Church Of St Matthew

Church of St Matthew

Parish church with attached railing, built in 1854–55 to designs by Flockton & Son. The chancel was added in 1884 by J D Sedding. The building was redecorated around 1960 by G G Pace. It is constructed in coursed squared stone with ashlar dressings and slate roofs.

The plan comprises a chancel and sanctuary, vestry and organ chamber, a five-bay nave with clerestory, aisles with a lady chapel and baptistry, and a west tower with spire.

The exterior is characterised by a plinth and coped gables. Windows are predominantly segmental pointed-arched with panel tracery. The chancel's east gable contains a five-light window with hoodmould and mask stops. The vestry to the right has a single gable, a single side-wall stack, and features a pointed doorway and an ogee-headed three-light window, both with chamfered flat-headed surrounds. A length of spiked railing measuring approximately 10 metres runs along the outside of the building.

The nave is five bays wide, with five pairs of two-light windows on each side of the clerestory. The aisles have blank sides and, at their buttressed west ends, four-light windows with chamfered heads and linked hoodmoulds. The south aisle has a similar window to the east. The projecting lower stage of the west tower forms the central feature of the west end, flanked by large canted buttresses and featuring a moulded segmental pointed doorway with a crenellated parapet bearing a war memorial Calvary. Above the door is a four-light window with hoodmould. The octagonal bell stage has thin angle buttresses topped with pinnacles and a crenellated parapet, above which stands a plain set-back octagonal spire.

The interior features nave and chancel roofs of queen-post truss construction with wooden wall shafts on corbels. The chancel has a double-chamfered arch with angel imposts. The south side features a chamfered arch into the lady chapel with a wrought-iron screen. A nineteenth-century stained glass east window is present in the chancel. The sanctuary, occupying the east bay of the nave, contains a moulded alabaster screen wall and wrought-iron gate. The nave has five-bay arcades with plain octagonal piers and chamfered arches with hoodmoulds, and a sillband to the clerestory. The west end features a double-chamfered tower arch supporting a traceried panelled gallery. The aisles have plain lean-to roofs and pointed doorways to the gallery at their west ends. The south aisle has a double-chamfered eastern arch with wrought-iron screen and gate into the lady chapel, and a side door with hoodmould at its west end.

The stained glass includes a chancel east window of 1884 by J D Sedding, and a north aisle west window of 1902 by Lavers & Westlake. Fittings include an octagonal panelled oak pulpit and font with repousse panels by H J Potter, dated 1903 and 1913 respectively. A carved altar and reredos of 1886 by J D Sedding are also present, along with elaborately carved stalls. An entrance screen dating to around 1960 was designed by G G Pace.

The church was an important centre of missionary and charitable activity in central Sheffield during the second half of the nineteenth century.