Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/812

Rh 78(5 SHEFFIELD only ecclesiastical building of special interest is the old parish church of St Peter, chiefly in the Perpendicular style, originally cruciform, but by various additions now rectangular. The old Norman building is supposed to have been burned down during the wars of Edward III. with the barons, and the most ancient part of the present structure is the tower, dating from the 14th century. The church has lately been restored at the cost of about 20,000. It contains a large number of interesting mural monuments. The free grammar school was founded in 1603 through a bequest of Thomas Smith, a native of Sheffield, practis- ing as an attorney at Crowland, Lincolnshire, and it re- ceived the sanction of King James I. in 1604, with the title "The Free Grammar School of King James of England." The grammar school building of stone in the Tudor style, erected in 1824, is now (1886) used as a technical school, the grammar school trustees having pur- chased the collegiate school at Broomhall Park. The other principal educational institutions are the free writ- ing school (1715, rebuilt in 1827), the boys' charity school (founded 1706), the girls' charity school (1786), the Iloman Catholic reformatory (1861), the Church of England educational institute, the Firth College, erected by Mark Firth at a cost of 20,000, for lectures and classes in connexion with the extension of university education, the Wesley College, associated with London University, Ranmoor College, for training young men for the ministry in the Methodist New Con- nexion, the mechanics' institute, the school of art, and the St George's Museum, founded by Mr Ruskin, and including a picture gallery, a library, and a mineral, a natural history, and a botanical collection, the special pur- pose of the institution being the train- ing of art students. The school board was first elected in 1870, and carries on its operations with great energy and success. The principal public buildings are the town-hall, including the police offices and rooms for the quarter ses- sions and other courts, erected in 1808, enlarged in 1833, and lately extensively remodelled at a cost of over 10,000; the council hall and municipal buildings, originally used for the mechanics' institute, but purchased by the corporation in 1864 ; the cutlers' hall, built in 1832 at a cost of 6500, and enlarged in 1857 by the addition of a magnificent banqueting hall, erected at a cost of 9000 ; the general post office, in the Doric style, opened in 1874; the fine new corn exchange, in the Tudor style, erected at a cost of 60,000 ; the Albert Hall, opened in 1873 by a joint-stock company for concerts and public meetings ; the music hall, erected in 1823 ; the freemasons' hall, opened in 1877; the temperance halls, 1856; the Norfolk market hall, opened in 1857 at a cost of 40,000 ; the theatre royal, originally erected in 1793, rebuilt in 1880 at a cost of 8000; the Alexandra theatre, erected 1836-7 at a cost of 8000 ; the barracks, having accom- modation for a cavalry and an infantry regiment and surrounded by grounds 25 acres in extent; and the volunteer artillery drill hall, erected at a cost of 9000. The literary and social institutions include the Athenaeum, established in 1847, with a newsroom and library; the literary and philosophical society, 1822 ; the Sheffield club, 1862; the Sheffield library, commenced in 1777, and con- taining 80,000 volumes ; and the free library, founded in 1856, with various branches opened in subsequent years. Among the medical or benevolent institutions may be mentioned the general infirmary, opened in 1797, and successively enlarged and improved as requirements de- manded ; the public hospital, erected in 1858 (in connexion with the Sheffield medical school established in 1792) and extended in 1869 ; the hospital for women, originally estab- lished in 1864, but transferred in 1878 to a new building erected at the expense of Thomas Jessop, and now called the Jessop hospital for women ; the hospital for diseases of the skin, 1880; the ear and throat hospital, 1880 ; the fever hospital, erected by the Town Council at a cost of about 25,000 ; the school and manufactory for the blind, 1879; the South Yorkshire lunatic asylum, 1872; the Shrewsbury hospital for twenty men and twenty women, originally founded by the seventh earl of Shrewsbury, who died in 1616, but since greatly enlarged by successive Plan of Sheffield. benefactions ; the Hollis hospital, established in 1 700^ for widows of cutlers, &c. ; the Firth almshouses, erected 'and endowed in 1869 by Mark Firth of Oakbrook at a cost of 30,000; the licensed victuallers' asylum, 1878; the Deakin institution, 1849; Hanby's charity, 1766; and Hadfield's charity, 1860. The public monuments are neither numerous nor im- portant, the principal being the Montgomery statue, erected to James Montgomery the poet in 1861, chiefly by the Sunday school teachers of the town, the Ebenezer Elliot monument, erected in the market-place in 1854, and removed to Weston Park in 1875, the column to Godfrey Sykes the artist, erected in Weston Park in 1871, the cholera monument 1834-5, and the Crimean monument to the natives of Sheffield who died in the Crimean War. The town is comparatively well supplied with parks and public gardens. In three of the more populous dis- tricts the duke of Norfolk, lord of the manor, presented plots of ground amounting in all to 26 acres, to be used as recreation grounds. In the western suburbs is the