A History of St Paul's by Elliott Walker

St. Paul’s History 

The expanding population of Masbrough in the early 1900s meant that an extra church was needed to serve the people of Masbrough (St. John’s 1864) and Kimberworth (St. Thomas’ 1842). Therefore, it was decided that a mile down the road, the construction of a new church was to be done to be the daughter church of St. Thomas’ Church Kimberworth. Initially, the church was meant to look much more neogothic than it currently looks. The construction of a large bell tower was to be the pinnacle focal point for the church.

However, due to funds running short, the church was not able to be completed to how it was planned. 

The church was complete in 1902 and upon completion, the church was just a nave building with an extension acting as the vestry and parish room.  

In 1911, the Church Extension Fund was setup to start raising funds to massively extend the church. Early extension plans show a south wall aisle extension, retaining a tower, narthex, gallery, classroom, parish room, choir vestry and clergy vestry. Naturally, this was rather costly therefore funds ran short again and the church was left with only the capabilities to have a south aisle extension and small tower with a single bell. 

The church had vast amounts of land. The vicarage, on Kimberworth Road, was built and opened in 1929 by the Bishop of Sheffield. Furthermore, the church had Sunday School Building, across from The Wilton Pub, now demolished. They also owned a Parish Hall on Midland Road, now owned by AJ Loveland LTD, a construction and engineering company. Masbrough Cemetery now owned by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council is located off Psalters Lane.

Between the 1960s and 1980s, St. Paul’s Church merged with three other different churches. In 1968, St. John’s Masbrough (now demolished) on College Road closed and merged with St. Paul’s. Following this, St. Michael’s Northfield (now demolished) on Greasbrough Street closed and merged with St. Paul’s. From this merge, the church then adopted a High Church Churchmanship. To enlarge the parish further, a part of parish of St Thomas Kimberworth was transferred to St Paul's. Included in the transfer was the Mission Church of St Mark, this closed in 1986. 

Since construction, the space inside the church has undergone change. In 1990s, the church underwent the largest re-ordering in its history. The re-ordering saw the removal of many pews towards the back on the church and a narthex and kitchen was constructed. Above the narthex, and upstairs hall was added. The South Aisle extension also had its pews removed and this space was converted into a three separate rooms which now are used as a vestry, office and porch space. The chancel too has seen much change. Some of this change included the construction of the church’s pipe organ case, addition of a chancel screen came from a bombed church during the Second World War. The choir stalls were removed in the 1980s but reinstated in 2017.