2011-04
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 1 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 2 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
Sheffield, as we are always being told, is Yorkshire’s
greenest city. We are blessed with many sizable parks and
a significant part of the city boundaries take in the moors
and hills of the Peak District. And Sheffield – particularly
the south and western parts – is also full of beautiful
woodland, some of it extremely ancient.
Woodseats itself is of course a very “woody” place – hence
its name which means, in Old English, fold in a wood. From
St Chad’s you can see the woods which gave the village its
name – Cobnar Wood, Lady Spring Wood and Hutcliffe
Wood.
Woods have of course been in the news a lot recently as the
government first proposed selling many of our woodlands off
to private organisations and charities and then, in the face of significant
public disquiet, backed down. Their embarrassment would have been
spared had they been a little more familiar with English history and
mythology. We are a people who live alongside woods and have great
affection for them. Whereas in European fairy tales forests are dark
places where witches and ogres live and where children get lost, for the
English woods are places of freedom, of Robin Hood and his merry men
and the enchanted forest of Arden. When the public heard about the
proposed sale of our woods there was a sense that an important part of
English liberty was at risk.
Trees, woods and forests also play a crucial part in the global ecosystem.
They capture and store carbon dioxide and they pump out life-giving
oxygen. At the same time it is the decayed forests under the hills of South
Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire that in the past have provided us with the
coal that we now know contributes so much to carbon emissions. We
have a complex relationship with our trees.
Trees in the Bible are ambiguous as well. In the story of the Garden of
Eden it is the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil which leads to
humanity’s fall from grace. It is another tree, this time fashioned into a
cross, upon which God completes his rescue mission through the death of
his son. In St John’s last vision of the new heavens and the new earth the
leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations.
As the long winter turns into spring we will see Sheffield’s trees once
again burst into leaf and we can revel in the beauty of the woods that
surround us. Take a moment to wander through one of them. Look at the
grandeur of the trees and the life they give us. And give thanks to God.
Rev Toby Hole
Vicar
St Chad’s Church
Woodseats
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 3 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
Bright Spark Electrical
All types of electrical work
Part P qualified
Burglar alarms
Telephone sockets
Computer tuition, setup/
repair and upgrades.
Malcolm Holmes
77 Holmhirst Road
Sheffield S8 0GW
Tel: 0114 2490889
Mob:07966 141780
Email: msholmes1@yahoo.com
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 4 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
An old man passed his
granddaughter's room one
night and overheard her
saying her alphabet.
What are you doing?" he
asked.
"I'm saying my prayers,"
explained the little girl.
The man looked
puzzled.
"I can't think of exactly
the right words, so I'm
just saying all the
letters. God will put
them together for me,
because He knows
what I'm thinking."
The Judge said to
the defendant, "I
thought I told you I
never wanted to see
you in here again."
“That's what I told
the police, but they
wouldn't listen!"
A tourist asks a
man in uniform,
"Are you a
policeman?"
"No, I am an
undercover
detective," he
replied
"So why are you
in uniform?"
"Today is my day
off!"
What do you get
if you cross an
eel with a
shopper?
A slippery
customer!
“I signed up to this Facebook thing ages
ago but I’ve still only got you and God as
my friends!” said Adam.
Little Matthew was in
the bath tub, and his
mum was washing his
hair.
She said to him,
"Wow, your hair is
growing so fast! You
need a haircut again."
Matthew replied,
"Maybe you should
stop watering it so
much!"
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 5 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
Send details of your event to impact@stchads.org or write to: Impact,
St Chad’s Church Offices, 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB.
Health Walks
Mondays – 10am: Graves Park.
Meet at the Animal Farm car park;
Tuesdays – 10.30am: Ecclesall
Woods. Meet at Abbeydale Industrial
Hamlet;
Thursdays – 10.30am: Lowedges.
Meet at the Community Wing,
Lowedges Junior School.
Call 0114 203 9337.
April 2
Loxley Silver Band with soloists
Michael and Kristina Hickman
Woodseats Methodist Church
7.30pm
Loxley Silver Band in concert with
soloists Michael Hickman on
classical guitar and vocalist Kristina
Hickman. Tickets are £8,
concessions £6 and children £3 with
proceeds going to the Motor
Neurone Disease Association.
Call 0114 250 0078
April 3
Discover Bishops' House
Bishops House
1-4pm
Have a go at making butter, the
traditional way, with a churn and
some elbow grease. Activities will be
preceded by a guided tour of the
Bishops' House at 11.30am. This
event is free and there is no need to
book.
