All Saints Chapel in Steetley

 

Weathered capitals to the south door

Very shortly after arriving at All Saints chapel in the hamlet of Steetley after a 3.5 km walk from Whitwell, where I had seen some very interesting geology and historic architecture – including St. Lawrence’s church - the sun came out and, taking advantage of this to photograph the corbel table, I completely forgot that the chapel is automatically locked at 3:00 pm and I didn't see its interior. 

 

The south elevation of All Saints chapel

 

John Charles Cox, in his Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire Vol. 1 (1875) wrote that “the building is quite a gem of early architectural art, indeed it is one of the most complete and beautiful specimens of Norman work on a small scale that can be met with anywhere in this country or in Normandy” and assigned a probable date to the reign of King Stephen (1135-1154). 

 

A view of the corbel table

 

I just took quick snaps of the individual corbels but, having seen very many C12 churches built in dolomitic limestone from the Permian Cadeby Formation, including corbel tables at St. Lawrence’s church and at St. Peter’s church in Old Edlington, the weathered condition of the individual corbels and the surrounding stonework gave me no reason to think that these were anything but the original stone carvings. 

 

Another view of the corbel table

 

Before Cox’s report, the chapel had been in a dilapidated sate without a roof to the nave for more than 150 years and the major restoration by John Loughborough Pearson (1876-1880) is mentioned by Pevsner and other sources, but the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture for Britain and Ireland (CRSBI) very surprisingly describes the corbel table as being C19 work. 

 

A weathered corbel

 

The Andrews Pages website, which has old photos and illustrations of the chapel, mentions that the Earl of Surrey carefully rebuilt the apse c.1835, but my photos of the corbels shows that they are weathered to a much greater extent than would be expected in stone carvings of this date. 

 

Corbels on the apse

 

Pevsner and the CRSBI draw attention to the restoration of the south portal and give this a date of 1880 and the lattice work to the gable, the associated beakheads and the 5th order of the round arch to the door surround have sharp profiles. 

 

Lattice work above the south door

Although I didn't spent any time closely examining the condition of the stonework of the chapel, detailed photos of the beakheads show that the dolomitic limestone is more weathered than I would probably expect of C19 sculpture, based on my experience of building restoration.

 

A detail of a beakhead above the south door

 

The article by M. F. Stanley, Carved in Bright Stone: Sources of Building Stone in Derbyshire, published in Stone Quarrying and Building in England AD 43-1525 (1990), mentions that the original stone used in the chapel is a fine grained creamy dolomite which shows no sign of weathering; however, it describes the Victorian replacement stone as a coarser dolomite that is grey rather than cream and already shows signs of weathering after 108 years.

 

Stone Quarrying and Building in England AD 43-1525

 

I took several general record photographs that show that the first three orders of arches are composed of fine grained creamed coloured limestone, which are weathered to the extent that much of the detail is lost. The outer two orders do appear to be grey and coarse grained in comparison, but I would need to examine them closely, before I could comment further. 

 

Views of the surround to the south door

 

Although there has undoubtedly been a considerable amount of restoration to the original C12 masonry of the chapel, including much of the ashlar walling, the only element of the church that is not in a Norman style is the Decorated Gothic window to the south elevation of the nave, which has geometric and mouchette tracery that has clearly been restored. 

 

The Decorated Gothic style window

 

Stanley mentions that Pearson was presumably unable to obtain stone to match the original, with the difference in grain size possibly contributing to the different weathering properties of the C12 and C19 masonry, but as a specialist in stone identification and matching I only saw notable colour variation in the well bedded yellow/red limestone in the lower part of the west wall.

 

Yellow/red masonry in the west wall

 

St. Lawrence's Church Whitwell - Part 4

 

The monument to Sir Roger Manners in the north transept

Entering the porch of St. Lawrence’s church in Whitwell, having taken a set of general record photos of its exterior and looked for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones in the churchyard, I was immediately interested to see that its floor is made with squares of dolomitic limestone from the Sprotbrough Member of the Cadeby Formation that shows a range of colours.

 

The floor to the porch

 

Looking at my high resolution photos of the exterior, this cream/yellow/red colour variation can be seen throughout the whole fabric of the Norman church and the Whitwell Conservation Area Appraisal refers to High Hill as the source of this stone.

 

The south door

 

Massive yellow/buff coloured limestone is used for the steps and for the surround to the south door, with the lower parts of the jambs being recently restored with a limestone that is quite pale coloured in comparison, but the interior walls of the porch have been plastered.

 

The north arcade

 

Once inside the church, I immediately noted that all of the walling has also been plastered, with the exception of the north aisle and, as I later discovered, the north transept. The four bay north arcade consists of stepped round arches and circular piers and capitals and, although I didn’t notice this at the time and neither Pevsner or Historic England (HE) mention this, the west arch is very slightly pointed.

