Banner Cross Methodist Church And Attached Rooms And Schoolroom

Banner Cross Methodist Church and attached rooms and schoolroom

This Methodist church complex on Ecclesall Road South comprises three principal structures: the main church completed in 1929 to designs by WJ Hale, a former church building now used as a schoolroom designed in 1907 by George Baines & Son of London and built by Charles Ward of Sheffield, and adjoining meeting rooms.

The 1929 church is built in coursed squared stone with red brick and concrete dressings beneath slate and flat roofs. Its design follows the Free Gothic Revival style. The building incorporates a chancel, vestries, meeting rooms, nave, west tower, porch and cloakrooms. The base features a plinth with low coped gables and parapets separated by flush string courses.

The chancel projects as a single bay gabled structure to the east, featuring a traceried 3-light window to the east and matching windows to the north and south. A crosswise block of church rooms is attached to the east end. This block rises two storeys with a 3-window range of 3-light cross casements, below which are three glazed double doors with side and top lights. Rendered panels occupy the spaces between floors, whilst flat buttresses divide the bays. The north gable includes a flat-roofed addition with a canted glazing bar bay window, whilst the south end contains similar bay windows on each floor.

The nave extends five bays with single buttresses to the east. Along both sides are three recesses containing segment-arched traceried double lancets beneath brick segmental arches. Between these recesses stand shouldered shallow projections, each containing a single lancet with a round-arched brick head.

A single storey vestry to the north-east incorporates a pyramidal rooflight and half-glazed double doors.

The west tower is squat and rectangular, rising two stages beneath a shallow pitched coped gable. Projecting battered cheeks flank each side, with the upper stage recessed and featuring slit openings on two sides. To the west are two elongated single lancets with round brick arches, transoms and tracery, and a moulded sillband. Between them stands a recessed cross with a round window above featuring brick surround and plate tracery. Below are a pair of round-arched doorways with imposts containing half-glazed double doors with fanlights, flanked by recessed panels.

Flat-roofed cloakrooms extend beyond the tower on either side, each featuring a 4-light flat-headed mullioned window with two small single windows on the returns.

The 1907 schoolroom building is constructed in rock-faced stone and brick with ashlar dressings, beneath gabled and hipped slate roofs. The design follows the Arts and Crafts style. A central hall is flanked by hipped cloakrooms and single storey meeting rooms, with a similar block across the east end. The coped west gable features a shouldered gabled pediment topped with a finial. Square tower buttresses with slit openings at the top and large overhanging flat leaded caps with tall finials stand on either side. A segment-arched traceried 5-light window in the Perpendicular style is set below, with a 3-light mullioned window flanked by segment-arched double doors with hoodmoulds. Hipped cloakrooms with 2-light mullioned windows stand beyond on either side, with similar windows on the returns. Steps lead to a paved forecourt with a low stone boundary wall featuring eight square gate piers with chamfered coping.

The main hall incorporates 6-light box dormers on either side. At the east end are a segment-arched 5-light window and two gable stacks. Meeting rooms have three 3-light windows of mid-20th century date. The crosswise block features three similar segment-arched windows and conical metal roof vents.

The church interior features an overall segment-arched roof constructed with built-up wooden beams on plain stone corbels and deep soffits. The ceiling exposes wooden rafters and plywood panels. The narrowed east end has two rendered pilasters flanking the stained glass east window, below which is a half-glazed door. Round-arched recesses stand on either side: the southern is blank whilst the northern contains organ pipes, each with a 3-light stained glass window above. A smaller round arch to the north contains organ pipes, and a half-glazed door stands to the south. The west end features a round arch containing a framed wooden gallery with plywood panels, with half-glazed doors with fanlights on either side below. The entrance lobby has round-arched openings at either end with half-glazed doors.

Original fittings include panelled benches and choir stalls, a modified panelled wooden pulpit, a mid-20th century communion rail and octagonal oak font. A 3-panel wooden war memorial tablet dating to around 1920 is among the memorials.

The schoolroom interior incorporates a mid-20th century ceiling with three-bay arcades on either side formed of square wooden posts with cornices carrying the aisle plate. Above are sections of open studding with braces forming round arches, with tie beams on arch brackets. Segment-arched panelled doors stand to the north and south. Two square corniced internal porches with double doors stand to the west.

WJ Hale (1862 to circa 1929) was a pupil of Innocent & Brown before establishing his own architectural practice in Sheffield in 1893. Between 1893 and 1914, he designed numerous noteworthy board schools and Nonconformist churches.