Call 0114 278 2600
April 23
Afri-Cuban Drumming Workshop
Meersbrook Park United Reformed
Church
1.30-4pm
A fun and practical workshop that will
include playing in a percussion
ensemble. Admission £12.50
Places can be booked on 07913
892027 or by emailing
errol.francis@ymail.com
April 2
Introduction to Green
Woodworking
Ecclesall Woods Sawmill
10am-5pm
An introduction to green
woodworking and the chance to
make finished items.
Cost £60 - tickets available from
Ecclesall Woods Sawmill
April 17
Sheffield Ship Model Society
Spring Open Day
Millhouses Park
10am-4pm
This is the society's first of two open
days of 2011. Go along and watch
the many model boat and ship
sailing on Millhouses Lake. There is
a "have a go" boat for people to try
their skills and there will be steering
competitions and a mini yacht race.
Call 01246 209966
April 21
Easter Lambing and Open Day
Whirlow Hall Farm
11am-3pm
See the new born lambs at Whirlow
Hall Farm.
There will be two Easter hunts, pony
riding, free craft activities for children
and new lambs in the barn.
The farm shop and cafe will be open
throughout the day and there will be
the Whirlow Hall Farm barbecue.
Admission £2.50
Call 0114 235 2678
Beauchief Abbey holds a variety
of services and anyone is
welcome to attend. For more
details see the Abbey notice
board.
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 6 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
May 2
Highland Fling
Graves Park
A family day out with Highland Cattle
Show, craft market and food stalls,
fun fair rides, Shire Horse cart rides
and scarecrow making.
Call 0114 250 0500
May 7
Book Sale
36 Crawshaw Grove, Beauchief
10am-12pm
Good quality second-hand books for
sale in aid of the Alzheimer’s Society.
May 14
Introduction to Willow Hurdle
Making
Ecclesall Woods Sawmill
10am-5pm
A course including woodland
management and leaving with your
own ‘hurdle’ Cost £60.
0114 235 6348
May 15
Introduction to Woodworking in
the Home
Ecclesall Woods Sawmill
10am-5pm
A basic woodworking course for
beginners. Cost £60.
0114 235 6348
May 20
Sheffield Folk Chorale Concert
St Peter's Church, Greenhill
7.30pm
Songs drawn from the folk tradition
arranged and conducted by
Graham Pratt. Tickets £5.
0114 236 1213
May 21
Afri-Cuban Drumming Workshop
Meersbrook Park United Reformed
Church
1.30-4pm
For details, see April 23 listing.
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 7 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
F
or many years people used
whatever material was
around them to make
whatever they needed.
For most of our history wood was
the material of choice because there
was so much of it around and it was
so easy to work. We used wood to
make houses, boats, household
implements, weapons; in fact almost
anything and everything.
Take the humble wheel for
instance. In spite of what Fred and
Barney would have us believe, stone
was too heavy for making wheels
whilst wood is light, flexible, springy
and easily shaped. Wheels made of
wood were gradually phased out after
the turn of the last century but the
oldest complete spoked wheel is in
the National Museum of Iran and
dates from about 4000 BC, so
wooden wheels have a long history.
Whilst there have been many new
and modern materials created in the
last 50 years or so wood is still the
best material for making many things.
For some sports equipment wood is
still an essential material. Take
the cricket bat for instance. It is
still made of willow and has
been around since at least
1624. The method of
manufacture may have
changed but the basic
material has not. Willow is
used because it is tough
and resilient with the right
amount of strength and
flexibility. There is
something evocative
about hearing the striking
of leather on willow.
Sadly other sports have
seen greater changes.
Take golf for instance.
Originally golf clubs
were made completely of
wood because of its strength and
flexibility. It was only when balls
stopped being a bag stuffed with
feathers that metal heads could be
used. Eventually wood stopped being
used for the shaft and head of
‘woods’ which are now mostly made
of lighter metals such as titanium
alloys. Whilst a metal head may make
swinging easier and produce a more
accurate shot the tinny sound of the
head hitting the ball is nowhere near
as satisfying as that of wood on ball.
Musical instruments are another
example of wood still being best.
Every violin will contains several
types of wood – each used because it
has specific properties which are
needed in different parts of the
instrument. Some parts of the violin
need to be solid and strong whilst
others need to be free to vibrate. The
bulk of it might be maple, but spruce,
ebony, willow, rosewood and
boxwood are also used for some of
the smaller parts. I have an acoustic
guitar which has a plastic back and
sides but it still needs a wooden face
to vibrate. A friend of mine has an
electric violin. It looks more like the
skeleton of a violin but its sound is
equal in quality and tone to a more
regular violin. However, the bow is
made of wood as it produces a better
quality sound than any other material.