 

The north arcade with a pointed arch to the west bay (L)

 

Looking east down the south aisle, one of columns to the arcade has been repaired with a stone that is not a very good match with the original massive limestone, although limewash on the original stonework emphasises this; however, I didn’t stop to examine this and continued along the aisle and through a tall pointed arch to the south transept.

 

A view along the south aisle to the south transept

 

Here, there are three large statues attached to the walls, which depict St. Lawrence, the Madonna and Child and St. Paulinus, which were made in Worksop and presented to Canon George Mason, to mark 30 years of his ministry.

 

Statues in the south transept

 

Moving into the chancel, I took a few photos of the sedilia, which the church guide suggests may have come from another church at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, maybe Worksop Priory. As with the piscina on the opposite wall, it is elaborately carved with Decorated Gothic style ogee arches, trefoils, crockets and finials.

 

The sedilia and piscinas in the chancel

 

The font, which was original sited at the traditional position at the west end and was moved during the 1969 restoration, is a large simple stone tub that is thought to be early Norman or Anglo-Saxon. Pevsner refers to it as Norman but, perhaps because it has no decoration, it doesn’t appear in the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture for Britain and Ireland (CRSBI) description.

 

The font

 

The round chancel arch, which Pevsner describes as having finely detailed mouldings that are very late Norman in style, is also considered by HE to be transitional between the Norman and Early English Gothic styles, but the general photographs that I took don’t show these details very well.

 

Views of the chancel arch

 

Taking a closer look at the capitals, which the CRSBI describe with terminology that I have had to look up in their Glossary, the scallops were obvious but I have to say that I really didn’t notice the waterleaf motifs at the time.

 

Capitals on the chancel arch

 

Another interesting feature of the chancel arch, according to Pevsner, are the keeled responds that are apparently a usual feature of the late C12 churches in this part of Derbyshire, but I haven’t seen enough mediaeval churches in Derbyshire to comment.

 

A keeled respond to the chancel arch

 

On the west wall of the C14 north transept is a large wall standing monument to Sir Roger Manners (d.1632), with a recumbent effigy in armour. The pale coloured alabaster with light brown veins is from Chellaston near Derby, which is quite different from the dark veined variety from Tutbury, and it has black columns that could be Ashford Black Marble. 

 

The monument to Sir John Manners

The church website states that the visor on the helmet is very unusual and rare for the 1630s, when the figure was carved, and it further mentions that the carvings on the plinths at the base of the columns refer to military matters and those on the sides appear to be places connected with his life – including Bakewell and Haddon Hall in Derbyshire.

 

The effigy of Sir John Manners

 

A large tomb recess on the north wall has again been made in an elaborate Decorated Gothic style, with a cusped ogee arch and finials, but I only took a few photos of this - including details of the headstops, which I don’t recall seeing in this context before. 

 

A view west along the nave

 

Returning to the nave to take a general record photograph that show the arcades, I had another look at the north arcade, where the west respond has a scalloped capital, before taking another photo of the porch floor in the sunshine and setting off to All Saints Chapel in Steetley. 

 

A few of the porch floor when leaving the nave

St. Lawrence's Churchyard in Whitwell

The memorial to Corporal J. Goring

On my day out to Whitwell, I had so far seen some very interesting exposures of the local geology - the Sprotbrough Member of the Cadeby Formation - several historic buildings built with a reddened variety of limestone and some very interesting construction details on the exterior of St. Lawrence’s church, which I think needs further investigation by a standing buildings archaeologist.

 

A view of St. Lawrence's churchyard

As had now become a regular feature of my walks, before having a look at the interior of the church, I had a quick walk around the churchyard to try and find the handful of Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones that are recorded here. 

 

The headstone of Lance Corporal L. Squires

 

My main interest in these has been to photograph the regimental crests, which I think are wonderful examples of fine relief sculpture, but the first headstone that I found – Lance Corporal L. Squires of the Notts and Derby Regiment – is a replacement that has had its crest and lettering cut into the Portland stone by a CNC milling machine. 

 

The Notts and Derby regimental crest

 

Private G.E. Lee of the Leicestershire Regiment is commemorated with a headstone that is very probably made from Stancliffe Darley Dale stone, a medium grained sandstone from the Upper Carboniferous Ashover Grit that I have seen used for many headstones and Crosses of Sacrifice in and around South Yorkshire. 

 

The headstone of Private G.E. Lee

 

The original worksheet of Messrs. H. Knowles & Son, of Pitsmoor in Sheffield, shows that the headstones of Lance Corporal Squires and also Pioneer C.A. Ashley of the Royal Engineers, which I didn’t find, were part of the same order but there is no mention of the stones used. 

 

The Leceistershire regimental crest

 

As a geologist, I always like to see what kind of stone the headstone is made from and how it has weathered over the years. Sometimes, the worksheet names the sandstone that has been used – as I discovered when investigating the CWGC headstones at Moorgate Cemetery in Rotherham – but I usually have to make an assessment based on its physical characteristics. 

