Vestry Hall: serving the community for 150 years

Story: Saleema Imam

On August 25th 1863 a meeting in Brightside Bierlow resolved to build Vestry Offices on Burngreave Road. These offices were duly built and opened in 1864, the year carved in stone over the main entrance.

At that time the Vestry Hall would have been almost on the outskirts of Sheffield town much in contrast to its current inner city location.

Burngreave Vestry Hall has always held a central position in community life since its opening in 1864. Originally it had a caretaker’s house, main hall, kitchen and other smaller meeting rooms.

Of the few things that were forbidden in the original lease, one was using the building for religious services, another as stabling for horses!

Its use has varied over the years, from a

• registry,

• soup kitchen,

• learning centre,

• Sunday school,

• youth club,

• rehearsal and performance venue and for

• wedding receptions,

• councillor’s surgeries, to

• the planned hosting of international figures such as Picasso (sadly cancelled).

Sheffield City Council (SCC) leased the building from the Duke of Norfolk but, not having adequate funds for maintenance, the Vestry began to fall into disrepair and in 1996, on the formation of the Burngreave Community Action Forum, SCC asked the local community to take over the responsibility for the building and raise funds for its repair.

Soon after the roof began to leak so badly that the building was closed. A campaign to raise the large amounts needed for repair ended when the New Deal for Communities funding was received and the transformation began in 2007.

The old caretaker’s house was incorporated into the building, a new floor was added under a raised roof with wheelchair access. A lift to all floors was added and the basement was transformed into computer rooms.

Let’s hope the Vestry Hall can now continue to serve the community's needs for the next 150 years.

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