Former Carmelite Monastery of the Holy Spirit and enclosure wall

Summary

A former Roman Catholic orphanage and Industrial School run by the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, designed in 1871-1872 by M E Hadfield and Son, with a west wing including a chapel added in 1884 by the practice. It was converted to an enclosed Carmelite Monastery in 1910-1911 with alterations and a new chapel by C Hadfield and C M E Hadfield.

Reasons for Designation

The former Roman Catholic orphanage and industrial school of 1871-1872 and 1884 designed by M E Hadfield and Son, and its extension for use as Carmelite Monastery, with alterations and chapel, of 1910-1911 by C Hadfield and C M E Hadfield is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* this is a large, impressive group retaining all main phases of its development from orphanage to monastery;
* all of its phases were designed by the Hadfields, an important dynasty of Catholic architects;
* for the quality of the plain classical style of the 1870s and 1880s phases and the character of the extern's extension referencing C17 traditions of local architecture;
* it is an early example of a specially-built, privately-funded industrial school. The north range still shows its original layout, and retains original fixtures;
* the interior has barely changed since becoming a monastery. Many features specific to monastic life remain, such as individual rooms (cells), wooden rotating cylinders for passing goods, grilles to separate the private and public spaces, along with fixtures in the nuns’ choir;
* the chapel is simple, showing the Carmelite Order’s strict way of life but its architecture and furnishings show skilled craftsmanship;
* the secluded nature of the Carmelite Order is highly readable in the fabric and plan, with a high wall defining the sacred enclosure enclosing the nuns’ buildings and the externs' extension standing outside the wall.

Historic interest:

* the building was closely associated with the patronage of the 15th Duke of Norfolk, an important Catholic philanthropist of the Victorian era, who donated the land and money to build the orphanage/industrial school, subsequently presenting the then-empty building to the Carmelite Order at the suggestion of one of his sisters, who was a Carmelite nun;
* Industrial schools, established under the provisions of the 1857 Industrial Schools Act and 1870 Education Act, played an important role in the liberalisation of Victorian social policy, enabling children detained by magistrates, vagrant and destitute children to be accommodated and provided with a basic education and vocational training;
* the building's architectural evidence remains testimony not only to religious life, but also to a certain female emancipation in the C19 and C20.

History

In 1870, the 15th Duke of Norfolk donated £1,000 and 189 acres at Kirk Edge for a Roman Catholic orphanage, to be managed by the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul who already ran St Joseph’s Reformatory for Girls in Sheffield. M E Hadfield and Son, specialists in Catholic institutions, designed the orphanage to accommodate 300 children, with wings for boys and girls and a central block with parlours, staircases, refectory, kitchen, dormitories, a temporary chapel, and nurseries. Built between 1871 and 1872, it appears the orphanage ultimately housed only girls.

The premises were certified as an Industrial School on 16 November 1875, following the 1857 Industrial Schools Act. These schools, mostly run by charitable or religious groups, provided food, board, education, and vocational training for poor or troubled children, aiming to prevent crime. By 1879 a narrow rear wing had been added with a schoolroom and refectory underneath, and a room to be used either as a dormitory or chapel.

In 1884 a new wing was built on the west side, again by M E Hadfield and Son. It housed a ground-floor chapel measuring 80ft by 26ft (24m x 8m) with a rounded apse at the south end, an adjoining Sisters’ community room and first-floor dormitories and infirmary.

The Industrial School closed in 1887 and the girls transferred to St Joseph’s Industrial School at Howard Hill, Sheffield. The building had a variety of uses until 1905, latterly as a boy’s reformatory, before Lady Minna Fitzalan-Howard (1843-1921), sister of the Duke of Norfolk, who had become a Carmelite nun and Novice Mistress of the Holy Trinity Carmelite monastery in Notting Hill, London, suggested that the Duke present the building and 18 acres of land to the Order for use as a convent.

Between 1909 and 1911 the Hadfield practice was again commissioned to carry out alterations and the building of a new chapel, work costing £10,000. Early working plans show some remodelling of the former orphanage and school building, primarily the insertion of cells into the first-floor and some reordering of the basement. The yard and buildings at the north end of the north wing were removed and a high stone wall built to form a Sacred Enclosure of slightly over seven acres on the north side, accessible via a gatehouse.

