Church Of St Lawrence

Church of St Lawrence

A parish church on St Lawrence Road in Tinsley, Sheffield, dated 1879 and designed by George Edmund Street. A vestry and parish room were added in 1925. The building is constructed of coursed squared stone with ashlar dressings and plain tile roofs, in the Gothic Revival style.

The plan comprises a chancel, a nave with a north aisle, porches, vestries, and a parish room.

Exterior

The building sits on a plinth with a sill band and string course. The walls are finished with coped gables and feature pointed arch windows throughout.

The chancel projects eastward with a gable topped by diagonal buttresses. Its east face contains a five-light window with a hoodmould, flanked on either side by two-light windows. The lean-to south vestry has two-light windows to its south and east faces and a doorway with a hoodmould on the west.

The nave comprises four bays and has a corner stack to the east, topped with a gabled triple bellcote and weathercock. The west end is buttressed and features a three-light window flanked by lower blank two-light windows. The south side has low buttresses with three three-light windows connected by linked hoodmoulds. Between the right pair of windows is a segmental pointed doorway. To the left of the south porch are two small lancets. The gabled south porch contains a doorway with a crocketed hoodmould, an arch-braced roof inside, and a moulded doorway with flat interior.

The north aisle is buttressed and contains three two-light windows. Its west end features a moulded doorway with a gable and flanking buttresses, topped by a quatrefoil window above. A flat-roofed north porch with a parapet has an angled moulded doorway flanked by single lancets; two further similar lancets face north.

The gabled parish room to the north has two four-light chamfered mullioned windows in its north gable and a similar three-light window to the west. The north-east organ chamber has a two-light window to the east.

Interior

The chancel is entered through a moulded arch with a hoodmould. Its north side contains a segmental arch with a Decorated style screen opening to the organ chamber. The east end features a Decorated style wooden reredos dated 1896 and a late 19th-century stained glass window. The south side holds a 20th-century stained glass window, while the west contains a single sedilia and a doorway. The chancel roof is arch-braced with common rafters.

The nave has a four-bay north arcade with a coved octagonal central pier; the other piers are clustered, all with moulded imposts. The roof is a double purlin principal rafter design with wind braces and ogee arch braces. The west end holds a stained glass window dated 1893.

The north aisle has a lean-to roof. Its north-east window has been altered to form a serving hatch. The east end features a chamfered pointed recess with a doorway to the left and an opening to the organ chamber to the right, with a round window above.

Fittings and Furnishings

The church contains a half-round traceried ashlar pulpit of 19th-century date, shaped-ended stalls, and plain benches. A brass eagle lectern was added in 1925. The font is traceried, panelled, and octagonal, 19th-century in date, with a very large spired oak cover. The font cover and eight cruciform spired pendant lights were designed by George G. Pace around 1955. Other pieces include a late 18th-century parish chest and communion table. Memorials comprise a 20th-century marble and alabaster war memorial tablet and a brass memorial dated 1715.