Corpus of Percy Bacon & Brothers
Posted 13 September 2023.
The foundation stone for the new church of St Andrew in Sharrow was laid by the Archbishop of York in June 1867,1 and the church consecrated in August 1869.2 The architects were Messrs. Blackmoor & Mitchell-Withers. The site for the church was given by Sir John Brown a local industrialist and steel magnate who was described as, " the Father of the South Yorkshire Iron Trade".3 The church was commissioned by the Sheffield Church Extension Society, and reportedly cost £5,600.4
The Builder provided a description of the church in its edition of 14th August 1869:
"The plan is cruciform, and consists of north and south aisles, a chancel, organ chapel, chancel aisle, and vestry. The length of the edifice is 124 ft., the nave is 21 {t. wide, the aisles 13 ft. 6 in., and the width across the transepts, 91 ft. The style is Early Decorated, carried out in a simple manner. The interior arcade of five arches is moulded, and is carried on clustered shafts with conventional carved capitals, and surmounted by a clearstory of circular windows filled with plate tracery. The roofs are open timbered. The chancel has a window, filled with stained glass, the gift of Mr. Charles Gould, as a memorial of his late wife. The subjects in the upper tier are the Nativity, Baptism, Crucifixion, Entombment, and Resurrection of our Saviour; Christ blessing children, [the Transfiguration, the Lord’s Supper, St. Thomas, and the Charge to Peter. In the tracery are the evangelistic symbols and the Agnus Dei. The window is the work of Messrs. Clayton & Bell. The floor is laid with tiles by Messrs. Maw, of Brosley, in the geometrical pattern, the sanctuary being encaustic tiling. Under the east window is a reredos of various coloured marble, combined with alabaster and Hopton wood stone, which is the gift of the architects. Turning westward, the vista is completed by a window filled with stained glass. Two lights represent the calling of the Apostles on the Lake of Galilee, and other two, the charge to Peter—“ Feed my lambs.” A lower tier of subjects represent the Widow's Mite, the Women at sepulchre, the Charity of Dorcas, and the raising of Tabitha. In the centre of the tracery there is a medallion, upon which is a representation of our Lord in the act of benediction. The window is the work of Messrs. Heaton, Butler, & Bayne, of London".In 1881 further works would be carried out on the interior of the church, with fresco paintings by Powell & Son of Leeds. On the north side of the chancel were the portraits representing the twelve apostles with their respective symbols, and on the south side, twelve prophets. A dado of "dusky red" was also painted around the chancel with I. H. S. monograms, and the roof principles painted gold, red and black.
The church website provides more information about the fate of St Andrew's: "Unfortunately, it had almost no foundations, and towards the end of the 20th Century the nave and transepts had begun to crack alarmingly, as the mudstone on which the church was built dried out. By the end of 1996 the church was no longer safe to use and was demolished. The congregation moved into the Church Centre (now St Andrew’s Hall)".6
In 1895 a new carved oak reredos and retable was installed to a design by C. Hodgeson Fowler, F.S.A. The painting work was designed and executed by Percy Bacon & Brothers. The central panel contained a crucifixion scene, described as "after Martin Schongauer".7 Four other panels contained various saints, the whole on gesso background and highly gilded. In 1893 Percy Bacon had executed a similar scheme at St Andrew's, Halstead, Essex, where the central panel of the retable was a crucifixion scene (pictured right) taken directly from a drawing by Martin Schongauer. The outer panels of the Halstead heptyche also contains images of saints, one which is St Andrew, and being the patron of Sharrow is likely to have been included there as well, though no record has yet come to light to confirm this.
Image Links:
The following images are available at the Sheffield Archive
Church in the process of being demolished in 2000 on Twitter (X),
Location Map: