Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday, 27 October 1893
The New Church-School At Denaby
A Magnificent And Commodious Building
Opening Ceremony And Dedicatory Service
The handsome pile of buildings which the Denaby Main Colliery Company have erected at Denaby for the joint purpose of a church and school for the inhabitants of the village, were opened on Monday. The structure, which is situated near the old school, is built of Conisborough red brick with free stone dressings. Externally, it presents a fine and imposing frontage to the west, and over the main entrance is a substantial tower, surmounted by a cupola. Running eastward from the centre of the front elevation and north and south from its wings is a high and lofty nave, while at the east end the rear of the building is built with wings that project to the level of those at the west end. In addition to the main entrance, in the west gable, there are two doors at the extreme ends of the nave, opening north and south respectively, for the separate entrance of boys and girls attending the school.
From the outside a very handsome block of buildings is seen, built with great solidity, but by any means devoid of architectural beauty, although there is nothing elaborate in the external decorations. But although from the outside an idea of very considerable size and accommodation is conveyed, it is impossible to gather, except from an inspection of the interior, an adequate understanding of the commodious nature of the building. The central hall, which during the week will be used as a large school hall, and on Sunday as the body of the church, is one of the finest and largest of its kind in England. It is capable of accommodating 1,000 persons comfortably, and the Education Department have passed it to accommodate 800 children, when each child would have the amount of cubic air space which that department insists upon.
The hall is paved with wooden blocks on a bed of cement, and some idea of the size of the hall may be gathered when we state that 50,000 wooden blocks have been employed in paving it. The walls of the hall are plastered with a high wainscoting of varnished pitch pine. The ceiling is of pine, and lighted by a splendid skylight, sweeping almost from one end of the hall to the other. The ceiling is arched, and the skylight is inserted lighted by skylights on either angle of the sloping roof of the building. At the east end of the hall is the chancel, which, during the week, when the hall is used for school purposes, will be shut off from the body of the hall by revolving shutters, on a similar principle to those used for shop fronts. They differ, however, in this respect, that the shutters at Denaby are the largest of the kind in the world. They are made in two lengths, each of which requires three men to raise it or lower it. The chancel is plainly but substantially furnished, and behind the altar is a dossal hanging, decorated with a large gilt cross. The pulpit, lectern, and reading desk are moveable, and are constructed of pine.
Each side of the chancel are two large class-rooms, accommodating 105 each, as do also the rooms at the west end of the building, and along the sides of the hall are smaller class-rooms, in all providing classroom accommodation for 840 scholars. Commodious cloak-rooms and lavatories are also provided, and in short everything has been done to make the school complete.
As it stands it is a model establishment, and a magnificent monument of the enterprise of the Denaby Main Company, Limited, who have built it entirely at their own cost and at an outlay of between £4,000 and £5,000. Mr. H. Smethurst, the company’s architect and surveyor designed the building, and has superintended the erection, for which Messrs. Arnold and Sons, of Doncaster, contracted.
The building was first used for Divine service on Sunday, when the Rev. R. P. Roseveare, M.A., preached, but the formal opening and dedication did not take place until Monday, when in the absence of the unavoidable absence of the Archbishop of York, through illness, Dr. Crossthwaite, the Suffragan Bishop of Beverley, was the special preacher at evensong.
The organ and choir were supplemented by a band of eight performers, as follows:—Messrs. Moses Boar (conductor), W. H. Chambers (clarionet), Hill, Firth, Smith, Hughes (viola), and Witty (cello). Mr. Beardsley, the organist, manipulated the instrument in his usual skilful manner.
The service was conducted by the Rev. R. P. Roseveare, M.A., the lessons being read by the Rev. H. Ellershaw (Mexborough) and the Rev. G. H. Stock (Conisborough). The Rev. R. P. Roseveare read the usual prayers for evensong, at the conclusion of which the Bishop read the dedicatory prayers and pronounced the special benediction.
Opening Ceremony And Dedicatory Service
His Grace preached from the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, the fourth and following verses, as follows:—
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is good. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And the words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine house and upon thy gates.”
They were met together, he said, to dedicate to the services of God, not only that room in which they were assembled, but also the pile of buildings of which that hall formed a centre, as a place where young children might be brought up and taught and educated for the life before them. The large hall was also to be used for Divine worship, and on that account he wished to especially direct their attention to the text which indicated the manner in which God commanded the Israelites to constantly keep religion before them.
He desired to point out to them, in the words of the text, how important it was that they should teach their children. They were told that they must teach them diligently, not only their children, but their children’s children. The text taught them what it was they were to teach. They were to teach the Word of God. The text said: “This is My word, and it shall be in thy heart, and thou shalt teach it diligently.” They were to teach the Word of God, and it should be in their hearts before they endeavoured to teach it to others.
He wanted them to understand that God deserved their love and obedience, and that the Israelites were instructed and commanded that from their earliest youth up their children should be taught the love of God, that they should understand that God deserved their love and that He desired it. Sometimes people asked him how they could say: “Thou must love God,” but when the Bible commanded them to love God it meant that if they could only understand God, they must love Him, unless they were determined to go their own way and follow that which was evil, because God rightly knew and rightly understood could not fail to be loved.
His Grace then proceeded to speak of the benefits of religion in daily life, and said that on this account the Israelites had been commanded to keep it constantly before them. Some people made the mistake of supposing that religion was only for the death-bed or the hour of sickness or trial, or only for Sundays. This was not so. They must keep it in their hearts always. They were to bind it to the right hand because the right hand was the instrument of action, and it meant that religion was to be present in all their actions, and they were to wear it as a frontlet between the eyes because the eye was the organ of vision, the conductor of all knowledge.
The Bishop then proceeded to speak of the social revolution wrought by the spread of education. It had already done much to ameliorate the lot of all classes of humanity, and in conclusion he said he trusted that ere long something would be devised to prevent such disputes as that which was now being waged with results so disastrous to many of them.
At the conclusion of the sermon a collection, the proceeds of which are to be devoted to the purchase of books for the congregation, was taken.
On Tuesday evening the dedication festival was continued, the special preacher being the Rev. F. J. Metcalfe, M.A., Vicar of Kilham, Mr. White, of Conisborough, was organist, and the instrumentalists were the same as before. The collection was for the same purpose as on Monday.
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