Wood may become a scarcer
resource as time goes on but we have
an affinity with it that we do not have
with any other material. This is
brought home to me every time when
out walking with my wife. Whenever
we cross a stile or bridge with a
wooden handrail which has been
smoothed by numerous hands over
many years my wife will caress it
fondly and always says ‘ooh, I wonder
how many people have touched this’.
Maybe we love wood because we
have a long history with it, but more
likely because it was once a living
thing and we respect that.
Kevin Wests
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 8 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
S
heffield is a very green place
to live in. It has more
woodland than any other city
in the country and the
Woodseats, Beauchief and Chancet
Wood area is a prime example of
this.
Our community boasts many
woodlands and green spaces where
you can walk, play or relax.
Take Graves Park for example. As
well as being parkland, there are
many areas of woodland. These are
in three sections — Cobnar Wood,
Summerhouse Wood and Waterfall
Wood. Cobnar Wood is the closest
to Woodseats bordering onto Cobnar
Road and covering the steep
embankment near the lower play
area. It merges with Waterfall Wood
where the stream runs through from
the lakes above. Summerhouse
Wood was originally named after a
shooting house near the site of the
Rose Garden Café.
Chancet Wood is another well
known area at the heart of St Chad’s
parish along with Hutcliffe Wood
where the crematorium has stood
since the mid-1970s. Over the other
side of Hutcliffe Wood Road is
Marriott Wood.
These are ancient woodlands
where trees have stood for centuries
along with Ladies’ Spring Wood
near Beauchief Abbey which is
thought to date back to Anglo Saxon
times and is part of the ancient
parish boundary between Sheffield
and Norton.
Just outside the parish are
Ecclesall Woods. They cover 140
hectares (about 350 acres) and are
the largest ‘semi-natural woodland’ in
South Yorkshire. The earliest history
of the woods is unclear but it lies
where the Sheffield/Norton boundary
follows the River Sheaf and the Limb
Brook. This is an ancient boundary,
separating Yorkshire and Derbyshire
and before that it was the boundary
between the kingdoms of
Northumbria and Mercia.
The woods are designated as a
Local Nature Reserve for wildlife and
also contain a number of prehistoric
and early historic monuments. There
are also a wealth of other heritage
features, such as charcoal heaths,
which relate directly to the wood's
past timber management.
One well known attraction at
Ecclesall Woods is Ecclesall
Sawmill. It is now home to several
wood-based businesses and a new
Woodland Discovery Centre is
planned — named after JG Graves.
There are also various events
which take place at the site which are
listed in each edition of Impact.
As you walk around these woods,
don’t forget the history and memories
these areas of our city have — the
generations that have passed along
their paths and the changes which
have taken place during the
woodlands’ lifetimes.
And let’s make the most of the
nature we see around us. We are
blessed to live in such a green city —
so enjoy it if you can and take a walk
through the woodlands of Sheffield.
Tim Hopkinson
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 9 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
I
recently spent
a most
interesting time
with a local
artist, Jason
Thompson, in his
studio in Sheffield.
We were
surrounded by some of
his works of art and I
was so fascinated by
them, it was quite
difficult to focus on the
reason I was there –
namely to find out more
about him.
Jason was brought up in
Leicestershire. He enjoyed spending
time in the countryside, taking home
sticks and pieces of wood which he
used to transform into “weird and
wonderful” objects.
A love of Art was an interest he
shared with his mother. His teachers
recognised his talent and they, and
his parents, encouraged Jason. At
the age of 18, he embarked upon a
year's foundation course in Art and
Design in Leicester, which enabled
him to experiment with all kinds of
artistic
mediums. It was
sculpture which
caught his
imagination
most and he
went on to
complete a
three year
degree course
at Sheffield's
Psalter Lane
College. His
love of the
countryside
drew him to
choose wood
first and
foremost - he
loves the feel, the “physicality” as he
calls it, of wood and finds it an
intensely satisfying medium with
which to work. I asked Jason how he
found the raw material – apparently
he began by sourcing discarded
wood anywhere he could find it and
bringing it back on his bike. Sounds
quite a challenge but he delights in
self-sufficiency. When beginning
work, depending on the size of the
wood, Jason uses a chainsaw to
make the larger cuts, then he
changes to smaller tools like
hammers and chisels, and eventually
uses dentists' tools to complete the
most delicate carving.
At the start of his career, he made
show pieces to exhibit. In order to
place himself in the public eye, he
even tried his hand at woodcarving
“busking”! Gradually Jason became
known and the commisions began to
roll in. He has produced sculptures
and reliefs for councils, schools,
hospitals, churches and private
clients and, though public funding has
dwindled recently, he is busy with
other commissions – but is always
happy to accept more!