At the same time the west range was expanded west to accommodate the Externs, or lay Sisters, and to receive visitors, with contact between the nuns and outside world mediated through grilles and “turns” - rotating wooden cylinders with shelves through which goods could be passed between rooms without direct contact. The original chapel in the 1880s west range was converted to an ante-choir and the nuns’ choir, with a grille opening into the sanctuary of a new public chapel set at right-angles at the south end of the west range.

The convent was officially opened by His Eminence Cardinal Bourne on 16 July, 1911, at which time it was called the Convent of the Holy Ghost.

By 1958 an oratory had been built against the east end of the chapel, and an enclosed cloister had also been built along the east wall of the west range.

In 2024 the remaining nuns were relocated to other Carmels in the United Kingdom and the property was put up for sale.

Matthew Ellison Hadfield (1812-1885) was a devout Roman Catholic, working between 1827 and 1831 for his maternal uncle Michael Ellison, northern agent of the Dukes of Norfolk before training to be an architect. Commencing practice in Sheffield around 1837, he entered into partnerships with John Gray Weightman and also former pupil George Goldie, before forming a family partnership in 1864 with his son, Charles (1840-1916), who was then in practice with his son, Charles Matthew Ellison Hadfield (1867-1949) between 1899 to 1916. M E Hadfield was employed by four Dukes of Norfolk and the practice designed many Victorian buildings in Sheffield, many now listed, including the Grade II*-listed Cathedral Church of St Marie, Sheffield (National Heritage List for England (NHLE) 1271205).

Details

Former Roman Catholic orphanage and Industrial School, later converted to a Carmelite Monastery. Orphanage and school 1871-1872 to designs by M E Hadfield and Son, west wing including chapel 1884 by M E Hadfield and Son. New chapel and alterations 1910-1911 by C Hadfield and C M E Hadfield. The rear north wing, greenhouse and two small, square buildings (hermitages) within the enclosed grounds are not of special interest.

MATERIALS: hammer-dressed gritstone blocks with stone dressings, stone chimneys and slate roofs; the gatehouse has a stone slate roof.

PLAN: the monastery stands on the north side of Kirk Edge Road, set back down a private drive and surrounded by open farmland. Approximately L-shaped plan with the original orphanage and school building forming a north range and the chapel, nuns’ choir and associated rooms forming a west range. A high wall encloses large grounds on the east side of the buildings and clearly demarcates the areas of public access and the closed monastic community.


NORTH RANGE (former orphanage and industrial school).
EXTERIOR: Plain classical style, composed of a central square-plan three-bay block of basement and three storeys with hipped, flat-topped roof, set between basement and two-storey wings of four bays with pitched roofs (the west wing partly obscured on the S front by the later west range) and bargeboarded gables. Vertical windows, originally timber, multi-pane, horned sashes, many replaced with Upvc frames.

On the south front of the centre block, chamfered plinth band between basement and ground floors of the central block, moulded sill bands between the upper floors and a chamfered eaves band. Square-headed central doorway with a hood mould in the manner of a C17 lintel with relief carving S JOSEPHI.ORA / PRO NOBIS and the date 1911 in two small roundels. Plank and batten door and multi-pane rectangular overlight. Above, a plaque depicts a relief of St Joseph holding the infant Jesus in a round-headed niche with the date 1875 in two small roundels. In the centre bays a window with segmental head (first floor), straight head (second floor) and a central, stone dormer with pediment and three light mullion window. In the outer bays pairs of windows with square, flush mullions, shaped sills and deep lintels with incised segmental heads. Tall chimney on the east flank above eaves level. Its north elevation has chamfered outer corners with narrow windows, sill band at first floor and a dormer marching that of the south front.

The side wings are of two storeys and a basement (concealed by the change in ground level on the west side’s south front), the windows with thick, dressed stone lintels to front, back and gable ends. Plain sill band at first floor. On the north side, the third bay of the east wing has stone steps with iron balustrade oversailing the basement area, panelled door and multi-pane rectangular overlight. In the angle with the centre block is a narrow, stone outshot with a lean-to roof. The north side of the west wing also has a doorway with a four-panelled door and overlight. This is covered by a later timber porch with Gothic windows and iron posts that links at its west end to the GATEHOUSE abutting the north-west corner of the original building, added in 1911 as access to the walled north enclosure for the nuns. A wide, pointed-arch entrance with plank and batten double doors is flanked by buttresses with shaped caps and stone finials rising to each side of a triangular pediment with relief-carved roundel, trefoil and foliage.

