Default Image Place of Worship has been
Demolished.
Image by courtesy of
openclipart.org

St John's Church (Demolished),
Blackstock Road / Blackstock Close,
Hemsworth, Norton, Derbyshire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Church did NOT have a graveyard.

Note: any church within an urban environment may have had its graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853. Any new church built after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all.

Church History

This Place of Worship was founded by 1960, but we understand it was closed after 1979.

The location of the former St John's Church can be seen on Old Maps of 1963-1966, on the south west corner of the junction of Blackstock Road and Blackstock Crescent. Apparently it was built by 1960, as the list of Parish Registers available at Sheffield Archives refers to records of baptisms existing from then, together with marriage registers for the period 1971-1979.

Samuel Bagshaw's Directory of Derbyshire of 1846 records Hemsworth as "a small pleasant village, 1 mile east of Noton, where the magistrates hold a petty session for the north-western part of the hundred, at the Bagshawe Arms, on the fourth Thursday of every month". Thus like Norton itself it was originally part of the county of Derbyshire, probably transferred to the borough of Sheffield in 1933, at the same time as Norton. The transfer to Sheffield diocese took longer, and did not take place until 1974. Thus it is possible that the following notice in The London Gazette of 12th February 1974 (p.1912) apparently revoking the Church's licence for marriages may have been a necessary accompaniment to the transfer:

Notice is hereby given that by an Instrument dated the 7th February 1974 a Licence dated the 18th June 1971 authorising the publication of banns and the solemnization of marriages in the building known as the Church of St. John, Hemsworth now in the Parish of Gleadless Valley in the Diocese of Sheffield was revoked by The Lord Bishop of the said Diocese.

In the present day, the building has been demolished, and the parish is now served by Holy Cross Church, Spotswood Mount, a rather splendid modern building, presumably built to replace St John's. The two are indeed closely connected, as what is believed to be Holy Cross Vicarage now stands on St John's former site.

The above was compiled with the assistance of postings on the Sheffield Forum: Gleadless Valley Local History Group.

Denomination

Now or formerly Church of England.

If more than one congregation has worshipped here, or its congregation has united with others, in most cases this will record its original dedication.

Maps

This Church was located at OS grid reference SK3667482828. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St John's Church (Demolished), Hemsworth, Norton shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Norton shown on a Google Map.
• Streetmap.co.uk (arrow on map shows the Place of Worship's location) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Bing (Ordnance Survey option) (verified 2018-10-13)
• Bing Maps ('Bird's Eye' View) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Ordnance Survey "getamap" (NB some of the 'Change Map' options may require a subscription) (verified 2018-10-15)
• OpenStreetMap (Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA) (verified 2018-10-15)
• A Vision of Britain Through Time - useful for Boundary Changes (verified 2018-10-15)
• www.magic.gov.uk (Modern Maps with various overlays) (verified 2018-10-15)

Resources

I have found many websites of use whilst compiling the information for this database. Here are some which deserve mention as being of special interest for Hemsworth, Norton, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• “Everything Sheffield…” Sheffield Forum: Gleadless Valley Local History Group (null) (verified 2018-10-16)
• Notices of Civil Registration of Places of Worship for marriages are published in the London edition of The Gazette. Hint: search for registrations from 1998 by choosing 'Church' notices, and the option 'Registration for solemnising marriage'. (verified 2018-12-11)

The above links were selected and reviewed at the time I prepared the information, but please be aware their content may vary, or disappear entirely. These factors are outside my control.