You have most probably seen
some of Jason's work. Sheffield City
Council commissioned many pieces
of public art in the late 1990s. Who
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 10 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
has seen the huge frog in Endcliffe
Park? Perhaps your children climbed
on it or you traced to intricate carving
with your own
fingers ? Have you
seen the large
salmon at Salmon
Pastures on the
Five Weirs Walk in
town or the fish
bench nearby?
Maybe you haven't
yet caught sight of
the gigantic 3
metre high
sculpture of
“Parkway Man” as
you drive down the
A61 towards the city centre, but
that's one of Jason's, too – he works
with metal and glass, as well as
wood. You may have seen him at
work during the South Yorkshire
Wood Fair or “Art in The Gardens” at
the Botanical Gardens. So, watch
out, Jason's about – one of
Sheffield's finest artists!
You can find him at his studio –
Yorkshire Art Space, Persistence
Works, 21 Brown Street, S1 2BS or
contact him on 07930 471549. He'd
love to hear from you.
Chris Laude
THE BEAUCHIEF SCHOOL OF
SPEECH TRAIIG
Pupils trained in the art of perfect
speech and prepared for examination
and stage work
BARBARA E. MILLS, L.G.S.M.,A..E.A.
(Eloc) Gold Medal
31 Cockshutt Avenue, Sheffield 8
Phone: 274 7134
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 11 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
Touch Wood
Meaning - a superstitious expression
used in the hope that it will prevent
something unwanted from happening.
Derived from - an early pagan belief that
trees had spirits who needed to be
appeased to prevent ill fortune and,
later, a medieval custom of warding off
bad luck. Christian relics were hawked
about the country including splinters of
wood, believed to be from the “True
Cross”. Those too poor to be able to
buy such items were allowed to touch
them — this was thought to be a gesture
of piety which would bring them a
blessing and good luck.
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 12 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
B
ack in the days when car
stickers were popular one
of my favourites was:
“Carpenter from Nazareth
seeks joiners”!
We know very little about Jesus’
early years but we do know that his
earthly father Joseph was possibly a
carpenter by trade, so it is almost a
given that Jesus would have learnt
his father’s trade and trained as a
carpenter himself. In the Gospel of
Mark, chapter three tells us how
Jesus went back to his home town
and someone said, “Isn’t this the
carpenter?” (Mark 6:3).
This certainly reminds us of how
Jesus was a man just like us,
learning and growing as we do, but
as well as being fully human He was
also fully God.
It also reminds me of one of my
favourite stories called “The Three
Trees”. It goes something like this.
There were once three young trees
growing together on a mountainside,
and they were dreaming about their
future. The first tree said, “I want to
be made into a treasure chest, and
hold the greatest treasure in the
world!” The second tree said, “I want
to be made into the mightiest sailing
ship and carry kings across the
oceans.” The third said, “When I
grow up I want to be the tallest tree in
the world and point to the sky, so
when people look up at me they will
look to heaven and think of God.”
Then one day the woodcutters
came and chopped all three trees
down. The first tree was taken to the
carpenter’s workshop, but was
fashioned into a humble feeding box
for animals.
The second tree was taken to the
shipyard, but no ships were being
built that day, and it was made into a
simple fishing boat.
The third tree was chopped into
planks and left in the lumberyard.
Many years later a mother and
father had nowhere else to stay but
with the animals in a barn, and they
laid their precious newborn baby in
the feeding box made from the first
tree. And the tree realised that it held
the greatest treasure in the world.
Much later still, some friends were
travelling in the fishing boat made
from the second tree, when a terrible
storm arose. Yet one of the travellers
stood up and said “Be still!” and the
sea calmed and the storm
disappeared. And the second tree
realised that it was carrying the King
of Kings.
One Friday morning a year or two
later, the third tree was surprised
when its planks were taken from the
lumberyard. It felt cruel when a man
was made to drag it past angry
crowds. It shuddered when the hands
and feet of the man were nailed to it.
The tree cried when it was lifted up to
hold the man to his death.
Yet on the morning of the third day
all was made new, and all three trees
realised that their dreams had come
true. So when people look up to the
third tree, they will look to heaven
and think of God. And that was better
than being the tallest tree in the
world.
