Grade II-listed chapel at Sheffield cemetery in disrepair

Concerns about the state of the Catholic chapel at City Road Cemetery have been raised with Sheffield Council by Paul Sargeant after he visited the site on Mother’s Day.

Mr Sargeant, who was at the cemetery with his wife to visit his mother-in-law’s grave, said he was shocked at the ‘disgusting’ state of the chapel, which is fenced off and boarded up.

The council said today the chapel may be considered for funding for repair work in future.

Mr Sargeant said he had written to the council leader Julie Dore and the local authority’s Bereavement Services team about the issue.

He said a number of headstones close to the Manor Lane entrance of the site have also fallen over.

Mr Sargeant said he was particularly concerned at the state of the chapel.

“It has just been left to fall apart,” he said.

“It is disgraceful, it is now just a derelict building and it is a listed building.

“Something needs doing about it. This chapel has been in city for over 100 years – it needs to get sorted.”

He said the chapel has been ‘getting worse and worse’ on the occasions he has visited the cemetery.

“Even just putting a new roof on it would stop water getting in and causing further damage,” he said.

The chapel was built between 1898 and 1900 and became a listed building in 1995. The City Road site is Sheffield’s largest cemetery, covering 100 acres,

A spokesman for Sheffield Council said: “Regular safety checks are made to the vacant buildings managed by the council.

“However, the Council has identified a capital allocation of £100,000 to carry out essential repairs to some of these buildings.

“We will be looking into the best way of investing the limited funding available over the coming months.”