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| Walling stone on Cherry Tree Road |
During my brief exploration of Nether Edge, around Machon Bank Road and Union Road, I was expecting to see the ubiquitous use of the Greenmoor Rock (Brincliffe Edge Rock) from the nearby Brincliffe Edge quarries but, at least for the buildings associated with the former Ecclesall Bierlow Union Workhouse, Crawshaw Sandstone from Crookes and Derbyshire gritstone seems to have been used for walling and dressings respectively.
Although the Mineral statistics of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland by R. Hunt, published in 1858, state that the Brincliffe Edge Rock supplied building stone, I have not knowingly seen examples of it used for good quality well squared and coursed walling in Sheffield.
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| The Union Hotel |
Continuing my walk along Union Road to the Union Hotel (c1842), which was another building on my list to photograph for the British Listed Buildings website, although I didn’t stop to closely examine the stonework, from its general appearance I suspect that the stone comes from one of the more massive beds in the Brincliffe Edge quarries – confirmed by subsequent research, which indicates that the hotel and adjoining buildings was built by the Boot family, stonemasons and builders who owned a quarry at Brincliffe Edge.
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| The first houses built on the Meadow Bank Avenue Estate |
I took a quick diversion to look at the private Meadow Bank Avenue Estate, which was started in 1896 on land owned by Elizabeth Newbould, with the large stone built houses on its south side first appearing on the 1906 Ordnance Survey map. Although I didn’t get close to the blackened stonework, the various parties involved with the development of this and The Edge all had connections with the local quarries.
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| A retaining wall on Cherry Tree Road |
Returning to Cherry Tree Road, which here runs up an escarpment of a minor unnamed Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation (PLCMF) sandstone, I thought that the dry stone retaining wall at the entrance to the Prior Bank care home looks like the Greenmoor Rock that I am familiar with.
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| The former lodge to Tintagel House |
I then went to briefly investigate Meadow Bank Road on the opposite side of the street, where there is an old lodge (1858) built in local stone, which presumably belonged to Tintagel House - another large residence built for one of Sheffield’s industrial magnates.
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| The boundary wall to Kenwood House |
Making my way further up Cherry Tree Road, I stopped to take a few photographs of the boundary walling to Kenwood House, now a hotel, where the sandstone is quite unlike the more massive varieties of Greenmoor Rock that I had just begun to recognise.
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| The boundary wall to Kenwood House |
This fine grained sandstone varies from grey to light orangey brown in colour, with occasional sharp redox boundaries and the development of Liesegang rings and, looking closely, it contains both fine cross-laminations and plane bedding.
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| A LIDAR map of the area around Cherry Tree Road in Nether Edge |
In many ways, this is quite similar to the sandstone that has been used for the retaining wall at the top of Montgomery Road, which I first noted when getting off the No. 56 bus and I have wondered if this walling stone has been obtained from very local quarries on the minor PLCMF sandstone. Although the old Ordnance Survey maps don’t mark any quarries other than at Brincliffe Edge, the LIDAR map of the area shows features that look man made.
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| Kenwood Lodge |
Arriving at Kenwood Lodge, the cleaned buff coloured ashlar masonry, with its batted finish, looks quite like the Crawshaw Sandstone that I had seen at the workhouse offices earlier on my walk – except for the dark brown patches on the chimney flue, which are quite unusual.
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| A boundary wall on Kenwood Road |
Turning down Kenwood Road, there is another example of the sandstone that is used in the boundary walls for Kenwood House, with strong grey to orange colour variation, and a little further up the road, large irregular lumps of stone have been used for landscaping in the front garden of No. 50 – a feature that I had seen in several large houses around Ranmoor and Fulwood.
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| Large blocks of sandstone used for garden landscaping |
Carrying on along Kenwood Road past the former Kenwood House, now a hotel, I stopped to take a few photos of the north lodge, which is a separate private residence. As with Kenwood House, it has been built with Carboniferous Limestone walling, which the Historic England listing mistakenly describes as oolitic limestone, with massive sandstone used for the dressings.
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| The north lodge to Kenworth House |
Before heading off towards Psalter Lane, I took a few photos of No. 1 Rundle Road (c1860), which is built with rock-faced walling stone that I presume to be Greenmoor Rock and massive sandstone for dressings to the canted bay windows – some of which appear to have been restored.
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| No. 1 Rundle Road |
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