Daren Craddock
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 13 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
Sunday Services
The 9am Service
● Traditional in style
● Includes Holy Communion, a sermon & hymns
● Includes refreshments afterwards
● Taken from Common Worship: Holy Communion
Lifted, the 11am Service
● Informal and relaxed in style
● An emphasis on families
● Includes music, led by a band
● Refreshments served from 10.15-10.45am
Weekday Services
Morning Prayers
• Monday to Thursday at 9am
Evening Prayers
• Monday to Thursday at 5pm
The Thursday 10am Service
• Traditional in style
• Taken from Common Worship: Holy Communion
• Includes Holy Communion, a sermon & hymns
• Held in the Lady Chapel at the back of church
Other Services
REFLECTIVE WORSHIP
• The third Wednesday of the month starting on
May 16 at 7.15pm with the theme Seeking Stillness
with Jesus.
• A contemplative and meditative form of worship.
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 14 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
WORSHIP AT ST CHAD’S
EASTER 2011
Thursday 21st April Maundy Thursday
7.30pm
A service of Holy
Communion remembering
the events of
Maundy Thursday
Friday 22nd April Good Friday
10am
Good Friday
Family Service
(especially for children)
1pm
Meditations Around the
Cross
Sunday 24th April
Easter Sunday
9am
11am
Easter Celebration
with Holy Communion
Family Service with
Holy Communion
Come and celebrate the risen Jesus!
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 15 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
Wood: A hard fibrous substance
under the bark of trees.
W
ood is such a versatile
material. You can bend
it, turn it, stain it, paint it,
sand it and smell it. You
can build so many different projects
with it. I speak
from experience
because my job
involves working
with wood.
Trees are
arguably the most
prominent
members of the
plant kingdom.
They form a vital
part of the natural
biological cycle
that keeps this
planet alive.
Like all plants
they depend on a
process called
photosynthesis to harness the sun’s
energy, combine it with carbon
dioxide – CO2 – from the air and
produce the nutrients they need to
grow.
In return oxygen is emitted in the
atmosphere and vast quantities of
water evaporate from the leaves.
As someone who works with
wood, I would encourage anyone
reading this article to have a go at
woodworking.
A useful way to begin is to join a
beginners woodwork class where you
will be shown the right/wrong way to
use hand tools in a safe environment.
You can also learn quite a lot from
each other.
Once you get a feel for wood it
never leaves you. A sense of
satisfaction and reward can be
achieved when you make something
you need or that you find attractive.
So what is stopping you from having
a go at a new trade or a new hobby
in wood?
Malcom Savory
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 16 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
T
wo thousand years after the
event we are too accustomed
to the sight of them to see the
scandal of Christianity’s most
recognisable symbol.
Crosses stand in every church.
Some are ornate, some are simple.
Some (crucifixes) contain a figure of a
dying man, others are so stylised that
we perhaps mistake them for what
they are. They are worn around
people’s necks, sometimes fashioned
in the form of a Celtic roundel cross or
an Egyptian ankh. Yet despite our
cultural accommodation of them, they
remain a representation of an
instrument of execution.
It was the Romans who introduced
crucifixion (although previous cultures
had similarly grisly forms of death).
The purpose of crucifixion was to
inflict a lingering death in full public
view. After the slave revolt of
Spartacus, 70 years before Christ,
6,000 slaves were crucified. Jesus
would have grown up familiar with this
demonstration of Roman power.
When he told his disciples that in
order to follow him they would have to
pick up their cross, they would have
known exactly the image he was
referring to. And they would have
been shocked.
Crucifixion was reserved for the
lowest form or slaves and for those
who deliberately defied Roman
power. That Jesus was crucified tells
us that he was executed primarily
because he was seen as confronting
Roman authority by his supposed
claims to being the Jewish Messiah.
The gospels tell us that he was
crucified along with two other
“bandits” which might mean robbers
or might mean people involved in
leading a public riot.
Crucifixion did not always involve
nails. Sometimes the condemned
men were simply tied on to the
crosses in order to die slowly of
dehydration. In Jesus’ case nails
were used for added pain. The loincloth
which later painters used to
preserve Jesus’ modesty would
almost certainly not have been there.
Jesus died stark naked. Humiliation
was a key part of the ordeal.
That their leader died on a cross
would have been a considerable
embarrassment to the first Christians.
The Roman orator Cicero said that
even to speak of crucifixion in polite
company was unacceptable. How
could the first Christians, spreading
the gospel of the Jewish God in
Roman society face up to the fact that
Jesus had died the death that he did?
St Paul speaks of the cross as a
scandal to Greeks and a stumbling
block to Jews. A message based on
a crucified leader should not have
survived the first few years.
