ST PAUL'S CHURCH - SHEFFIELD (1720 - 1938)
Originally built on the outskirts of the town, on land bounded by Pinson
Lane (later Pinstone Street) and Alsop Fields (later to become Norfolk Street)
The building of St Paul's Church was funded by public subscription in 1720 and
1721 with the first stone being laid in 28th May 1720. The dome was added in 1769
It was made possible by a gift of £1,000 and the promise of £30 a year for the
Minister from Robert Downes, a Sheffield goldsmith, in return for him and his
heirs having the right to appoint the minister, and it was to be a Chapel of
Ease to the Parish Church. The then Vicar of
Sheffield objected on the grounds that since it was a Chapel of Ease to his
church he had the right to appoint the Minister.
At the same time the Patron of the Parish Church,
William Jessop, claimed that as such he should automatically be Patron of St.
Paul's.
The argument continued for nearly twenty years, during which time the
church remained locked and unused. Things were
brought to a head in 1739 when Robert Downes threatened to open the
church, as he was legally entitled to do, " as a
meeting house for Protestant Dissenters".
As a result a compromise was agreed under which the Vicar was to be the Patron,
but the first Minister was to be Robert Downes nephew, John Downes.
And so the church was
actually consecrated on 2nd May 1740, twenty years after the laying of the first
stone. But it was only used for worship for less than 200
years. Baptism and burial records date from 1743 and those of marriages from
1848. Burials in the adjoining church yard ceased in 1855.
Pawson and Brailsford's "Illustrated Guide to Sheffield and Neighbourhood 1862" noted that
"(St Pauls) is a spacious building: and improvements have been recently made which greatly add both to the beauty of the interior of the edifice and the comfort of the congregation. The organ is by the celebrated builder Snetzler. It is one of his best productions, and was built one hundred and five years ago. Since its erection it has, however, been considerably modernized, but the original portion still bears its distinctive excellence. The latest additions have been made by Mr Brindley, (see notes) of this town, who supplied the pedal organ and several new stops to other portions of the instrument, and also equalized the whole It has three manuals and a pedal organ. The organist is Mr J. C. Walker. About 40 years ago, performances of sacred music on a grand scale were given in this church, Madame Malibran and other distinguished vocalists singing within its walls. There is a mural monument by Chantrey, in St. Paul's Church, not unworthy of the great sculptor's celebrity. It is erected to the memory of the Rev Alexander Mackenzie, one of the incumbents of the church, who died in 1816....... "
(Snetzler’s church organs were described by those who knew them in their near-original condition as ‘of exquisite beauty, fulness and richness of tone … blended to absolute perfection’, or as ‘remarkable for the purity of their tone, and the extreme brilliancy of their Chorus stops’ and as spirited, charming and cheerful.)
St Paul's was closed in December 1937. The following year the Church of England announced that it had no further use for the building. In fact according to David Lunn, a former Bishop of Sheffield in his book on the History of the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Sheffield the site of St. Paul's was sold for the sum of £23,504, which went towards an appeal for the building of a new 'Quire and Chancel' at what had become the Cathedral.
This is at odds with a report that appeared in The Times dated 2nd August 1937 page 13. In the report a six figure sum is quoted for the purchase of the site.
The church was nevertheless demolished to make way for a proposed extension to the Town Hall - the proposal never got beyond that stage due to the advent of the Second World War. All that remained of the church were the churchyard walls, within which the Council laid out a temporary garden. This was named St Pauls' Gardens but soon became known as the Peace Gardens, reflecting the popular desire for a return to peacetime. (see note 1)
There is an interesting post-script to the Church's demolition. There was a post on a local history message board in June 2007 that gave the following information
Trap Lane is situated in the Bents Green suburb of Sheffield. There is a small row of houses, between the junction of Trap Lane and Muskoka Drive which are essentially built from large blocks of stone, with bands of ornamentation along the front. The stone was recovered from the demolition of St. Paul's, hence the decoration that appear on the houses. It appears that the builder of the houses also had the contract for demolishing the church and made good use of the stone.
It would be interesting to know what happened to the Church Organ that was built by one of the world's greatest organ builders, John Snetzler (1710 - 1785) and the Chantrey mural monument mentioned in Pawson and Brailsford's 1862 Guide. Why do I get the feeling that both were destroyed along with the rest of the church!. I do seem to recall that the bells from St Paul's were taken down and re-installed in the church of St Paul's in Arbourthorne, which incidentally has also been demolished.
As for the churchyard, the headstones were removed and placed initially around the churchyard walls. They have since disappeared. There was no exhumation of the bodies - no burials had occurred in the churchyard for over 80 years and so given the nature of the site and the circumstances surrounding the demolition, it seems as though the Church went for the most practical (and economical) means of "disposal" One famous grave that was in the Churchyard was that of Thomas Boulsover, of Whiteley Wood Hall (1804 - 1788) who was the inventor of what is now known as Sheffield Plate
Note 1
The Council and its officers erected a plaque that infers that the Peace Gardens were a post 1985 name and were previously called St Pauls' Gardens. The name "Peace Gardens" goes back much further than 1985 - the gardens were called the Peace Gardens when I was growing up in the 1960's. Following the demolition, the gardens were laid down just as the then prime minister Neville Chamberlain made his "peace in our time" speech after meeting Hitler in Munich, and this is the REAL origin of the name. The council were evidently unaware of this (or chose to ignore it) when they decided on the wording of the plaque.
Note 2
Brindley, Charles. - English organ builder. He established a
business in Sheffield in 1854. A follower of Edmund Schulze, he built solid
instruments with powerful choruses using Vogler’s Simplification system. Pipes
placed in chromatic order on the soundboards allowed for a simple and reliable
key action and permitted similar stops to share the same bass; this kept both
space and cost to a minimum. The Swell organ was often mounted above the Great
as an Oberwerk in the German manner. Brindley went into partnership with Foster
in 1884 and began to manufacture more complex pneumatic mechanisms for stop
combinations; he also concentrated on the production of orchestral effects. The
business was absorbed by Willis in 1939. An unspoilt example of Brindley’s work
dating from 1863 survives in Christ Church, Market Drayton, Shropshire. A full
discussion of the works of Charles Brindley is given in J.R. Knott: A Study of
Brindley & Foster, Organbuilders of Sheffield, 1854–1939 (Bognor Regis, 1974,
2/1985).
Michael Sayer: 'Charles Brindley', Grove
Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 24 Jan 2008]),
Sources
Pawson and Brailsford's "Illustrated Guide to Sheffield and Neighbourhood 1862"*(pages 41 - 43)
Chapters towards a History of the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Sheffield - David Lunn, former Bishop of Sheffield
The Times dated 2nd August 1937 page 13
This page was last updated on 23/01/08 11:34