brickwork up to dado height in the aisles, porches, vestry and Lady Chapel (painted white in places), and three-quarter height in the sanctuary and baptistery (the former now painted white). Above this level, the walls are plastered and painted white. The arcade arches are separated by full-height brick pilasters and have moulded stone capitals, with square Byzantine basket capitals to the chancel, sanctuary and baptistery arches. The nave and two aisles have wooden parquet flooring, with terrazzo flooring to the chancel, sanctuary, narthex, and baptistery, set with mosaics in simple geometric designs of orange and black Sicilian marble tesserae. The nave and chancel have canted, plastered ceilings, with trusses supported on the pilasters and the intervening space divided into squares by applied moulded timbers.

The central window in the sanctuary has stained glass depicting Christ on the Cross. The altar is of marble (covered), and there is a round-headed aumbry on each side.

The chancel is of two bays. On the north side is an organ in the west (left) bay and a round-headed archway in the east (right) bay, in-filled with a wooden and glazed screen with a door into the vestry. The screen is divided into three by wooden pilasters with basket-weave capitals, and a lintel separates the tympanum, which is filled with glazed trellis-work. On the south side are two round-headed archways with similar wooden and glazed screens with trellis-work to the tympanums. The east (left) screen has a door into the Lady Chapel.

On the north side of the easternmost bay of the nave is a hexagonal, moulded wooden pulpit set on a moulded stone base. At the west end of the nave and aisles is a narthex. Both aisles have an arcade of two round-headed arches, the outer arches forming openings in-filled with trellis-work, the inner ones forming doorways into the narthex. In the west outer wall of the south side of the narthex is the foundation stone, inscribed 'TO THE GREATER GLORY OF GOD THIS STONE WAS LAID BY ANNETTE SREATFEILD (sic) OF ROSSINGTON HALL DECEMBER 15TH 1915'. Against the west outer wall of the north side of the narthex are two stone benches. Above is a small first-floor balcony, now blocked up, overlooking the nave.

In the centre of the baptistery is a small, marble octagonal font set on a stone base. On the north side of the baptistery are steps up to the open-fronted arcade and open-air pulpit. At the far end of the arcade is a ringing chamber and a second unidentified room.

The vestry was originally divided into a clergy vestry and a choir vestry by a folding screen (now removed). On the west wall of the inner clergy vestry are two built-in cupboards. There are also two adjacent doorways in the west wall leading into the vestry lobby. The doors have two lower panels with small-pane glazing to the upper third. On the north side of the vestry lobby is a water closet with a similar door.

The Lady Chapel has a round-headed, recessed-arch doorway from the south aisle.

Historical Context

Early in the 20th century the coalfields of South Yorkshire were being expanded, resulting in the establishment of new villages near the collieries to house the huge influx of workers. New Rossington was built to serve Rossington Colliery, which became operational in 1915. The village was partly laid out to a circular plan with radiating roads, with the church located on the innermost road, now known as 'The Circle'.

St Luke's was built in 1915 under the auspices of the South Yorkshire Coalfields Extension Committee, whose aim was to provide for 'the spiritual needs of Colliers as new centres of mining activity were developed in the surrounding areas'. The Committee also funded the building of churches at Maltby (Church of the Ascension), Edlington (St John the Baptist), and New Bentley (St Philip and St James). All the churches were brick basilicas, designed as variations on a theme by local architect F Norman Masters. A fifth church (All Saints' at Woodlands) was the gift of Mr C Thelluson of Brodsworth Hall, and built in a Gothic style.

St Luke's was dedicated by the first Bishop of Sheffield on St Luke's Day, 18th October 1916, after which he ascended to the open-air pulpit to address the congregation. The church was originally a chapel of ease to the 12th-century St Michael's Church of the original village of Rossington, but became a parish church in its own right in 1956.

The church is significant as an example of the reviving interest in the architecture of the early Christian church in the early 20th century. It was an integral designed element of a new planned coalmining village, and is the most intact and unaltered example of a group of four such brick churches designed as variations on a theme by F Norman Masters. It has the added interest of an unusual open-air pulpit, and the interior remains unaltered with integrally designed fixtures and fittings, including an organ, hexagonal pulpit, marble font, and wooden trellis-work screens infilling arches.