The mid-late C19 north wing, abutting the central block, is not of special interest and excluded from the listing*.

INTERIOR: the original plan of the orphanage and school is still legible in the north range with central entrance hall leading to an east-west corridor and central staircase to the rear flanked by two rooms and round-headed archways to corridors along the rear of the side wings. The conversion to a monastery altered the layout in the west wing for insertion of nuns’ cells in the formerly open rooms of the central and east side blocks.

The rooms are very plain, mostly with timber floors and steel-and-timber beamed ceilings. Doors are six-panelled and four-panelled, with multi-pane overlights to the nuns’ cells, with timber architraves and window shutters. Some chimneybreasts retain fireplaces.. The rear, right ground-floor room in the central block has red and black diamond-pattern floor tiles and fireplace with hob grate. The large basement refectory in the east wing has vertical plank wainscoting. The basement in the central block has barrel-vaulted rooms with stone-flagged floors. Rear, central staircase has cantilevered stone steps, painted metal acanthus leaf newel post and slender square-section metal balusters with a swept mahogany handrail to the first floor. The timber staircase between first and attic floors has shaped newels, stick balusters and handrail. Staircases from the main corridor of the west and east wings (to first floor and basement) have stone steps, square-section metal balusters and swept mahogany handrails.

WEST RANGE (former residential range and nun’s choir)
EXTERIOR. the part added in 1884 has an east elevation of seven bays and two storeys of a similar appearance to the original building with coursed hammer dressed stone walls, first-floor sill band and evenly-spaced windows with thick, dressed stone lintels. The ground-floor windows have timber cross frames with leaded glass. First-floor windows have uPVC frames. In the north bay of the ground floor is a bell hung beneath a small timber and slate roofed canopy with an adjacent timber and leaded glass door opening onto the flat roof of a small timber-framed and pebble-dashed extension with two leaded windows set into the frame.

The style of the west pile added for the extern’s accommodation in 1909-11 recalls that of C17 vernacular domestic architecture of Yorkshire. It has a two-storey west front with blind basement and projecting, gabled bay to the south end for the staircase, with stone mullion and transom multi-light window. The fourth bay also has a tall mullioned window lighting a secondary stair. The other bays have single and pairs of window with four-over-four pane horned sashes in frames with lintels incised with trefoil heads. At the south end, set back is a recessed, two-storey, flat-roofed entrance bay with a single-storey bay to the right. The square-headed doorway has an arched, timber door with glazed spandrels, simple, timber post porch and a rectangular leaded and coloured glass overlight. Abutting the north end, a single-storey, flat-roofed bay originally for the kitchen and common room and a former coal store set against the west gable of the north range adjacent to the gatehouse added in this period (see above).


INTERIOR: the 1880s part of the west range contained the chapel at ground floor. This is now as remodelled and subdivided into nun’s choir and ante-choir in the alterations of 1909-11. The ante-choir in the north bays has a timber gallery with pierced balustrade, reached by a closed-string, timber staircase with octagonal newel post with shaped finial, splat balusters and handrail. A similar staircase links the main building to this range at first floor. A central, decorative strip of encaustic tiling in the ante-choir continues through the sub-diving wall into the Nuns’ Choir where it forms a T-shaped strip. The subdividing wall has two outer, six-panelled doors with triangular, leaded overlights. At the north end is a timber, panelled altar and reredos with side bench seats with high, panelled backs. The side walls of the choir have high-backed bench seats. At the south end is the large grille (now glazed) looking into the chapel sanctuary with timber panelled shutters and arched panelling over. To the left is a small, panelled doorway into the sanctuary of the chapel. The first floor has a row of five nun’s cells and a larger room with a fireplace, now subdivided, with a grille in the west wall.

