And then the Bishop enforced the lesson:
An important event in the Church life of Sheffield was the great Missionary Exhibition, extending over ten days, in October, 1901 — a "red-letter" epoch in local Missionary enterprise. In the various courts representing Africa, India, China, Japan, Palestine, N. W. America, and other countries, were upwards of 4,000 exhibits, explanatory of the life, customs, and industries of different races and their religions. In addition to the 55,588 persons who passed the turnstiles, were 10,922 day scholars, making altogether 66,510 visitors. Inclusive of £1,218 from the Ladies' Sale of Work, the proceeds exceeded £3,500. Amongst those taking part were:
On most days Archdeacon Eyre presided at the opening, whilst the officials and stewards numbered 1,500. It was my privilege to prepare the "Official Handbook", of which upwards of 5,000 copies were sold. A gratifying evidence of Church life in the city was the Church Convention in November, 1912, for the deepening of the Spiritual Life. On four days, three times daily, very large audiences assembled in the Albert Hall, to hear addresses on the Gospel of Redemption. The subjects were:
Those taking part in the meetings were:
The Convention was attended by much blessing, and it might be well for the Church and its members if similar gatherings for the deepening of the spiritual life, enabling Church-people to get a firmer grasp of the great foundation truths of the Gospel, were more frequently held. The Church in Sheffield has had many noble benefactors. In addition to Miss Silcock, who built Fulwood Church, the Misses Harrison built and endowed a church at Wadsley in memory of their father, and gave the vicarage; they also built the Church of Holy Trinity, Wicker, and gave the vicarage. The churches at Crookes and Stannington were mainly due to their liberality. They also built, and for many years maintained, the infants' school in Sheffield Park.
It is recorded that when Dr. Sutton was advanced in years the Misses Harrison, who were deeply attached to Evangelical principles, were much concerned lest the Vicarage of Sheffield should be handed over to an un-Evangelical, perhaps a Tractarian, clergyman. To avert this they were mainly instrumental in the purchase by subscription of the next presentation, which was conveyed in trust to the Rev. Matthew Morris Preston, of Cheshunt, who, when the vacancy arose in 1851, nominated the Rev. Thomas Sale, who for more than twenty years had been Incumbent of Southgate, Middlesex.
One of Sheffield's most munificent Churchmen was the late Mr. Henry Wilson, of Westbrook. In addition to other gifts without number he built (1857) and afterwards enlarged St. Stephen's Church, with the exception of a grant of £600 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners; endowed the same church with £276 per annum and purchased a vicarage house, besides investing £200 as a Repair Fund. It is said that altogether he expended £10,000 on St. Stephen's parish. In 1869 Mr. Wilson gave St. Silas's Church, with £500 as a Repair Fund, having previously purchased the first school for the same parish. Part of the Endowment of St. Mary's, amounting to £134 yearly, is derived from ground rents given by him. In 1846 he contributed £200 to the building of Heeley Church, and subscribed largely to Pitsmoor, St. Jude's (Eldon), St. Mark's, and other churches. He gave the site for St. Matthias's Church, which he endowed with £200 per annum, and also built the large parochial schools. In St. Barnabas's parish the fine schools in Cecil Road and also the site for the Alderson Road schools were his gifts. Towards the cost of St. Matthew's, Carver Street, he contributed £1,000. Mr. Wilson endowed St. Bartholomew's Church, Carbrook, with £296 a year, and built a vicarage house at a cost of nearly £2,000. To Walkley Mr. Wilson gave sites for the church and vicarage, subscribed largely towards the schools, and sold several acres of land for the church cemetery at a nominal price. He acquired from the representatives of the Gell family the moiety of the advowson of the Sheffield Parish Church. This he devised to his son Alfred Wilson, who by his Will gave it to the Church Burgesses, to whom it was subsequently conveyed. The other moiety, formerly held by the Wilkinson family, is now vested in the Simeon Trustees. The fine church of All Saints was built in 1869 by Sir John Brown, who likewise gave the site for the schools. He also gave the site of St. Andrew's, Sharrow, that for the vicarage being given