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A Guide to the Cathedral’s Community Resource Centre

Facing the main entrance to the Cathedral is the stone archway entrance to the new Cathedral Community Resource Centre. The Centre was opened on 6 March 2007 by HRH the Princess Royal and is the most recent development in our Cathedral’s long history.

Downstairs, the Centre provides state-of-the-art facilities for the Cathedral Archer Project. CAP is part of the Cathedral’s mission to work for social justice, and it offers practical support to homeless and vulnerable people from the local area. The building offers educational and cultural resources for them, for the Cathedral congregations, and, more widely, for local businesses, the arts, and communities across the region.

The Centre has been designed so that it uses high quality materials in all areas. Users of the Archer Project benefit from a laundry room, showers, a medical room equipped with dentist’s facilities, a cafeteria, and training rooms. Conference and meeting rooms have audio-visual facilities, and full catering can be provided. Why not pick up one of our leaflets advertising all that the Centre has to offer for conferences, weddings, and other meetings?

In the meantime, have a look around the parts of the Centre that are open to the public, including the 1554 Gallery, if it is not in use.

The Window

The window which is seen above the new archway entrance was originally given in 1881 by Sir Henry Watson of Shirecliffe Hall, in memory of his parents, and is the work of Dixon of London.

In the upper tracery are sacred symbols and monograms, including the Greek letters Alpha and Omega. The main theme of the window is the “Acts of the Apostles, preaching and healing”, appropriately with reference to the Patron Saints of the Cathedral, St Peter and St Paul. In the centre, St Peter is preaching to the Gentile Centurion Cornelius and his friends. The lower panels consist of two sets of three, showing on the left, miracles of healing by St Peter, and on the right, preaching and healing by St Paul.

A second window, previously situated below the one described, was the work of Pearce of Birmingham, and was given in memory of Edward Birks, Churchwarden from 1866 to 1896. This window is now set within the well of the new Centre.

The upper panels depict Christ and his Disciples in the cornfields on the Sabbath; the Pharisees are shown rebuking them for breaking the rules of the Sabbath by plucking and eating ears of corn on the sacred day. The beautiful flowers shown in the design are said to have been based on flowers which grew in the Holy Land, including the “lilies of the field”.

The lower panels illustrate the story of the Nunc Dimittis canticle, an integral part of Anglican liturgy. Mary and Joseph (on the right) have come to present the child Jesus in the Temple, according to Jewish Law. Joseph carries the required sacrifice of turtle doves or pigeons. In the centre Simeon, who is often depicted as a retired priest, takes.

Jesus in his arms, and rejoices that he can now die in peace because he has seen in this child the salvation promised by God. On the left Anna, an aged devout prophetess, recognises the child as the Christ who will redeem the world.

The Heraldic Achievements in the Light Well

These stone heraldic achievements were part of the panels taken from a rectangular table tomb commissioned in London by George, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury between 1584 and 1585. Since he was Earl Marshal of England, in charge of heraldry and pageantry, it can be assumed that they provide a reliable record of the best Elizabethan heraldic design.

The ornate heraldry included various quarterings of the Talbot family, the Garter belt, their crest, the family motto “Prest d’Accomplir” (ready to accomplish), the lion passant of the Talbots, and of course, supporting Talbot hounds.

The tomb originally stood in the Shrewsbury Chapel and was most likely intended for the Earl himself. However it was never used and the 6th Earl’s monument is the impressive structure placed against the south wall of the Shrewsbury Chapel soon after his death in 1590.

These Tudor heraldic achievements, now in a 21st century setting, serve to remind us of the living heritage which links all the fabric of our Cathedral building.

1554, the Church Burgesses, and the Community Resource Centre

Prior to 1547 income from Sheffield land and property had been used towards the costs of the Parish Church (now the Cathedral), town maintenance, and helping the poor. The direction of this income was in the hands of the Burgesses and inhabitants of Sheffield.

In 1547 the Chantries’ Act of Edward VI in effect took most of this income for the Crown. So when Queen Mary Tudor succeeded her brother, the Burgesses, strongly supported by Francis, the popular 5th Earl of Shrewsbury, petitioned for a restoration of the confiscated money. The Queen, perhaps anxious at the beginning of her reign to secure loyalty in the North, agreed. On the 8th June 1554 her Royal Charter restored the said money. However, responsibility for this money was given in trust to a new corporate body – “The 12 Capital Burgesses and the Commonalty of the Town and Parish of Sheffield”.

The Burgesses, who were to be “good men and true”, were to use the assets entrusted to them financially to support the Parish Church in specified ways to carry out some town maintenance to be responsible for charity work for the poor.

In the years since 1554, the Church Burgesses Trust has carefully stewarded and managed its resources, so that in this 21st century, the Cathedral and many institutions and individuals in the City of Sheffield benefit from their great generosity and current support.

With reference to the Community Resource Centre building, the Burgesses have contributed £250,000 towards creating the opening feature, including the beautiful etching design on the glass doors. It shows the crest of the Burgesses with the date 1554 and the appropriate words: “Sigillum Villa de Sheffelde” – the seal for the town of Sheffield.

It is indeed appropriate in our new Centre that there should be the 1554 Gallery, a daily reminder of the generosity of the Capital Burgesses to this Cathedral Church and the City.

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A Guide to the Cathedral’s Community Resource Centre

The Window

The Heraldic Achievements in the Light Well

1554, the Church Burgesses, and the Community Resource Centre