St Vincent's Church, Sheffield

The developing cutlery and tool industries of Sheffield attracted a number of the Irish emigrants, many of whom had walked the 80 miles from disembarking at Liverpool Docks, over the Pennines, to settle in "The Crofts" area of the town.

Like much of Sheffield at the time, it was a working-poor neighbourhood of crowded tenements and back to back housing, lacking adequate sanitation and healthcare, built across hills accessed by gennels and snickets, interspersed with the constantly active iron and steel factories, small workshops making cutlery and hand tools, and churches, schools and pubs.

The chapel was greatly expanded in 1856 by George Goldie, a partner of Hadfield's, with the addition of a nave and a chancel at a cost of £3,100 and was officially recognised as a church although it had no tower or spire.

Further building work costing £650 took place in 1870 when a church tower was built up to a height of 40 feet which incorporated the south porch and an entrance from White Croft.

The tower was raised up to its present-day height of 93 feet in 1911 when a donation of £1,400 by Mr. Philip Wake enabled it to be completed in a design in the Norman style based on a typical church in Normandy.

The first Sheffield Blitz raid by German bombers on the night of 12/13 December 1940 resulted in the destruction of the original 1853 chapel when a parachute mine landed on the roof.

Vigorous fund raising enabled much re-building to be done on the damaged church in the 1950s, this included a new chapel, replacement roofs and a new entrance porch, organ loft and choir gallery.

The church building itself has been turned into a communal area, incorporating shared social space, a cinema, a kitchen and soundproofed music rooms.