by Mr. Henry Newbould. St. John's Church, Ranmoor, was built in 1879 at the cost of Mr. John Newton Mappin. With the exception of the tower it was burnt down in January, 1887, and rebuilt. The late Mr. Samuel Roberts, of Queen's Tower, was also a liberal benefactor to the Church, especially to St. Paul's parish. Among other contributions he gave £2,000 to St. Barnarbas's Church and £100 towards the site; towards Heeley Church he gave £100, and to the buildings and upkeep of Heeley Church Day Schools, in which he took special interest, he contributed largely. Amongst other most generous Churchmen who contributed munificently to the churches and schools of the city, as to every good cause, must be named Sir Frederick Thorpe Mappin and Sir Henry Stephenson, of whom the Times said, "Both had the honour of being granted the Freedom of the City in its first conferment, and they left behind them a fine example of sterling devotion to the calls of civic duty." In 1878-80 the old Parish Church, now the Cathedral Church of the Diocese, underwent extensive restoration and enlargement at a cost of £21,000, towards which Mrs. Thornhill Gell gave £10,000, and the "Parker Transept" built by Mrs. S. Parker at a cost of £3,000 in memory of her husband, was added. In 1879 the "Wostenholm Hall", a fine block of parochial buildings in Queen Street annexed to the Parish Church, was erected at a cost of £11,000 by Mrs. Wostenholm as a memorial to her husband, Mr. George Wostenholm, of Kenwood, who before his death had expressed to Dr. Blakeney a desire to give £10,000 for a mission centre. By her Will she left £2,000 as an endowment for the same. Mr. Wostenholm gave the site for St. Mary's Vicarage, and contributed £400 towards the Sale Memorial Church. Wincobank Church Vicarage and Schools, on the border of the city, were built by the late Mr. Frederick Bardwell of Sheffield, as a memorial to his parents and brother. Mr. Gaunt, a retired grocer, gave £1,500 towards St. Jude's, Moorfields, and left to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners the residue of his property, about £10,000, part of which was applied towards other Sheffield churches and vicarages. In a return of 1887, signed by Dr. Blakeney as Rural Dean, it is stated that the contributions from the then thirty-seven parishes of Sheffield for religious, missionary, and charitable objects for the twelve months ended Easter that year amounted to £34,678. In some subsequent years it was somewhat below this sum, but in others exceeded it. The return did not include many other contributions to benevolent and Christian purposes given by Churchmen of the Deanery. An old clerk of the Parish Church, John Kirk, passed away in January, 1892, after completing more than fifty years of active service. He had seen one immense parish divided into thirty-eight separate parishes, each with its church, schools, and staff of clergy. He remembered three Archbishops of his Province, four Archdeacons, and four Vicars of his Church. During his long tenure of office there were in the Mother Church 58,000 Marriages, a vast number of Baptisms, and, to the closing of the churchyard, 19,303 Burials. In the earlier years of my ministry there were no Confirmation centres, as now, whereby a Confirmation Service is held at each church in turn. The services invariably took place at the Parish Church, with crowded attendances, and were very long and somewhat wearying. For example, in March, 1884, Archbishop Thomson, assisted by Bishop Rowley Hill, held three Confirmation Services in the Church, when 1,378 candidates were confirmed, including a large number of adults; and again in April, 1889, the Archbishop held three Confirmation Services in the church, when the total number of candidates presented was 1,445, namely 524 males and 921 females. Up to 1914, when the new Diocese was founded, Sheffield was part of the ancient Diocese of York. During the last fifty years it has been under the rule of four Archbishops, namely, Dr. Thomson, who died in December, 1900; Dr. Magee, who, translated from Peterborough in 1901, died the same year; Dr. Maclagan, translated from Lichfield in 1901, resigned in 1908, died in 1910; and Dr. Cosmo Lang, translated from Stepney, 1909, who bore rule to the coming of Dr. Hedley Burrows in 1914. The Church Times, which was apt to disparage the name and work of Archbishop Thomson, at the time of his death expressed a "desire to see Sheffield aroused from the death-like apathy and slumber which have characterized the spiritual life of