Graveyard turning into sad wilderness
IT was only the other week, machete in hand, that, unlike Col Percy Fawcett, I re-emerged from the tangle of Wardsend Cemetery, to find myself in another historic, overgrown, graveyard in the S6 area.
Now Loxley Old Chapel, as I have mistakenly referred to it in the past, is actually older than I thought, 1787, and a handsome building. It's sort of a brooding Bronte structure that one imagines would not look out of place at Haworth.
Sadly, the graveyard is beginning to become something of a wilderness, though work is being carried out, judging by the evidence of judicious tree surgery near the building.
How sad to note one or two windows boarded up and a lovely stained glass window that could do with some protection.
The entrance has some sort of barrier to discourage unwelcome attention, though I note a beer can or two that is unlikely to have come with the tree surgeon.
Two graves strike the eye, being recently mown by the War Graves Commission.
Now the chapel/church is one of Loxley's few historic buildings and there are graves to the victims of the 1864 flood there.
It's not on the lists of buildings at risk that I am aware but it's certainly vulnerable and that's a great shame.
n Recent coverage regarding Conservation Areas under threat makes worrying reading. Does anyone remember The Oakes, at Norton when it was Sheffield's only stately home?
I had the privilege of being shown round by Major Thornber Bagshawe and his good lady. Meanwhile in the resurgent Wicker the Trinity Sunday Schools are looking increasing dilapidated and what of the little building off Stanley Street with the date 1829 on it, possibly the oldest building in the area?
Ron Clayton, Sheffield 6
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Weather for Sheffield
Friday 10 February 2012
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