The interior of the extern’s range added in 1909-11 has parlours and other rooms round an open court. Features include four-panelled doors, window shutters, herringbone block floors, small fireplaces with cast iron mantelpieces with vertical strips of blue-glazed tiles (some bricked up), a raised stone (painted) column with foliate capital in the entrance vestibule, a piscina in the priest’s sacristy, and fixed, panelled cupboards in the nuns’ sacristy. On the ground floor there are cylindrical, timber turns between the priest’s and nuns’ sacristies and an outer and inner room. The turns are situated within timber and glazed lobbies on the enclosed side. A number of large grilles interconnect first-floor rooms. The two staircases are timber. The principal one off the entrance vestibule is closed-string with shaped newels with finials, shaped balusters and swept handrail. The narrower, second staircase is closed-string with similar newel post, plain stick balusters and a ramped handrail.


THE CHAPEL, oriented E-W across the S end of the west range is in the Early English style with gabled ends and gabled and stepped buttresses and smaller buttresses to the side elevations. The east and west windows are of three stepped lancets with hoodmoulds and the west door in a gabled surround with moulded arch to a porch between the buttresses. Smaller lancets on the side elevations, also with hoodmoulds and in triplets in the upper parts of the south transept (Lady Chapel) which has a circular window with cinquefoil tracery in the south gable.

Abutting the east wall is the mid-C20 ORATORY, single storey and gabled with small east window of three lancets with a transom. Contemporary with this is the CLOISTER in front of the basement of the west range. This has three windows with similar tracery of four and two lights and leaded lights, and a square-headed door at the right-hand end.

The chapel INTERIOR is faced in red bricks in stretcher bond, orange brick and stone dressings. Bands of blue brick diaper-work high up and vertical diaper work framing east and west windows. The roof has a plastered vault with moulded wall plates and angled timber trusses with tie beams and king posts on vertical, shaped posts rising from dropped, shaped-stone corbels. Nave floor of herringbone timber blocks. Diamond-set stone flags in the vestibule. The raised sanctuary and Lady Chapel have red encaustic tile floors, that to the sanctuary incorporating green and blue patterns and decorative tiles. The south wall has a piscina. The north side has an aumbry, the door and grille into the nun’s choir (see above). Two internal multi-pane windows are placed high up in this wall. The nave north wall has a doorway from the priest’s sacristy and pine pews with fold-down kneelers. At the west end is an arcade of three pointed arches with panelled double doors to the centre and a side doorway to the right-hand recess, both opening into the entrance vestibule, with timber screening for a confessional in the left-hand recess. There is a piscina in the west side wall of the Lady Chapel.

The rectangular, stone altar has circular, green marble columns to the outer corners. Gothic, stone reredos behind incorporates two small marble columns with a central brass crucifix set in a crocketed stone canopy with finials. A stone lectern also has two marble columns. White marble statue of the Carmelite nun St Therese of Lisieux with roses set on a high brick plinth. The Lady Chapel has tracery-carved stone altar and reredos with a painted statue of the Virgin Mary.

The Oratory INTERIOR is faced in red bricks in stretcher bond. Timber plank floor. Roof of braced collar beam trusses with single side purlins, joists and ridge board, boarded to the rear. Gothic, relief-carved, timber altar and reredos with a crucifix finial and incorporating a turn.


SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: grounds to the east of the monastery buildings are enclosed by a high wall of around 12ft (3.6m) of roughly coursed stonework with coping of triangular-shaped stones and ramped southern outer corners. Intermediate buttresses and in places the wall is strengthened by cemented metal straps, with other sections having been rebuilt.

A lean-to greenhouse and two small square buildings (hermitages) are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing*.


* ‘Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the rear north wing and the lean-to greenhouse and two hermitages in the enclosure are not of special architectural or historic interest, however any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require LBC and this is a matter for the LPA to determine.’


This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 11 December 2025 to amend the description

Sources

Websites
Children's Homes, Kirkedge Orphanage/Industrial School/ Reformatory, near Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, accessed 19 Feb 2025 from https://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/BradfieldRC/

Other
Sheffield City Archives, Hadfield Cawkwell Davidson archive: HCD/2/432 Kirk Edge Orphanage, Sheffield, M E Hadfield and Son: foundation, ground and first floors plans.
Sheffield City Archives, Hadfield Cawkwell Davidson archive: HCD/2/451 Kirk Edge, Carmelite Convent, Sheffield, C and C M Hadfield: contract, working drawings, plans, elevations, sections 1909-1919.

End of official list entry