I’ve never understood why people claim that Sheffield is, like Rome, built on seven hills. There’s even an Italian restaurant in Hillsborough called Sette Colli: Home – Sette Colli Restaurant, Italian Restaurant, Sheffield, S6.
In fact, the city is drained by five significant rivers – Don, Loxley, Rivelin, Porter and Sheaf. That makes six hills, each of which early industry utilised to power water mills.
The Don, which flows to Doncaster, is joined by the Rother in Rotherham.
The Sheaf is said to give the city its name, which explains the sheaves of corn on the city’s coat of arms.
The Loxley, which flows eastwards from the Pennine foothills through Bradfield to join the River Rivelin at Malin Bridge and then the River Don at Owlerton, brought the waters released by the Dale Dike Dam disaster thundering through these villages in March 1864.
On the northern side of the Loxley valley, a chapel was constructed in 1787 at a cost of £1,000 by members of the congregation of St Nicholas’ Church, Bradfield, who resisted the dismissal of the minister, Rev A Benjamin Greaves.
This fine, dignified building looks out above the road to Bradfield. Practically square in plan, it’s distinguished by its elegant Venetian windows. It could accommodate up to a thousand people and is surrounded by an extensive burial ground.
By 1798, after Rev Greaves had moved on, the building was leased to Dissenters and when they bought it for £315 it became Loxley Independent Church and, later, Loxley Congregational Church.
Through the nineteenth century the chapel and its surroundings were repeatedly improved – a schoolroom and minister’s house in 1855, the burial ground extended in 1875, and the chapel restored in 1890-91 – and in the twentieth century, with a depleted congregation, it continued to act as a focal point for the widespread farming community. In 1972 it was renamed Loxley United Reformed Church.
By 1985, when it was listed Grade II* [LOXLEY UNITED REFORMED CHURCH, Bradfield – 1314565 | Historic England] indicating its historical and architectural importance, it was also placed on the Buildings At Risk Register. After storm damage in 1989 it was extensively repaired and reopened in 1990, but two years later services ceased, though burials continued in the cemetery, and in 1996 the United Reformed Church sold the chapel and the cemetery to a private developer, now Ali Property Development.
The chapel continued to deteriorate until on August 17th 2016 it caught fire. The fire brigade had difficulty putting three tenders within reach, and the roof and interior was entirely destroyed, leaving only the outside walls which remain fenced off and abandoned.
Images from February 2015 show what the interior looked like before it was burnt out: Report – – Loxley Methodist Church, Sheffield – March 2015 | Other Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk. (Despite the URL, it was never a Methodist church.)
The Friends of Loxley Cemetery was founded in 2019 to maintain the graveyard, safeguard the ruined chapel and take responsibility for the congregation’s records. They’ve worked hard to clear the badly overgrown burial ground and reveal a remarkable collection of monuments and gravestones. The back page of the Friends’ publicity leaflet shows the impact they’ve had on the site: folc-publicity-leaflet-dec-202 (e-voice.org.uk).
At least twenty-two people who perished in the Great Sheffield Flood are buried at Loxley, and there are fourteen war burials – military graves from both World Wars and that of an air-raid warden killed in the Sheffield Blitz.
There are also two memorials to victims of the respective tragedies of the Titanic (1912) and the Lusitania (1915).
A bird’s eye view of Loxley Cemetery is available at Loxley Chapel and Cemetery filmed by drone in February 2023 – YouTube.
The Friends welcome visitors and volunteer helpers: News Events – Friends of Loxley Cemetery (e-voice.org.uk).