Sheffield for the last quarter of a century." Whilst admitting that, as in other places, more might have been done, it is clearly evident that these words were written in ignorance of the facts. Had the writer visited all the Sheffield churches, or seen the great mass meetings of Churchmen, several presided over by the Archbishop, in the Albert Hall, the Cutlers' Hall, and the Drill Hall, with attendances of from two to six thousand, he would have written otherwise. But part-feeling, alas! too often warps the judgement, blinds the eye, and misguides the pen. In the year 1860 there were, apart from mission rooms, twenty-two parish churches in Sheffield; in 1884 there were thirty-seven; whilst in 1916 the number had increased to forty-seven, besides which are several just outside the city boundaries, as Wadsley, Hillsborough, Tinsley, Wincobank, and St. John's, Abbeydale. In addition, other city churches, as Darnall, Ecclesall, and Heeley, had been greatly enlarged, and several mission churches and mission rooms built. It must, however, be admitted that the rate of progress during the present century has not kept pace with the growth of the city and the rapid increase of population. Proposals are already on foot for the sub-division of some of the larger parishes. Several of the Sheffield churches, including Sharrow, St. Michael's, St. Matthias's, St. Bartholomew's, St. Saviour's (Walkley), St. Timothy's (Crookes), St. Clement's (Newhall), were built by Church Extension Societies; others, notably St. Mark's, St. Barnabas's, Carbrook, and St. Oswald's, were built by subscription. Some were aided by grants from the Church Burgesses, who also endowed several. The forty-seven Sheffield parishes, all within the city, now form the Rural Deanery of Sheffield; two — St. Paul's, Norton Lees, and St. Chad's, Norton Woodseats — having been taken from the Southwell Diocese on the formation of the Diocese of Sheffield. The Sheffield Church Burgesses Trust, existing under a Charter granted in 1554, by Queen Mary, who restored to the Church property which had been confiscated, exercises a most important part in the Church life of the city, having, in addition to the alternate gift of the Cathedral Church, the patronage of twelve churches. The Burgesses own considerable property in the city, their present income amounting to about £10,000 a year. By the schemes of the Court of Chancery, a defined part of the income is applicable to ecclesiastical purposes, and is applied in the first place in the payment of two curates of the Cathedral Church, the repairs of the fabric, and the expenses of Divine worship. Part is applied towards the endowment of churches under the patronage of the Burgesses, and in increasing the endowments of other churches within the city. The remaining part of the income is applicable to secular purposes, and is applied, amongst other things, towards the Medical Charities, the Boys' and Girls' Charity Schools, and public day schools. Sheffield has not the credit of having given so many of its clergy to the Episcopate as Leeds has done, but it has a record which must not be left unnamed. First and foremost is JAMES MOORHOUSE, the son of a Sheffield manufacturer, who from 1855 to 1859 was curate of the Parish Church, and was in 1876 consecrated Bishop of Melbourne, where he remained until 1886, when he returned to England as Bishop of Manchester. He retired in 1903, and died in 1915. ROWLEY HILL, who came from London in 1873 to be Vicar of Sheffield, was in 1877 consecrated Bishop of Sodor and Man. He died in May, 1887. CHARLES WILLIAMS STUBBS, curate of St. Mary's, 1868-71, and subsequently Dean of Ely, was in 1906 consecrated Bishop of Truro, where he continued until his death in 1912. ALFRED PEARSON, Vicar of St. Mark's from 1897 to 1905, was in 1905 consecrated Bishop of Burnley and Suffragen to the Bishop of Manchester. He died in March, 1909. JOSEPH LOFTHOUSE, a native of Wadsley, for many years a C.M.S. Missionary in the desolate regions of Hudson's Bay and Fort Churchill, was in 1902 consecrated first Bishop of Keewatin, British North America. WALTER RUTHVEN PYM, who was Vicar of Sharrow from 1889 to 1893, when he became Vicar of Rotherham, was in 1898 consecrated Bishop of Mauritius, and in 1903 translated to Bombay. He died in 1908. HENRY REDMAYNE HOLME, curate of Attercliffe 1867-74, was in 1883 consecrated first Bishop of the British Honduras and Central America. He was shipwrecked on the voyage to his Diocese; died July, 1891. Canon GOODWYN, who succeeded Dr. Chalmer as Vicar