John Dodsley Webster (1840–1913) was an English architect who designed more than 15 churches in Sheffield in various Gothic styles, usually working to a tight budget. His work also included hospitals and commercial buildings, small country houses and private houses. All his known work was carried out in the South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire area except for a chapel and school built in Coventry. Biography Webster was born in Sheffield, his education consisted of private tutoring from the Reverend Henry Denson Jones, Vicar of Heeley in the late 1840s and early 1850s before attending Mansfield Grammar School full-time. After deciding upon a career in architecture Webster served his apprenticeship with the well known Sheffield firm of Samuel Worth who were best known for their work on Sheffield General Cemetery. He managed the Halifax office of ecclesiastical architects James Mallinson and Thomas Healey, before returning to Sheffield to set up his own architectural practice in the late 1860s at 19 St. James Street close to Sheffield Cathedral. Architectural work Churches Webster's first church commission was Ranmoor Wesleyan Chapel on Ranmoor Road (demolished in 1963), the 1870s and 1880s were a busy time for ecclesiastical building with much funding coming from the Church Extension Society. Webster designed 15 churches in Sheffield (more than any other architect) and extended many others. His work included St Pauls’, Norton Lees (1877), Trinity Wesleyan Church, London Road (1879), St Bartholomews’, Burgoyne Road (1881), St Anns’, Netherthorpe (1882), St Clements, Newhall, Attercliffe (1886), St Matthias’, Stocksbridge (1890), St Bartholomews’, Carbrook (1890), Christ Church, Gleadless (extended 1890 and 1897), St Augustines’, Brocco Bank (1898), St Cuthberts’, Fir Vale (1902), Attercliffe Chapel (remodelled 1909), St Oswalds’, Millhouses (1910) and St Timothys’, Slinn Street, Crookes (1911). In 1894 Webster was appointed Diocesan Surveyor for the Sheffield area of the Diocese of York and this gave him continuous ecclesiastical work until his death. In 1900 he was joined in the practice by his son John Douglas Webster and this saw the practice move to a more modern design of church, as illustrated by St Timothys‘, Crookes which was built in the more fashionable Gothic Perdendicular style Hospitals Hospitals and their architecture were of special interest to Webster and it is in this field that he did some of his best work. In 1876 Webster was part of the three-person committee that founded the Sheffield Children's Hospital. Webster along with the solicitor