Cathedral Church of St. Marie (1847-50). Norfolk Row, Sheffield, by Weightman and Hadfield. Right: The octagonal tower of the Lady Chapel with its herringbone-pattern lead roof. [Click on these images and those below to enlarge them.]
According to Harman and Minnis, the architects followed Pugin's principles, making “a scholarly study of C14 churches in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The style they used is a rich and fluent Decorated [Gothic], strongly influenced by St. Andrew, Heckington. . . . The stone is coursed sandstone with ashlar dressings” (57). The authors of the Pevsner guide correctly point out that “the church can only be viewed properly from Tudor Square to the SE” (57), and that is the location from which these two photographs were taken.
Left: A reticulated Gothic window facing Norfolk Row. Maria Hanson designed the beautiful iron railings (1997). Right: Looking past the parsonage, one has another view of the steeple, the glory of this church.
Some of the building's sculptural details
Left: A statue of Mary bathed in early morning sunlight. Right: The annunciation scene on the square tower at the Norfolk Street corner is from the studio of Thomas Earp. [Detail showing the text from the “Ave Maria” beneath the scene.]
[Unfortunately the building's interior was undergoing restoration when I visited St. Marie. Harman and Minnis have a beautiful photograph of the chancel (60) and list more than half a dozen sculptors and carvers, including Theodore Phyffers, who worked on the interior. Pugin designed one of the stained glass windows, which Hardman made. GPL]
Photographs 2011 by George P. Landow You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.it]
Sheffield. Harman, Ruth, and John Minnis. Pevsner Architectural Guides. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 2004.
Crook, J. Mordaunt. The Dilemma of Style: Architectural Ideas from the Picturesque to the Post-Modern. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Last modified 21 November 2011