And yet it did. Of all the arguments
for the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
one of the most powerful is the
scandal of the cross. Within a
generation of his death non-Jewish
Romans were praising this man Jesus
as equal to God himself. To get from
the scandal of crucifixion to the
extravagance of worship it seems to
me that we must travel by the way of
Jesus’ resurrection. Nothing else
seems to me to be able to account for
this transformation. Nothing else
seems to explain why St Paul and the
other early Christians proclaim the
cross rather than bury it.
Rev Toby Hole
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 17 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
T
here has never been a
time when wood has not
been available for
mankind to use for either
building materials, to make
practical and decorative pieces of
furniture, for instruments of torture
and killing or simply as pieces of
jewellery or art to appreciate from
one generation to the next.
For hundreds of thousands of
years wood has been at mans
disposal to defend, fortify, hunt and
destroy or paradoxicly to create
exceptional pieces of beautiful art and
sculpture. You could say that wood
has been, and is still just as important
as the air we breathe, O yes and it
also plays a fundamental part in
providing that as well.
For this article I want to look at
wood as art and furniture combined -
misericords, beautiful wooden
sculptures that have stood the test of
time and are just as beautiful today if
not more so than when they were first
commissioned.
Misericords are carvings, often
grotesque and fantastic, on the
underside of oak seats in medieval
churches.
According to monastic rule, monks
were required to observe holy offices
several times a day. They were also
required to stand while doing so, in
individual stalls in the part of the
church known as the choir (or quire).
As a concession to elderly or
otherwise infirm monks, who found
standing for long periods difficult, the
stalls were modified to include a small
shelf on which the monks could lean,
thus allowing them to sit while
appearing to stand. The shelf was
called a misericord or mercy seat,
from the Latin word for mercy,
misericordia.
The earliest misericords appeared
around the eleventh century, and
continued to be made into the
sixteenth century. They are found all
over northern Europe, though they
were most popular in England. Many
English misericords were destroyed
or removed during king Henry VIII's
Dissolution of the Monasteries, but
many remain.
The earliest misericords were
simple shelves, without much
decoration. Later ones were
elaborately carved with scenes and
images of all kinds; bestiary, fable,
and other animal images were
especially popular. The stall bench
and the misericord with its
decorations was usually carved from
a single piece of oak, and attached to
the stall sides with pivot pins.
The carvings are highly variable in
content and quality. Some are crudely
carved; others are finely finished and
polished. The subject matter includes
simple foliate decorations; narrative
or allegorical biblical scenes; bestiary
animals and narratives; scenes of
everyday life; satire, usually at the
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 18 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
expense of clergy; monsters and
grotesques; scenes from fables and
secular tales; scatalogical images;
and even scenes of profane love,
romance and sex.
The tales of Reynard the Fox were
a popular source for misericord
carvings. The adventures and
downfall of the trickster fox are shown
in narrative scenes on several
misericords; Bristol Cathedral has a
series of them, and they also appear
individually elsewhere.
Additional sources of animal
images on misericords include the socalled
"scenes of everyday life" which
often include domestic animals;
Classical mythology and stories from
the east, including depictions of
Alexander the Great's griffin powered
flight; and animal scenes from the
Bible, such as Daniel in the lion's den
and Samson fighting a lion.
Robin Lockwood
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 19 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
I
n Ecclesall Woods there is a
gravestone in memory of
George Yardley, a
‘woodcollier’, or charcoal
burner, who was burnt to death in his
cabin on 11 October 1786.
It was put up by his friends, who,
touchingly, have their names and
occupations inscribed on the stone –
William Brooks, salesman, David
Glossop, gamekeeper, Thomas
Smith, besom maker, and Sampson
Brookshaw, innkeeper of the Rising
Sun on Abbey Lane.
Charcoal burning could be a
dangerous business, when burners
lived in huts right next to the charcoal
hearths where they did their work.
But charcoal was an important fuel
then, as it is now in
many parts of the
developing world, and
risks were evidently
worth taking to produce
it. It burns hotter and
more cleanly than
wood. And it has other
uses, too – including as
an artist’s material for
drawing with.
To make charcoal,
wood is reduced to
carbon in heated
chambers from which
oxygen is excluded to
prevent the wood
combusting. The result looks – and
works – a bit like coal. It seems ironic
that wood is subjected to this
seemingly destructive process in
order to produce such a useful
substance.
In art, one way in which charcoal
is used is for an entire piece of paper
to be covered in black, and which is
then gradually removed, with a
rubber, to indicate the lighter parts of
a still life.
The result can be strikingly
effective. The artist is able to reflect
the exact pattern of light and shade
on the object by rubbing out the black
charcoal to whatever degree is
required. It’s a kind of ‘wrong-wayround’
sort of art – an image of a
three-dimensional object is produced
not by creating, but, ironically, by
taking away.