 

The headstone of Sergeant W.B. Higgins and other family members

 

The replacement headstone of Sergeant W.B. Higgins of the Royal Air Force is another example of Portland stone, which was of no great interest as I had seen this regimental crest and material on several occasions; however, it is flanked by headstones that look the standard CWGC design, but are in fact privately funded memorials that commemorate other members of the family. 

 

A detail of the headstone of Sergeant W.B. Higgins

 

Sergeant J.W. Willies of the Royal Air Force appears on the same worksheet as Sergeant Higgins and was presumably originally made with Portland limestone, but looking closely at the headstone, it has been renewed in Botticino marble from Italy. 

 

The headstone of Sergeant J.W. Willies

 

On the CWGC website, a database is provided for each churchyard or cemetery, which lists the standard headstones and private memorials that are maintained by them. The latter are individually designed and are not so easy to locate without an accurate cemetery plan, but those of Trooper F.A. Mathew of the Cheshire Yeomanry and Corporal J. Goring of the Auxiliary Territorial Service are quite distinctive. 

 

Memorials to Trooper Mathew and Corporal Goring

 

Having spent enough time looking for the CWGC headstones, I made my back towards the church, but stopped to take a few photographs of a modern memorial that is made from granite from the Cornubian Batholith in the south-west of England, which has large phenocrysts of alkali feldspar.

 

A memorial made with granite from the Cornubian Batholith

 

St. Lawrence's Church Whitwell - Part 3

 

A view of the east end of St. Lawrence's church

Starting at the tower and finishing at the chancel, it took just over 10 minutes to take a set of general record photographs of the south elevation of St. Lawrence’s church in Whitwell, which has a very interesting construction history, but none of my usual reference sources pay much attention to this and it would therefore appreciate seeing a standing building archaeologist’s report on it. 

 

The east end of the chancel

 

Looking at the east elevation of the chancel, the church guide states that the window was restored in 1887, presumably as part of the major restoration by John Loughborough Pearson and that the roof was raised in 1950. From a distance, the masonry to the gable certainly looks to be very precisely cut and is much less weathered than the C14 walling beneath it. 

 

A view from Old Hall Lane

I briefly left the churchyard to take a photo from Old Hall Lane, where the view along the north elevation is dominated by various additions to the main body of the church, which Historic England briefly describe as vestries and a north chapel, without providing a date to them. 

 

An extract from the church guide

 

As seen from a distance, the lean to vestry is probably contemporaneous with the extended chancel (c.1300-1350) but, noting the entry in the church guide by Jack Edson (2002) - describing the ‘Dedication of New Vestry and Mason Chapel’ in 1907 - the rock-faced north chapel and the flat roofed vestry are probably Edwardian. 

 

A view of the south elevation

 

Once I taken a couple of general photos from a distance, I returned to the chancel and was very interested to see that 8 corbels were projecting from a section of rendered walling, at a level about 1 metre below the current eaves of the chancel roof. 

 

The corbel table on the south elevation of the chancel

 

This explains the odd feature of the masonry on the south side of the chancel, where there is a distinct change in the pattern of the walling above the apex of the east window. It would seem that no attempt was made to retain the corbel table on the north side, when the roof was raised. 

 

A detail of the masonry on the south elevation of the chancel

The Whitwell Local History Group mentions that render on the south elevation of the chancel was removed in 1966, to reveal a blocked up round headed C12 window. This also revealed a course of stonework at the level of the original corbel table, where it seems that the individual corbels were removed and a very red stone was mainly used to fill the voids that were left. 

 

A detail or corbels on the south elevation of the chancel

As with the corbel table seen on the south elevation of the nave, the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture for Britain and Ireland (CRSBI) provides a description of the sculpted corbels, without mentioning most of the corbels that are square with a rounded lower part. 

 

The north aisle and clerestory

 

Continuing west along the north elevation, there is a strong contrast between the original C12 rubble masonry of the clerestory and the roughly squared and coursed stonework of the north aisle, which was part of the major phase of building that took place between 1300 and 1350. 

 

A detail of the corbel table

 

I just took a set of general record photos of the corbel table, constructed in dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation with various colours, where many of the sculpted corbels are very weathered and which are best described by the CRSBI. 

 

The west end of the north aisle

 

Reaching the west end of the north aisle, the junction between the C12 and C14 masonry can be seen and shows the extent of the nave and, carrying on to the tower, I stopped to have a look at the buttresses, which were added during a restoration of the tower in 1931 - presumably as a precaution against subsidence from coal mining in the area.. 

The north buttress to the tower

Surprisingly, these are not built in dolomitic limestone, but with very coarse grained Upper Carboniferous Millstone Grit of unknown provenance, but it is quite probable that it came from one of the quarries along the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire.

 

A detail of the north buttress to the tower