St. Mary's Church in Armthorpe - Part 2

 

Decoration to the south impost of the chancel arch

Entering the Church of St. Leonard and St. Mary in Armthorpe by the south door, having briefly looked at its exterior, I immediately noted that the walls are plastered and that the exposed stonework is confined to the window dressings, the chancel arch and the arcade.

 

A view of the arcade and nave

 

Towards the east end of the nave, Pevsner describes an unmoulded pointed arch across the nave as being an unusual feature and that it supported an earlier bell turret. He further states that it is of uncertain date, although he considers that it could be early C13. 

 

The arch that supported an earlier bell turret

The north aisle, along with the arcade, was added during the 1885 restoration and, with it being partly occupied by attendees of the Wednesday crafting session, I didn’t spend any time inspecting the stone used for the window dressings. 

 

A view east along the north aisle

 

Although I again didn’t look closely at the stone, the arcade appears to be built with a uniformly buff coloured medium grained gritstone. this is quite unusual, as dolomitic limestone from local quarries in the Cadeby Formation is typically used for the mediaeval churches in Doncaster and for the Victorian Doncaster Minster and Christ Church. 

 

The arcade

I am not familiar with other Victorian churches in Doncaster and what stones may have been used in them but, with the railway network in the north of England having been well established by the time the north aisle was added, it is probable that the sandstone used is from West Yorkshire – with Huddersfield stone from the Rough Rock and Bolton Woods sandstone from the Elland Flags being popular materials. 

 

A slit window in the south wall of the nave

The walls of Norman churches tend to be very thick and, on the south side of the nave, this can be seen in the deep splays to the slit windows, which were designed to provide the maximum amount of light. The dolomitic limestone used for the window surrounds, however, is very dirty and its properties could not be seen. 

 

Windows in the south wall of the nave

 

Moving along the nave to the chancel arch, which is described by Historic England as dating to the C11, with a “plain round arch with chamfered imposts, that on south carved with crosses and zig-zag motif”, but Pevsner failed to note this. 

 

Views of the chancel arch

In respect of the decoration on the impost, the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture of Britain and Ireland adds “Patterns laid out within a grid are common, but a prominent raised grid like this is rare” and suggests that the mason either did not know what decoration would be required or that he wasn’t supervised. 

 

The decorated south impost in the chancel arch

 

The lighting in the chancel was very poor and I didn’t manage to get a good look of the details, but I did notice that a red sandstone has been used for the flooring, in conjunction with dolomitic limestone. Although the underlying bedrock is red sandstone of the Triassic Chester Formation, this is not suitable for building or paving and I assume that it is Red Mansfield stone, which was very often used by Victorian architects. 

 

Red sandstone sandstone used for the chancel floor

 

After taking a few more general record photos of the interior, including the stained glass, I then went to have a look around the churchyard, where half a dozen Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones are located. 

 

A view west along the nave