Such light-and-dark pictures are
sometimes a puzzle for the eye. You
can’t always make out what the
picture is of straight away, but once
your brain makes the connection, you
can never again not see it. Take this
picture, apparently based on a
photograph taken by a man of a
pattern made by black earth showing
through snow:
Can you see what it’s of? If not,
stare at it for a while.
Here’s a clue. It’s of someone
who, like the wrong-way-round art,
was taken away in order to show who
he was. And who, like the wood that
becomes charcoal, was destroyed in
order to become the fuel in people’s
lives. And whose name, like that of
George Yardley, lives on after his
death, alongside those of his closest
mates. See it yet?
Amy Hole
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 20 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
Looking for a room
to hold your
meeting or party?
St Chad’s church has two
rooms available for hire at
56 Abbey Lane.
Call 0114 274 5086 for details
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 21 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
CALL IN FOR A CUPPA
At Church House
(56 Abbey Lane)
10am to 12 noon
On the last Saturday of each month.
Bring & Buy (new items)
Handicrafts Home Baking
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 22 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
"T
he trees are singing my
music - or have I sung
theirs?" was one of Sir
Edward Elgar's famous
sayings; but I wonder if even he
realised just how true it was?
When he was very small Elgar
attended Spetchley village school and
here, during lessons, he would listen
to the sound of the wind in the pines
on the Berkley Estate across the
road. This sound was later evoked in
his oratorio The Dream of Gerontius.
Elgar was a violinist and also
played the piano, organ and bassoon
- all made of wood. His favourite
instrument was the violin and it was
into his violin concerto that he poured
his very soul. As a little boy, Elgar
lived a stone's throw from Worcester
Cathedral and, just around the
corner, an old violin maker worked in
a shop with pebble-glass windows,
like a Beatrix Potter illustration. Elgar
would, no doubt, have watched the
old craftsman at work and learned
from him that the violin is made from
pine - the very tree that sang to him
at school. The old violin makers (like
Stradivarius) would sometimes
deliberately select wood with knots or
faults, knowing that this produced a
superior sound in the finished
instrument. These old violins are
labelled inside with the maker's name
and sometimes a poem. One such is
translated here from the Latin:
"I was living in the forest; The cruel
axe did slay me.
Living, I was mute. Dead, I sweetly
sing."
The Singing Tree is another name
for a strange hybrid instrument called
an Aeolian harp, which is basically a
wooden sound box with tuneable
strings stretched across it. It is
played, not by human hands, but by
the wind. Elgar had one and Billy
Reed (a violinist friend) described it in
Elgar As I Knew Him:
He "left it in the crack of a partly
opened window, so that the breeze
blowing across the strings set them in
vibration. This produced a
shimmering musical sound of elfin
quality, the strings being tuned to
concordant intervals ... and Elgar
never tired of listening to its fairylike
improvisations."
The influence of the Aeolian harp
can be found in many of Elgar's
works, among them the String
Quartet and the Piano Quintet, which
were written in a remote cottage in
Sussex. His wife Alice called these
pieces "wood magic".
The traditional harp is made from
willow and dates back into ancient
history - around 3,000BC or earlier.
The most famous harpist of all time
has to be King David (c1,000BC).
King David was a poet, musician and
warrior king - Israel's Singer of
Songs; but as a man he had many
flaws - but then so did the wood
chosen by the master craftsmen to
make the best violins. Sometimes
King David got it wrong, like we do.
And at these times he must have felt
like an Aeolian harp, mute and
forgotten is a dusty corner - the music
of his life grown faint of eluding him
all together.
Here is part of the last prayer in
Eddie Askew's book about King
David:
But then "Your music comes again.
Your hand plays gently on the taught
strings of my life
Offering me the chance to sing again.
Fine tune me Lord, To hear the
faintest note you play
And help me finally to recognise the
tune I play is Yours.
There all the time if only I had
listened"
Eddie Askew, Music on the Wind
Sylvia Bennett
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 23 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
Baptisms
January
9 Louie George BULLAS
Archie James BULLAS
February
20 Edward James HEYES
Weddings
January
6 Gerald William ROE and
Iris ANDERSON
Funerals
January
10 June CALLUM (80)
19 Joyce RIDLEY (85)
For Weddings & Funerals
Y
ou
don’t have to be a churchgoer to
have a wedding in church, nor do
you have to be ‘religious’ to have a
dignified and meaningful funeral
service at St Chad’s.
