Roman Catholic Church of St Joseph and Presbytery and boundary wall, Wath upon Dearne, Rotherham

Summary

Roman Catholic church and adjoining presbytery, boundary wall and gate piers. 1878-1879 to designs by M E Hadfield and Son. Perpendicular Gothic style.

Description

Roman Catholic church and adjoining presbytery, boundary wall and gate piers. 1878-1879 to designs by M E Hadfield and Son. Perpendicular Gothic style.

MATERIALS: the church and presbytery are built of coursed, squared sandstone blocks with stone dressings and a red tiled roofs. The boundary wall is built of coursed, squared sandstone blocks with stone dressings and gate piers.

PLAN: the church has a five-bay unaisled nave and a two-bay sanctuary under one roof with a north porch and a north projection for the organ chamber and a single-storey sacristy and a confessional on the south side. Attached to the sacristy and adjoining passage is the two-storey presbytery.

CHURCH

EXTERIOR: the church has a moulded plinth and a moulded sill band to the sanctuary. The division between the sanctuary and nave is marked by stone coping to the red tiled roof and a small stone bell turret with shaped openings for the two bells and mechanisms and an octagonal spire. The east end has angled corner buttresses with blind tracery panels, and a five-light pointed-arch window with Geometrical tracery and a hood mould. The gable has kneelers, coping and a stone cross finial at its apex. The north and south sides of the sanctuary are both lit by a square-headed window with hood mould containing three lights with tracery heads. The north elevation faces the road and is seven bays in length. To the right of the sanctuary window the second bay has a small rectangular windowless projecting organ chamber with gabled buttresses with blind tracery panels and a corbel table with carved heads and flowers. The nave to the right has square-headed windows. The windows to the third and seventh bays have three lights with tracery heads, those to the fourth and fifth bays have two lights with tracery heads and the bays are separated by a buttress. The sixth bay has a projecting gabled porch with angled corner buttresses, coping and a stone cross finial. The pointed-arch doorway has a hood mould and a plank door, with a projecting, crocketed niche above with a (painted) statue of St Joseph holding the infant Jesus. The west end has angled corner buttresses and a four-light pointed-arch window with Geometrical tracery and a hood mould. The gable has kneelers, coping and a stone cross finial at its apex. The south elevation has four similar square-headed windows of two and three lights with tracery heads lighting the nave with a buttress between the second and third bays. To the right is the lean-to confessional and the link passage and sacristy which abut the presbytery. To the right is the sanctuary window.

The front, east elevation of the sacristy has squared stonework and a coped plinth which course through to the presbytery. It has a square-headed doorway with rectangular tracery overlight and a square-headed window to the immediate left of two lights with tracery heads.

INTERIOR: the five-bay nave has an arch-braced wagon roof with wall shafts and corbels and a sill band. The walls are plastered and painted with a modern pine panelling dado. On both sides of the wide chancel arch is a canopied niche containing a statue of Our Lady (to the left) and the Sacred Heart (to the right). The sanctuary reredos has richly carved panelling and niches of Beer stone containing statues of St Joseph and St Peter. Relief panels on each side represent the deaths of St Joseph and the Blessed Virgin. The altar and tabernacle are of polished alabaster and the altar slab is of Hopton Wood marble. Beneath is a sculptural representation of the Dead Christ, his head and feet supported by angels, in white polished alabaster. The East window depicts the Crucifixion, St Augustine, St John of Beverley, St Ann and St Mary Magdalen. It is designed by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, as are the two side windows in the sanctuary. On the north side of the sanctuary is a pipe organ by James Conacher and Sons of Huddersfield. On the north side of the nave are stained glass windows by E R Frampton (1855), Lavers and Westlake (1904) and a memorial window to Frederick Cadman, died 1880, erected by his widow, Margaret. There are also two stained glass windows on the south side of the nave.

PRESBYTERY

EXTERIOR: the two-storey presbytery has a three-bay front elevation facing east onto Carr Road. To the left is a wide, gabled bay, with a narrow, slightly recessed gabled bay to the centre and a recessed third bay, the wall face flush with the sacristy to its right, and with a stone gable stack. The elevation has a coped plinth and narrow moulded band between the ground and first floors which also formed a hood mould over the deep lintel of the central doorway. To the left on the ground floor is a stone cross-frame window and to the right is a six-light stone mullion and transom window. The first floor has three-light stone mullion windows to the first and third bays and a single-light window over the doorway. All the windows and the door and overlight have replacement uPVC frames. The left bay has a small, square-headed lancet to the gable apex. A down-pipe between the two gables has a hopper dated 1878.

The original south, garden elevation is of four bays with a large, stepped stone stack between the first and second bays and a ridge stack between third and fourth bays. It has single-light and two-light square-headed windows with a lean-to bay window to the fourth bay. The windows have replacement uPVC frames. At the left-hand end is a two-bay extension with a single-storey, flat-roofed outer bay and a lower two-storey bay both faced in coursed stone-work (the outer gable wall of the two-storey bay is built of brick). The outer bay has a doorway and the second bay has a ground-floor window and blocked first-floor window.

