Roman Catholic Church of St Catherine of Alexandria, boundary wall with railings, and ramp walls with railings and gates, Burngreave, Sheffield

Summary

Roman Catholic church, boundary wall and ramp walls with railings. 1925 to 1926 to designs by Charles Edward Fox & Son of Halifax. War memorial chapel and baptistry added in 1950. Romanesque style.

Description

Roman Catholic church, boundary wall and ramp walls with railings. 1925 to 1926 to designs by Charles Edward Fox & Son of Halifax. War memorial chapel and baptistry added in 1950. Romanesque style.

MATERIALS: the church is built of brick with stone or concrete dressings and a modern roof covering. The boundary and ramp walls are of brick with concrete dressings and railings.

PLAN: the church has a basilican plan with an aisled nave with a west narthex and gallery and an apsidal sanctuary with side altars placed at the end of the aisles. There are confessionals off the west end of the south aisle and a tall campanile at the south-west corner. On the south side is a single-storey block containing the sacristy and two small ancillary rooms. On the north side is the later (1950) war memorial chapel with a small canted baptistry at the west end. To the south-east is a presbytery* and link passageway*, which are both excluded from the listing.

EXTERIOR: the church is set back and raised above Burngreave Road with a boundary wall incorporating a double ramped approach. It is built of red brick in Flemish bond with white painted stone or concrete dressings, a shallow pitched roof over the nave and sanctuary and flat roofs with shallow, angled buttresses to the aisles and a flat roof to the single-storey sacristy.

The war memorial chapel and baptistry is also built of red brick in Flemish bond and has a flat roof behind a west gable.

The west end of the church faces the road. It has a stone plinth band and coping on brick corner corbels overhanging a narrow, moulded eaves cornice and decorative band. The central square-headed doorway has a moulded stone frame, plain rectangular over panel and enriched cornice, with timber square-panelled double doors. Set into the wall on either side of the doorway is a mosaic roundel depicting St Theresa to the left and St Catherine to the right. Over the doorway is a shallow arcade within the thickness of the wall with stone columns with bases and cushion capitals and round-headed arches, a moulded sill band and a dentil cornice. Above is a large stone wheel window enriched with marble bands. A square cross is set into the wall on each side. The slightly recessed lean-to ends of the side aisles both have a billeted and moulded eaves cornice and a round-headed window with a moulded frame and sill band.

At the right-hand, south-west corner the square campanile rises in three stages, with a stone plinth band, a billeted band between first and second stages, a dentil cornice between the second and third stages, and a dentil eaves cornice and a shallow pyramidal roof with a metal cross finial. The first stage has a narrow, round-headed lancet window. The second stage has an indented panel with a round-headed lancet window, a narrow decorative string band and a paired round-headed opening with a central column above, an arrangement repeated on the south side, with the paired opening also repeated on the east and north sides. The third stage has an indented panel with a row of round-headed arches to the head and a tripartite round-headed opening with two columns, repeated on the other three sides.

On the left-hand side is the recessed war memorial chapel and baptistry. The gabled west end has a moulded eaves cornice with a cross finial at the apex. The small, canted baptistry has a copper-clad polygonal roof and three vertical rectangular windows with a moulded lintel band and a moulded eaves cornice. Above the baptistry is a mosaic cross roundel with a moulded stone frame.

The south elevation has the campanile projecting at the left-hand end. It has a large square-headed doorway in the first stage with a flight of tiled steps with metal handrails to each side, a moulded stone frame with enriched cornice and timber square-panelled double doors with a rectangular overlight with geometric, leaded and coloured glass. Set slightly back in the return between the right-hand side of the campanile and the first bay of the south aisle is a projecting outshot for the confessionals with a lean-to roof against the first stage of the campanile. It has a circular window in the south elevation and three round-headed windows in the return east elevation. Above, the elevation has a row of six round-headed clerestory windows with moulded stone surrounds and a sill band. At the left-hand end is a white tile Greek cross set into the wall. The south aisle has two similar round-headed windows to the second and third bays and three circular windows above the flat-roofed sacristy block.

The east end of the church has a semi-circular sanctuary apse. The south aisle to the left has a circular window lighting the Sacred Heart Chapel. The north aisle is set back and has a small, canted apse to the Lady Chapel.

The north elevation has six similar round-headed clerestory windows with a white tile Greek cross at the right-hand end. The first two bays of the north aisle have similar round-headed windows, with a round window at the right-hand end of the elevation. The bays in between are obscured by the war memorial chapel, which has four round-headed windows with stone surrounds to the north elevation.

The west elevation of the sacristy block has two vertical rectangular windows, with one to the right-hand south return. The east elevation is in in line with the east end of the church. It has a circular window, with two vertical rectangular windows to the south return wall. Part of the south return wall is obscured by the single-storey link passage* to the presbytery*, which are excluded from the listing.

INTERIOR: the nave has a five-bay, round-arched arcade with cylindrical black marble columns with plain square bases and white marble cushion capitals with Byzantine style decoration. The nave and sanctuary are under one coffered ceiling and the aisle roofs are groin-vaulted, with pilaster responds. The windows contain decorative coloured glass of green, red, yellow and blue, incorporating Greek crosses.