If you live in the Woodseats or
Beauchief area, St Chad’s would be
delighted to help you, whether it is
planning the Big Day or saying goodbye to
a loved one. For weddings please contact
St Chad’s church office. For funerals
please tell your funeral director that you
would like to have a church service.
February
2 Terence BUCKLEY (69)
If you have recently had a new baby
and would like to celebrate that baby’s
birth with a service in church then please
come to our thanksgiving and baptism
morning at St Chad ’s on Saturday 9 th
April.
The morning will explain the difference
between the two services and give parents
an opportunity to ask any questions they
might have. Please call the church office
on 0114 274 5086 if you are interested in
attending.
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 24 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
Our last edition of Impact had a
theme of books. Following on from
that we thought we’d tell you a bit
about one of the groups associated
with St Chad’s Church.
T
he St Chad's Book Club was
the "brain-child" of Chris
Carr, born out of the Third
Age Ministry in January
2009. There are 11 members and so
far 26 books have been read.
The Library provides a list of books
which are available and the members
take it in turn to choose them. Chris
orders copies for everyone and then
kindly fetches and distributes them.
Members endeavour to meet from
time to time to discuss the books but,
with busy lives, it's sometimes quite
difficult although, to date, there have
been five extremely lively gettogethers!
Here's what some
members had to say:
"My love of books comes from
when I was about 10 years old,
when my brother bought me two classics
'Good Wives' and 'Little Women', and a
poetry book which I still have today. My
first full-time job was in a bookshop
which I loved. Being involved with St.
Chad's Book Club from the start gives me
lots of excuses to find time to read. You
can't replace a beautifully bound book
with an iPad or a laptop. One book
made a lasting impression - 'The Kite
Runner' by Khaled Hosseini".
Chris C
"I haven't been a member very
long, but I've really enjoyed the
diversity of the books chosen and the
reviews".
Linda
"I enjoy being in the Book Club - it
makes me read books I wouldn't
choose normally. Some I would have
dismissed, but I've persevered and, in
most cases, I've enjoyed them. It's also
interesting to hear other people's
comments at our get-togethers".
Mary
" I haven't belonged to a Book Club
before, but I was glad I joined,
partly because it's given me an
opportunity to read those books I've
wanted to read for a long time but never
got around to them. Being in the Book
Club means I have to make time and I get
to read novels, particularly by
contemporary authors, which I wouldn't
usually come across. Two books made a
great impression on me - 'Birdsong' by
Sebastion Faulks and 'Fingersmith' by
Sarah Waters.
Mike
"I joined the Book Club at the
beginning of 2010 and have found
it an excellent way to read a variety of
books whilst having a great social time
with friends. Members choose books
perhaps because they have read them
before and recommend them, or because
they have heard about them and want to
read them themselves. Some books have
been "unputdownable" adventures and
some old favourites, such as 'I Capture
The Castle' by Dodie Smith who wrote
'101 Dalmations'. Some novels had
historical content, such as 'The Island',
about a former leper colony in Greece,
by Victoria Hislop and 'The Return',
which takes place in the Spanish Civil
War. This has made some members of
the group want to know more about those
times and places. Reading is both an
exciting and educational pastime".
Vicki
"It's been great having books
chosen for me, though some titles
would have definitely been left on the
shelf if I'd been choosing! It's been quite
a revelation listening to the viewpoints of
other members, too. It just goes to prove
that we're all different.
Chris L
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 25 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
CHURCH OFFICES 15 Camping Lane 274 5086
S8 0GB
Term time office hours:
Mon & Thurs - 10am-1pm;
Tues - 10am-12pm; Fri - 9.30am-11.30am
Church Office Administrator
Helen Reynolds
email: office@stchads.org
Vicar Toby Hole (Vicarage) 274 9302
email: toby@stchads.org
Reader/Assistant Minister Yvonne Smith 274 5086
for the elderly
Besom in Sheffield
Steve Winks and
Darren Coggins 07875 950170
Publishing and Communication Nigel Belcher 274 5086
Impact magazine Tim Hopkinson 274 5086
email: impact@stchads.org
Church Wardens Nigel Belcher 281 1750
email: nigel@stchads.org
Malcolm Smith 274 7159
Church Warden Team Tim Hopkinson 274 0198
Jane Jones 274 6805
Linda Jones 07930 936067
Caretaker Mark Cobbold 274 5086
Uniformed Groups
Group Scout Leader Ian Jackson 235 3044
Guide Leader Jemma Taylor 296 0555
CHURCH HOUSE 56 Abbey Lane 274 8289
Bookings Helen Reynolds 274 5086
Visit our website: www.stchads.org
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 26 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 27 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 28 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
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