History:
| This was a difficult place to research, I also did the research post-visit which is not the usual way I would do things. This report concerns the Mission Hall of the church of St Jude’s in the Moorfields area of Sheffield. Like the church itself, as will be seen, the associated hall went through a number of evolutions so it was difficult to pin down which generation this was. I have seen records or mentions of halls of various types built in 1844, October 1890 and again in October 1924. The first stone of the church of St Jude’s was laid on Monday 29 October 1849 atop a lane branching off from Gibraltar Street. It was to be of the Early English style, a cross plan with an octagonal lantern tower rising from the centre and surmounted with a spire of wood. The site was given by Mr J. Gaunt of Darnell and the church named for Saint Jude after his sister Judith, herself born on St Jude’s Day, and recently deceased in 1846. With 550 free seats of the 900 available, it was billed as the ‘poor man’s church’ which befitted the deprived area of Moorfields, poorest in Sheffield, where the building was slowly raised with donations from the breadth of society. By November 1952, the tower was at its full height of 60 feet and the roofing nearing completion. At 2.30pm on Sunday 7th however, the tower collapsed in one mass. Confined by the houses which closely hemmed the building in on all sides, the tower fell across the church destroying the entire structure. The architect blamed a recent heavy rainfall for the disaster. However, we may look to another church of St Jude, also in Sheffield, and built at Eldon Street in a year between June 1848 and June 1849 for a possible answer. An 1852 description of the church at Eldon noted that the foundations had to be augmented by 33 stone pillars to compensate for a coal mine on which the church had been partially erected. As Sheffield had a large coal industry it is possible that the Moorfields church too was built on questionable foundations. A foundation which could not easily be examined due to such a tight budget. In fact the area was predominantly clay-based which may have caused the fatal subsidence (The Eldon church itself was destroyed in the Sheffield Blitz of December 1940). A replacement church was consecrated on 5 June 1855 and also boasted an octagonal bell turret and an East window enriched with stained glass. In his 1870-72 Imperial gazetteer of England and Wales, John Marius Wilson’s description of Moorfields noted that the church at St Jude’s was ‘a neat structure in the pointed style, with bell turret’. This also appears to have since disappeared, possibly in the war, though I can find no mention of its loss. Perhaps someone can add a comment if they know? With regards to the associated hall/school house I have seen mentions of its construction in 1844 but have not been able to confirm this. It is possible this may have been the first evolution of this building. The description of a Mission Hall however, opened on Monday 13 October 1890, leaves me in little doubt that this is the building I visited on 15 July: ‘The building, which has been erected to plans prepared by Mr H.W. Lockwood is 66 feet long and 27 feet broad, and is capable of accommodating about 250 people. The room has an open timbered roof, stained and varnished, the side walls being lined with pressed red brickwork. There is an ante room and a soup kitchen and the new department is reached by a spacious stone staircase from Copper Street’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, - Tuesday 14 October 1890). What is certain was that the building served as a Church School and then latterly as the Assembly of God Pentecostal church which, opening in the 1980’s was finally closed in 1999. The building has remained (mostly) abandoned ever since. I believe it is scheduled to be converted into flats but I don’t know whether the recent fire has impacted this decision. Visit: I came across this building having abandoned, for the second time, an attempt to enter nearby George Barnsley & Sons due to too much activity about my chosen point of entry. The building, evidently ecclesiastical at a glance from the main road above which it rises, invites closer examination. An external review shows that a fire has broken out at the south-west corner but this has been largely confined to one ante room on the first floor and must have been put out quickly with little need for subsequent reinforcement or demolition. Entry is made from beneath the floorboards of the ground floor having made my way through the heavy undergrowth which borders the building’s frontage on the northern side. As I poke my head through the boards it is immediately apparent that this building is being, or has recently been, lived in. Along with the usual graffiti there are chairs, tables, mattresses and sleeping bags. The detritus strewn across the floor occasionally opens out to areas where people have evidently sat in a circle, the object of their congregation laid out before them. On one side there is a stage, with a room forming the wing to the right beneath which there is a subterranean storage room. In my research I read about a charming if ‘crude’ performance of Dicken’s ‘Christmas Carol’ here in January 1911 which was executed by the children ‘without any elaborate stage appliances and without the encouragement of a large audience’. At either end of this ground floor room there are staircases. Off the ground floor of that to the east, beside the pointed front door on Cupola, is what may once have been the kitchen. I make my way up the staircase to the west, on the Copper Street side. Half way up there is another anteroom and at the top of the stairs a single heavy boot, wrapped with chains, waits for me. The first floor, though almost ankle deep in pigeon droppings, is impressive. Two fireplaces line the wall to my left. On the right a door opens out into the fire damaged portion of the building the floor of which is open to the stage area below. In the far right corner is a collapsed tent, the previous occupant’s possessions scattered around it. Above me however is the beautiful open timbered structure which divides the room in half and holds the roof aloft. The voids are panelled with glass, though almost all of this has been smashed. From previous reports (See Dec’ 2018 report by HughieD) I can see that most of the damage has happened in the last few years. Not a lengthy explore but I decide to cut it short regardless as you don’t know whose house this is or when they will be back. Time to respectfully retire, especially given the size of the boot I have just witnessed! The structure itself is sound in the most part, even that side which abuts the fire damaged portion. There are however places in the floor where boards have been placed which I suspect could collapse if enough weight were applied and sections, especially in the stage wing, where the floorboards have been removed entirely. Take care in the darkness of the ground floor and do not enter the fire damaged portion at all unless planning a dramatic entry onto the stage beneath. 
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