Our Lady & St Thomas of Canterbury, Sheffield

Roman Catholicism in the suburbs

By 1900, Sheffield’s population of Roman Catholics was growing alongside its continually expanding suburban population- consequently, many of the city’s Catholics were attending churches a great many miles away from their homes. In 1908, Robert Brindle, Bishop of Nottingham, took the initiative and paid for a plot of land in Meadowhead on which he instructed a church to be built. A temporary timber church with a capacity of 250 was opened in June 1910, and in 1918 Fr James Rooney launched a fundraising appeal to construct a permanent building on the site.

It wasn’t until ten years later that this appeal finally raised enough money for building work to begin. Adrian Gilbert Scott was appointed, still relatively early in his career, and in 1928 a presbytery was constructed. The church came later, its foundation stone being laid in 1931. Just over a year later in June 1932, the church was opened, the project having run to a total cost of £13,000.

Scott’s church

Our Lady & St Thomas, a dedication recalling that of Beauchief Abbey nearby, is built on a Greek cross plan in the Lombard Romanesque manner. Adrian’s brother Giles was engaged at the time in building the chapel at Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford, and the similarities between the two buildings both inside and out are clear. The simplicity and refinement of Adrian’s interior at Sheffield speaks of the fashion of the day and its concern for cleanliness of line and dramatic massing, objectives later refined in his churches of the 1950s. Still, long before he had discovered the wonders of the parabolic arch, Scott turned out a compelling and confident building which helped to further secure his reputation with the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England.