INTERIOR: a number of original features remain including painted, six-panelled doors on the ground floor and four-panelled doors on the first floor and simple moulded cornices to the entrance hall and main rooms on both floors. The main entrance doorway has an inner porch with painted, half-glazed double doors and rectangular overlight. The staircase and first-floor landing have painted-timber balustrades with turned balusters, moulded handrails and octagonal newel posts with shaped finials and pendants to the upper newels.

SUBSIDIARY ITEMS: the church and presbytery are bounded by a wall of squared, coursed stone with shaped and dressed coping stones. The wall is stepped alongside Carr Road to the east with curved corners at each end. At the right-hand end at the junction with Doncaster Road is a curved, inscribed name panel for Carr Road set into the wall. The presbytery and church have pedestrian gateways in the east stretch of wall with shaped, monolithic stone gate piers set on deep plinths with shaped caps. The north stretch of wall alongside Doncaster Road has a wider gateway with similar gate piers to the right-hand return. The stone wall continues a short distance to the right of the gateway, which also has an internal flight of steps up to the higher pathway leading to the north porch with a short, inner retaining wall with shaped coping. The south wall, enclosing the presbytery garden has a vehicular entrance at the left-hand end. On the right-hand side is a round-headed stone gate pier; that to the left has been replaced with a similarly-shaped concrete gate pier. All the gateways have modern metal gates.

History

In 1877 a Catholic mission was established in Wath-upon-Dearne under the Revd Charles Locke. Margaret Cadman had approached the Revd Locke the previous year to discuss the potential of converting the billiard room at her home (Cross House) into a public chapel. In the event the Cadman family, along with another prominent local family, the Nicholsons, financed the building of a new church and presbytery. The church was built to the designs of Matthew Ellison Hadfield and his son Charles, in a Perpendicular Gothic style based on late-C15 churches in the area. The church accommodated 300 and was opened on 5 May 1879 by Bishop Cornthwaite of Leeds. The Tablet published a detailed description, which said the design of the church had been carefully studied from the old churches of the district erected at the end of C15. It described the division of nave and sanctuary marked by a 70ft (21m) fleche with two bells and the entrance porch which led into a well-proportioned interior, consisting of a nave 61ft by 24ft (18.6m by 7m) and a 24ft (7m) long sanctuary with an organ chamber placed on the north side, and with oak benches or choir stalls. The five-light east window was a gift of Miss Cadman (Mrs Gerard Young) and depicted the Crucifixion, St Augustine, St John of Beverley, St Ann and St Mary Magdalen. It was designed by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, as were the two side windows. The carved stone font with an oak cover in the south-west corner was the gift of Mr F S Cadman. The church had open benches of pitch pine, the sanctuary had a pavement of Goodwin’s encaustic tiles and the nave was laid with blue and red quarry tiles. A corridor led to the sacristy and presbytery.

In 1886 Charles Hadfield designed a high altar and reredos, which were also described in The Tablet. The sculptor was Alfred Bernard Wall of Cheltenham, assisted by Frank Tory, a rising local sculptor and student of the Sheffield School of Art.

Reordering in 1981 led to the separation of the altar and reredos, removal of communion rails and a shrine to Our Lady on the south wall.

Matthew Ellison Hadfield (1812-1885) was a Sheffield-based architect and a devout Roman Catholic who designed many Catholic churches. After initially working for his maternal uncle, Michael Ellison, northern agent of the Dukes of Norfolk, he was articled to the Doncaster practice of Woodhead and Hurst. He commenced practice around 1837 and in 1838 entered into practice with John Gray Weightman. Hadfield was an early proponent of the Gothic revival movement and his designs, based upon careful study of earlier churches, meant that the practice soon acquired a high reputation, praised by A W Pugin amongst others. Between 1850 and 1861 the practice took George Goldie into partnership. Weightman retired in 1859 and in 1864 Hadfield was joined by his only son, Charles, as M E Hadfield and Son.

Reasons for Listing

The Roman Catholic Church of St Joseph and presbytery of 1878 to 1879 to designs by ME Hadfield and Son, and associated boundary wall, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a well-designed contemporary grouping of church and attached presbytery built in sandstone with red tiled roofs and enclosed by a stone boundary wall with decorative stone gate piers;
* the church is attractively designed in a Perpendicular Gothic style based upon late-C15 churches with traceried windows and a bell turret and octagonal spire marking the division between nave and sanctuary, whilst the presbytery is in the manner of C17 domestic architecture;
* Matthew Ellison Hadfield is a notable Catholic ecclesiastical architect, with many listed churches to his name, here working in practice with his son, Charles, who designed the 1886 reredos and high altar for the church;
* the well-detailed church interior has notable features, including an arch-braced wagon roof, wide chancel arch with canopied statue niches, a richly-carved sanctuary reredos and altar of stone, marble and alabaster, a fine collection of stained glass including sanctuary windows by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, and a pipe organ by James Conacher and Sons of Huddersfield.

Historic interest:

* Hadfield was an early proponent of the Gothic Revival movement, whose reputation was based upon careful study of earlier churches, winning praise amongst others from AWN Pugin.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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