fidget64
06-06-2011, 10:10 PM
I have a quite a back history for this site which covers the area in which it sits but actually doesn't really have that much information on the building itself, but I thought I'd tell it anyway..
The story of the original Catholic School begins midway through the 19th century at the height of the Industrial Revolution when thousands of Irish immigrants moved to England.
At this time most of Sheffield’s iron and steel industry centred around an area called the Crofts. The majority of the Irish - of whom most were catholic – settled here, where two thirds of the population lived in severe poverty in overcrowded back-to-back houses.
In 1853 lead by Fr Edmund Scully, the head of the Sheffield Mission at the newly built St Marie’s Catholic church in the city centre, a school-chapel was built in middle of the Crofts. It became possible for the Irish Catholics to attend Mass and fulfill their religious obligations.
A little over two years later enough money was raised to build a new church at a cost of £1,650. Eight months on, the first Mass was celebrated there on 15 December 1856.
Over the next few years, despite being in a deep industrial depression, the parish continued to grow and on Easter Sunday 1860, five thousand people were recorded to have received Holy Communion.
As the parish grew there was an ever-increasing number of children wanting to attend the school-chapel. Having become severely overcrowded, five years after its opening, Fr Burke announced that a new boys school, would be built to ease the congestion. The original school building was to be kept for the girls and infants, an arrangement that continued for the next thirty years.
It is the boys school that is featured in this report as during the Sheffield Blitz, December 1940, the German Luftwaffe scored a direct hit on the church and reduced to a huge heap of rubble the entire girls' school including the original historic two-room school-chapel founded 87 years prior.
During the 1960s families were gradually leaving the area for better housing.
Concern about the future of the Church and school grew through 1980’s, the school eventually closed in 1989. The last Mass was held in 1996 the church and school buildings have remained empty. The church however, is maintained, the school sadly is not.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5310/5723864500_ac0f1e0325_z.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2180/5762882128_08cb672280_z.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2523/5762890670_723180fec4_z.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3456/5762357867_70416185d8_z.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2556/5762378873_12d0588be1_z.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2647/5762384635_e2a9fe7c90_z.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2542/5762954996_fb66f427ff_z.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3216/5762419627_50a4733690_z.jpg
Thanks for looking!
The story of the original Catholic School begins midway through the 19th century at the height of the Industrial Revolution when thousands of Irish immigrants moved to England.
At this time most of Sheffield’s iron and steel industry centred around an area called the Crofts. The majority of the Irish - of whom most were catholic – settled here, where two thirds of the population lived in severe poverty in overcrowded back-to-back houses.
In 1853 lead by Fr Edmund Scully, the head of the Sheffield Mission at the newly built St Marie’s Catholic church in the city centre, a school-chapel was built in middle of the Crofts. It became possible for the Irish Catholics to attend Mass and fulfill their religious obligations.
A little over two years later enough money was raised to build a new church at a cost of £1,650. Eight months on, the first Mass was celebrated there on 15 December 1856.
Over the next few years, despite being in a deep industrial depression, the parish continued to grow and on Easter Sunday 1860, five thousand people were recorded to have received Holy Communion.
As the parish grew there was an ever-increasing number of children wanting to attend the school-chapel. Having become severely overcrowded, five years after its opening, Fr Burke announced that a new boys school, would be built to ease the congestion. The original school building was to be kept for the girls and infants, an arrangement that continued for the next thirty years.
It is the boys school that is featured in this report as during the Sheffield Blitz, December 1940, the German Luftwaffe scored a direct hit on the church and reduced to a huge heap of rubble the entire girls' school including the original historic two-room school-chapel founded 87 years prior.
During the 1960s families were gradually leaving the area for better housing.
Concern about the future of the Church and school grew through 1980’s, the school eventually closed in 1989. The last Mass was held in 1996 the church and school buildings have remained empty. The church however, is maintained, the school sadly is not.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5310/5723864500_ac0f1e0325_z.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2180/5762882128_08cb672280_z.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2523/5762890670_723180fec4_z.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3456/5762357867_70416185d8_z.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2556/5762378873_12d0588be1_z.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2647/5762384635_e2a9fe7c90_z.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2542/5762954996_fb66f427ff_z.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3216/5762419627_50a4733690_z.jpg
Thanks for looking!