The sanctuary and the side altars at the east end of the aisles are separated by marble altar rails and brass gates with red marble balustrades, inlaid piers and a rail of green Connemara marble. In front of the apse is a giant baldacchino. Four massive veined marble columns with plain, square bases and white marble capitals with Byzantine style carving support a large, open-arched, painted and gilded canopy with a central figure of Christ the King and a coffered underside. The high altar, which has been brought forward and slightly cut-down, has a grey veined marble panels set in orange veined marble frames. A bronze tabernacle stands on a matching plinth in the apse. At the back of the sanctuary, the east wall and the apse are lined with panelled marble and inlays with a mosaic frieze and a dentil cornice of green Connemara marble. On the right-hand side is an aumbry with embossed brass doors. The Lady altar is of coloured marble and mosaic with a statue of Our Lady set within an apsidal recess. The Sacred Heart altar is of carved, painted stone with a statue of the Sacred Heart.

At the west end is a narthex with two round-headed apertures and a central round-headed doorway opening into the nave, and a choir gallery over. The confessionals have two panelled timber doors with two small upper lights off the west end of the south aisle. The north aisle has large apertures with glazed screens and glazed doors to the war memorial chapel and baptistry and a separate meeting room at the east end. The war memorial chapel has a coffered ceiling and a plain stone altar. The canted west end baptistry has an octagonal marble font with an oak cover.

The sacristy block has multi-pane leaded windows, some with green glass frames.

SUBSIDIARY ITEMS: in front of the west end of the church is a mirrored double ramp with brick balustrade walling in Flemish bond with painted concrete chamfered coping and original iron railings between square brick piers with painted concrete caps with Greek cross in circle motifs. At pavement level is a central entrance with painted concrete gate piers with rounded tops and Greek cross in circle motifs and double iron gates incorporating a circle and diagonal cross motif.

To the left of the ramp is a similarly detailed brick and railing boundary wall with brick piers and concrete shaped gate piers to the wide vehicular entrance at the left-hand end. The boundary wall with railings* to the right of the ramp which curves round onto Melrose Road is excluded from the listing.

* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 ("the Act" it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest, however any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require LBC and this is a matter for the LPA to determine.

History

In the later C19 Canon Walshaw from St Marie's, Sheffield, founded a Catholic mission to serve the growing northern suburbs of Burngreave and Pitsmoor. A site in Andover Street was given by the Duke of Norfolk and a stone-built school with an upper room fitted out as a chapel was built from designs by M E Hadfield and Son, opening in 1876. Shortly afterwards a presbytery was built alongside, again at the expense of the Duke of Norfolk. The congregation soon outgrew the building and the Duke of Norfolk gave a new site on Burngreave Road for a larger, permanent church. In the meanwhile a freestanding temporary chapel was built on the existing site in 1884, again from designs by M E Hadfield and Son.

It was not until 16 July 1925 that Bishop Cowgill of Leeds laid the foundation stone of the present church, built at the instigation of the Revd (Canon) John White on the Burngreave Road site. The substantial basilican design was by Charles Edward Fox & Son of Halifax. It was opened by Bishop Cowgill on the feast of St Catherine, 26 November 1926. Soon afterwards an adjacent presbytery was built, facing onto Melrose Road.
The fine sanctuary furnishings, also designed by C E Fox, were added in 1936, when the altar (containing relics of St Theophilius and St Victoria) was consecrated by Bishop Poskitt of Leeds. The baldacchino, marble panelling, altar rails and gates were made by W H Fraley of Birmingham and the inlaid choir stalls were by L Conray of Sheffield.

In 1950 a war memorial chapel and baptistry was built off the north aisle and in 1951 the church was consecrated.

Reordering in about 1970 led to the shortening of the high altar, which was brought forward under the baldacchino. The choir stalls were removed and the sanctuary levels changed. Further minor alterations took place in 1985, and in 2008 there was a major programme of repair and refurbishment.

Reasons for Listing

The Roman Catholic Church of St Catherine of Alexandria, ramp walls with railings and boundary wall and railings to its left, of 1925 to 1926 by Charles Edward Fox & Son is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* as a well-executed and distinctive inter-war church designed in Romanesque style with a campanile, incorporating a boundary railed wall and mirrored double ramp entrance to the raised site;

* a basilican plan unifying nave and sanctuary under a coffered ceiling with a small semi-circular apse framing the high altar and baldacchino, demonstrating the contemporary move towards engaging the congregation with the Eucharist;

* a well-detailed interior with a clean simplicity of geometrical spaces set off by the high-quality polished black-marble columns and white-marble Byzantine cushion capitals of the round arched arcades and the richly-coloured marble and mosaic decoration lining the sanctuary;

* the finely-crafted sanctuary furnishings of 1936 designed by Charles Edward Fox and made by the stonemason W H Fraley of Birmingham, including the impressive canopied baldacchino with massive veined-marble columns and white-marble Byzantine capitals, and the decorative coloured-marble altar rails with pierced brass gates;

Historic interest:
* standing on a prominent raised corner site where it forms a landmark amongst the houses, the church is a good representative example of the inter-war churches built to serve new suburbs;

* the Romanesque design of the church was a style consciously linked with Catholic churches in the wake of Westminster Cathedral (1895-1903) which deliberately avoided the Gothic style of the nearby Anglican Westminster Abbey;

* the Halifax architect Charles Edward Fox designed a number of listed Catholic churches in the Diocese of Leeds (St Catherine's original diocese), including the listed Holy Spirit RC Church, Heckmondwike.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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