Church Of St Mary And Attached Chest Tombs

Church of St Mary and Attached Chest Tombs

This parish church on Handsworth Road, Sheffield, dates largely from the late 12th century, with significant later additions and alterations spanning several centuries.

The church is built of coursed squared stone and random rubble with slate and lead roofs, and a shaped plain tile roof to the chancel. The plan comprises a chancel, north chapel (dedicated to St Katherine, dating from around 1300), nave with north and south aisles, vestries and porches, and a west tower with spire. The tower itself is late 12th-century in origin, though its upper stages were rebuilt in 1825.

The chancel, dating to around the late 12th century, features a plinth, quoins, sillband, and coped gables with crosses. Its east end has three graduated single lancets with hoodmoulds. Below the windows sits a mid-19th-century round-cornered enclosure with an ashlar plinth and wrought-iron railing, containing four chest tombs of various styles dated 1658, mid-19th century, and 1889. The south side of the chancel has a central 19th-century doorway with a cusped head and hoodmould, flanked to the left by a shouldered blocked doorway, and to the right by a shallow buttress. Above the central door is a single lancet, with larger similar lancets on either side.

The north chapel of St Katherine, constructed around 1300, consists of two bays with an angle buttress, moulded parapet, and coped gable. Its east end features a restored three-light pointed arch window with intersecting tracery and hoodmould. To the north are two flat-headed two-light windows with label moulds.

The nave, dating from around 1472, has a crenellated parapet to the south, a string course, and a coped gable. The buttressed south aisle, rebuilt in 1904, contains three three-light pointed arch windows with moulded surrounds and panel tracery, with a similar four-light window at the east end. The buttressed north aisle, added in 1833, has a plinth and crenellated parapet with three single lancets to the north and a similar lancet to the west.

The west tower rises in three stages with angle buttresses and string courses. The ground stage has a 19th-century pointed doorway to the west, flanked by small buttresses and topped with a small single lancet. The second stage features a single lancet to the south with a hoodmould. The bell stage transitions to an octagonal upper part with thin diagonal buttresses topped with pinnacles and a crenellated parapet. Each side of the octagonal stage has two louvred single lancet openings and a clock above. Above these, on four sides, are traceried two-light pointed arch bell openings with hoodmoulds. The lower stages of the tower are rendered.

Flanking the tower are single-storey vestries in Perpendicular style. Each has two flat-headed two-light windows with tracery and elliptical arched doorways to north and south. The south vestry has a moulded parapet, while the north vestry is buttressed with a crenellated parapet. Additional vestries include a south aisle and south porch (both 1904, designed by John Dodsley Webster) and a choir vestry (1930).

Internally, the chancel contains a double chamfered arch dating to 1869 with keeled responds, and an arch-braced roof with struts. The east end features stained glass windows from around 1870 and an oak reredos from around 1915. The south side has a cusped-headed piscina and double sedilia from the 13th century, along with two doorways (one blocked) and a large blocked low-side window. Further south are stained glass windows from the mid and late 19th centuries. The north side features a double chamfered arch with keeled responds from the 14th century (altered in the early 19th century), covered by a late 20th-century glazed screen.

The north chapel contains a double chamfered western arch with a mid-20th-century glazed screen and an arch-braced roof. Its north side and east end feature stained glass windows by Christopher Webb from around 1935. The south side has a combined squint and piscina with a cusped-headed opening.

The nave contains a Transitional north arcade of three bays, raised in 1833 to accommodate the insertion of a gallery. The arcades feature double chamfered arches (the central one round-headed), with an octagonal east pier and round west piers, and a keeled respond to the east. The lower south arcade, added in 1904, has double chamfered arches with hoodmoulds and octagonal piers. The restored low-pitched roof features bosses and arch braces on corbels. The tower arch is largely obscured by a late 20th-century wooden organ case and gallery.

The north aisle has a Tudor-arched double door at its west end and three late 19th-century stained glass windows to the north. The south aisle features an arch-braced lean-to roof, a 19th-century east window with stained glass from 1875, and three further stained glass windows from the late 19th and early 20th centuries to the south. Its west end has an elliptical arched doorway.

Among the church's fittings are a 19th-century traceried ashlar font, a traceried octagonal oak pulpit, and benches with traceried ends. A brass eagle lectern dates to 1895. An 18th-century balustraded altar rail stands in the north chapel. Other fittings date to the late 20th century.

The church contains early and mid-19th-century marble and alabaster memorial tablets and brasses from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. A segment-headed marble and alabaster war memorial tablet dates to around 1920.

The church was substantially restored in 1869 by M.E. Hadfield, in 1880 by J.B. Mitchell-Withers, and again in 1934.