Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

786
SHEFFIELD
only ecclesiastical building of special interest is the old
parish church of St Peter, chiefly in the Perpendicular
style, originally cruciform, but by various additions now
rectangular. The old Norman building is supposed to
have been burned down during the wars of Edward III.
with the barons, and the most ancient part of the present
structure is the tower, dating from the 14th century.
The church has lately been restored at the cost of about
£20,000. It contains a large number of interesting mural
monuments.
The free grammar school was founded in 1603 through
a bequest of Thomas Smith, a native of Sheffield, practis¬
ing as an attorney at Crowland, Lincolnshire, and it re¬
ceived the sanction of King James I. in 1604, with the
title “The Free Grammar School of King James of
England.” The grammar school building of stone in the
Tudor style, erected in 1824, is now (1886) used as a
technical school, the grammar school trustees having pur¬
chased the collegiate school at Broomhall Park. The
other principal educational institutions are the free writ¬
ing school (1715, rebuilt in 1827), the
boys’ charity school (founded 1706),
the girls’ charity school (1786), the
Roman Catholic reformatory (1861),
the Church of England educational
institute, the Firth College, erected by
Mark Firth at a cost of £20,000, for
lectures and classes in connexion with
the extension of university education,
the Wesley College, associated with
London University, Ranmoor College,
for training young men for the
ministry in the Methodist New Con¬
nexion, the mechanics’ institute, the
school of art, and the St George’s
Museum, founded by Mr Ruskin, and
including a picture gallery, a library,
and a mineral, a natural history, and
a botanical collection, the special pur¬
pose of the institution being the train¬
ing of art students. The school board
was first elected in 1870, and carries
on its operations with great energy
and success.
The principal public buildings are
the town-hall, including the police
offices and rooms for the quarter ses¬
sions and other courts, erected in
1808, enlarged in 1833, and lately
extensively remodelled at a cost of
over £10,000; the council hall and municipal buildings,
originally used for the mechanics’ institute, but purchased
by the corporation in 1864 ; the cutlers’ hall, built in 1832
at a cost of £6500, and enlarged in 1857 by the addition
of a magnificent banqueting hall, erected at a cost of
£9000 ; the general post office, in the Doric style, opened
in 1874; the fine new corn exchange, in the Tudor style,
erected at a cost of £60,000; the Albert Hall, opened in
1873 by a joint-stock company for concerts and public
meetings; the music hall, erected in 1823 ; the freemasons’
hall, opened in 1877; the temperance halls, 1856; the
Norfolk market hall, opened ia 1857 at a cost of £40,000;
the theatre royal, originally erected in 1793, rebuilt in
1880 at a cost of £8000; the Alexandra theatre, erected
1836-7 at a cost of £8000 ; the barracks, having accom¬
modation for a cavalry and an infantry regiment and
surrounded by grounds 25 acres in extent; and the
volunteer artillery drill hall, erected at a cost of £9000.
The literary and social institutions include the Athenaeum,
established in 1847, with a newsroom and library; the
literary and philosophical society, 1822 ; the Sheffield club,
1862 ; the Sheffield library, commenced in 1777, and con¬
taining 80,000 volumes; and the free library, founded in
1856, with various branches opened in subsequent years.
Among the medical or benevolent institutions may be
mentioned the general infirmary, opened in 1797, and
successively enlarged and improved as requirements de¬
manded ; the public hospital, erected in 1858 (in connexion
with the Sheffield medical school established in 1792) and
extended in 1869 ; the hospital for women, originally estab¬
lished in 1864, but transferred in 1878 to a new building
erected at the expense of Thomas Jessop, and now called
the Jessop hospital for women; the hospital for diseases
of the skin, 1880 ; the ear and throat hospital, 1880 ; the
fever hospital, erected by the Town Council at a cost of
about £25,000 ; the school and manufactory for the blind,
1879; the South Yorkshire lunatic asylum, 1872 ; the
Shrewsbury hospital for twenty men and twenty women,
originally founded by the seventh earl of Shrewsbury, who
died in 1616, but since greatly enlarged by successive
benefactions; the Hollis hospital, established in 1700 for
widows of cutlers, &c.; the Firth almshouses, erected and
endowed in 1869 by Mark Firth of Oakbrook at a cost
of £30,000; the licensed victuallers’ asylum, 1878; the
Deakin institution, 1849; Hanby’s charity, 1766; and
Hadfield’s charity, 1860.
The public monuments are neither numerous nor im¬
portant, the principal being the Montgomery statue, erected
to James Montgomery the poet in 1861, chiefly by the
Sunday school teachers of the town, the Ebenezer Elliot
monument, erected in the market-place in 1854, and
removed to Weston Park in 1875, the column to Godfrey
Sykes the artist, erected in Weston Park in 1871, the
cholera monument 1834-5, and the Crimean monument
to the natives of Sheffield who died in the Crimean War.
The town is comparatively well supplied with parks
and public gardens. In three of the more populous dis¬
tricts the duke of Norfolk, lord of the manor, presented
plots of ground amounting in all to 26 acres, to be used
as recreation grounds. In the western suburbs is the
Plan of Sheffield.