St Mary’s Church, Bolsterstone is situated in the village of Bolsterstone, within the boundary of the City of Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

 in South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...

, England. The church dates from 1879 although there is evidence that a place of worship has existed on the site since the 12th century. It is located 13 km NW of the city centre and is a grade II listed building.

History

There are unsubstantiated claims that a chapel existed in the village of Bolsterstone in the 12th century. However the first documented place of worship on the site of St Mary’s was established by Sir Robert de Rockley in 1412. This took the form of a private chantry

Chantry

Chantry is the English term for a fund established to pay for a priest to celebrate sung Masses for a specified purpose, generally for the soul of the deceased donor. Chantries were endowed with lands given by donors, the income from which maintained the chantry priest...

 with Richard of Westhall as the first incumbent

Incumbent (ecclesiastical)

In Anglican canon law, the incumbent of a benefice, usually the parish priest, holds the temporalities or assets and income.Depending on the terms of governance of each parish an incumbent might be either:...

. At that time Bolsterstone was within the large parish of Ecclesfield and the chantry soon turned into a public chapel as it became a popular place of worship for the local population because of the large distance to travel to the parish church of St Mary’s, Ecclesfield

Church of St. Mary, Ecclesfield

The Church of St. Mary, Ecclesfield is situated on Church Street in the village of Ecclesfield, now a northern suburb of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It is situated seven kilometres north of the city centre. It is a Grade One listed building, one of only five within the Sheffield city...

 or its sister church St Nicholas, Bradfield. From its early days the chapel was also used as a day school for local children, this practice stopped in 1686 because the building was deemed unsuitable and a new free day school was built nearby.

Throughout the 18th century, the chapel was extended with the addition of a gallery, roof loft and a peal of bells. However by the later part of the 18th century it had fallen into disrepair and was deemed unsafe, with the congregation unable to assemble “for the public worship of Almighty God without manifest danger to their lives”. Reverend Thomas Bland replaced the chapel with a new church in 1791. The new building was unpopular from an architectural point of view with the local historian Gatty saying it was “more like a factory than a church”, other sources call it “plain but substantial”. It was consecrated in 1796 and had sash windows and spacious galleries. A vicarage was added in 1862, in 1870 Bolsterstone became a parish in its own right and included nearby Stocksbridge

Stocksbridge

Stocksbridge is a small town and civil parish in the City of Sheffield, in South Yorkshire, England, with a population of 13,663. It lies just to the east of the Peak District....

 and Deepcar. Bland’s church remained unpopular and lasted barely 80 years before the vicar William Reginald Wilson decided to replace it in 1872. Wilson was vicar between1867 and 1914, a tenure of 47 years, making him the longest serving incumbent in the church’s history.
The new church was built in stages between 1872 and 1879. The foundation stone was laid in August 1878 by the lord of the manor Rimington Wilson and the construction was completed in May 1879 by local builder John Brearley at a total cost of £7,200. The stained glass windows for the east and south walls were a gift from Rimington Wilson. The church was opened in June 1880 by William Thomson, Archbishop of York

Archbishop of York

The Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and metropolitan of the Province of York, which covers the northern portion of England as well as the Isle of Man...

. A series of important changes were made to the church before the turn of the 20th century, a new organ was installed in July 1885, a new peal of eight bells was fitted in 1892 from the bellmakers John Taylor of Loughborough

Loughborough

Loughborough is a town within the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. It is the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and is home to Loughborough University...

 and in June 1897 a lychgate

Lychgate

A lychgate, also spelled lichgate, lycugate, or as two separate words lych gate, is a gateway covered with a roof found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style churchyard.-Name:...

 was erected to mark the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria. The graveyard contains two large rectangular stones of unknown origin; these are known as the Bolster Stones.

In 1921 a war memorial was erected by the side of the lychgate; it takes the form of a Celtic cross

Celtic cross

A Celtic cross is a symbol that combines a cross with a ring surrounding the intersection. In the Celtic Christian world it was combined with the Christian cross and this design was often used for high crosses – a free-standing cross made of stone and often richly decorated...

 and records the names of 48 people of the parish who were killed in conflicts in the 20th century. In the early 1950s thieves stole an amount of lead

Lead

Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...

 off the church roof and the ensuing flawed repairs done with asphalt

Asphalt

Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...

 sealed in damp and led to problems with dry rot

Dry rot

Dry rot refers to a type of wood decay caused by certain types of fungi, also known as True Dry Rot, that digests parts of the wood which give the wood strength and stiffness...

 in the roof timbers. The timbers and roof slates were replaced throughout the 1960s. However the problem returned in the nave

Nave

In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

 roof and the church had to be closed temporarily on May 1, 1974 with weddings and burials being moved elsewhere. Financial aid from the Diocesan pastoral committee enabled the damp problems to be addressed and the church re-opened.

A new stained glass window was unveiled in the church in July 1997 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of a coach crash which killed nine people on a coach transporting the Bolsterstone Male Voice Choir to a music festival in Holmfirth

Holmfirth

Holmfirth is a small town located on the A6024 Woodhead Road in the Holme Valley, within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Centred upon the confluence of the Holme and Ribble rivers, Holmfirth is south of Huddersfield and from Glossop. It mostly consists of...

.