of Sharrow, was in 1886 nominated to the Bishopric of Bathurst, Australia, in succession to Bishop Marsden, but ultimately declined the offer. He is now a Canon Residentiary of Gloucester Cathedral. The scheme for the formation of a new Diocese, with Sheffield as the Cathedral City (which had been under consideration during the Episcopate of Archbishop Thomson), was formulated in 1906 by the late Archbishop Maclagan, who offered to allocate in perpetuity the sum of £1,000 per annum from the See of York towards the endowment of a new Diocese. His successor, Archbishop Lang, gave hearty support to the scheme, and after a period of patient waiting the Sheffield Bishopric Act was passed in 1913, the Endowment Fund having been completed, securing, in addition to the £1,000 from the See of York, £1,500, making altogether £2,500 per annum. The total amount of subscriptions, collections, &c., for the Endowment Fund was £42,943. In addition, £5,773 has been contributed for the Bishop's residence. In 1901, Canon Quirk (now Bishop of Jarrow) was appointed by Archbishop Maclagan to be Bishop-Suffragen of Sheffield, which office he held until the formation of the new See in 1914. The Church in South Yorkshire, and Sheffield in particular, owes an unspeakable debt of gratitude to Dr. Quirk for his earnest and incessant labours for its extension and welfare. In season and out of season, he was indefatigable in his endeavours to ensure the formation of the Sheffield Diocese, and when success crowned the prolonged effort none was happier than he. In February, 1914, the Right Rev. Leonard Hedley Burrows, D.D., Bishop-Suffragen of Lewes, was appointed the first Bishop of the new Diocese, and enthroned in the Cathedral Church of Sheffield on May 1st following. The Diocese, with a population of nearly 900,000, in addition to Sheffield embraces the populous districts of Rotherham, Doncaster, and Goole. It includes the Rural Deaneries of Sheffield, Doncaster, Ecclesfield, Rotherham, Snaith, and Wath, together with the parishes of St. Paul (Norton Lees) and St. Chad (Norton Woodseats) transferred from the Diocese of Southwell. The patronage of every Ecclesiastical Dignity or Benefice in the Diocese of Sheffield, belonging to the Archbishop of York in right of his See, was transferred to the Bishop of Sheffield and his successors. It was provided, inter alia, that eighteen Honorary Canonries should be founded in the Cathedral Church. The benefices of the Diocese now number 170, and the clergy about 260. The present Archdeacons are:
The present Honorary Canons are:
The contributions in the Diocese of Sheffield for diocesan, parochial, and missionary objects for the year ended Easter, 1916, amounted to £88,204. The "Stephenson Hall", in Severn Road, was founded by Lady Stephenson in memory of her husband, the late Sir Henry Stephenson. The hostel is intended primarily for students of the University of Sheffield preparing for Holy Orders in the Church of England. The hostel is recognized by the University. Students who are preparing for Holy Orders are required to read for a degree of the University of Sheffield, devoting three years to the degree course and a fourth year to purely theological studies, in the hostel. The work of the hostel is in abeyance during the war. The old Church Educational Institute was, in December, 1913, after extensive improvements, reopened as a Church House, and now forms a convenient Diocesan Church House, with a commodious lecture hall seating 300 persons, library, reading room, and committee rooms. The patronage of the forty-seven Sheffield churches is singularly varied and, on the whole, may be considered satisfactory, but would be more so were those in the gift of the Crown handed over to the Bishop of the Diocese. The patronage of the Cathedral Church is vested in the Church Burgesses and the Simeon Trust alternately; the Crown has the gift of four churches, the Bishop of four, the Vicar of Sheffield of seven, the Church Burgesses of twelve, the Church Patronage Society of six, twelve are in the hands of Trustees, and one with the Vicar of Norton.
SHEFFIELD PARISHES AND THEIR VICARS, 1917,
Back to the first part of Chapter 2Return to PREVIOUS | NEXT Full Contents
Illustrations from the book — click thumbnails for enlargement in a new window
Home | Wrexham area | General | Sheffield area | Asia | Military |
Located in Wales
(flag from Dingbats-UK)
Transcripts, photos, scanned images and other site content copyright © MossValley, 2001-06
.
All rights reserved (please view terms)
