St. George's Church - Sheffield, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 22.907 W 001° 28.870
30U E 601024 N 5915817
This church was consecrated in 1825, but these days is owned and used by Sheffield University as a lecture theatre and student accommodation.
Waymark Code: WMZPKW
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/15/2018
Views: 0
"St George's is the first of three Commissioners' churches to have been built in Sheffield under the Church Building Act 1818. The other two are St Mary's Church, Bramall Lane and St Philip's Church, Netherthorpe (demolished 1951). St George's is a Gothic Revival building designed by the architects Woodhead and Hurst in a Perpendicular Gothic style. It was built at a cost of £15,181 (equivalent to £1,140,000 in 2016), the whole cost being met by the Church Building Commission.
The building is 122 feet (37 m) long and 67 feet (20 m) wide, and consisted of a flat-ceilinged nave with six bays, a single-bay chancel, and a 140 feet (43 m)-high tower. Galleries extended the length of the north and south walls, and there was a two-tiered gallery on the west wall. In total the church could seat 380 people. The foundation stone was laid on 19 July 1821, and the church was consecrated by Archbishop Vernon Harcourt on 29 June 1825.
The church was declared redundant and closed in 1981. It stood unused for a number of years until the University of Sheffield acquired it and in 1994 had it converted into a lecture theatre and student accommodation. Prior to this it had been the last of the Commissioners' churches in Sheffield to retain its original form. It is a Grade II listed building.
In 2010 a nest-box was placed on the church rooftop, which is now home to a breeding pair of peregrine falcons that can be seen via live stream webcam."
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Commissioners' churches
"A Commissioners' church, also known as a Waterloo church and Million Act church, is an Anglican church in the United Kingdom built with money voted by Parliament as a result of the Church Building Acts of 1818 and 1824. The 1818 Act supplied a grant of money and established the Church Building Commission to direct its use, and in 1824 made a further grant of money. In addition to paying for the building of churches, the Commission had powers to divide and subdivide parishes, and to provide endowments. The Commission continued to function as a separate body until the end of 1856, when it was absorbed into the Ecclesiastical Commission. In some cases the Commissioners provided the full cost of the new church; in other cases they provided a grant and the balance was raised locally.
The First Parliamentary Grant for churches amounted to £1 million (equivalent to £67,010,000 in 2016). The Second Parliamentary Grant of 1824 amounted to an additional £500,000 (£40,380,000 in 2016), so the term "million" cannot apply to all the churches aided by the Commission. The Commission was founded on a wave of national triumph following the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815; hence the suggestion of the word "Waterloo" in the title. But even if this were a factor in founding the Commission, again it could only apply to the earlier phases of building. The term "Commissioners' church" covers the whole of the work of the Church Building Commission and it is the term normally used by architectural historians, including M. H. Port in 600 New Churches, and the authors of the Pevsner Architectural Guides."
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