A Search for Ironstone in Chapeltown

  

The geology of the area around Chapeltown

 

Looking at old Ordnance Survey maps and the LIDAR map, several areas between Kimberworth and Tankersley show a large number of bell pits, which were dug to exploit both the coal and the economically viable ironstone seams that occur in the upper part of the Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation (PLCMF).

 

The strata in the upper Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation

 

The Claywood Ironstone and the Tankersley Ironstone, which are placed above the Silkstone Coal and Flockton Thin Coal respectively, were the principal horizons worked – as described on p.142 of the geological memoir for the Barnsley district – but the distribution of the bell pits show that some of the intervening ironstones were also worked.

 

The description of ironstone in the geological memoir

Although I have encountered bell pits at Bray Plantation, which worked the coal and ironstone beneath the Parkgate Rock, and also those that mined the Claywood Ironstone at Kimberworth, I have never seen any exposures of ironstone.

 

A selection of geological sites shown on the SAGT website

Following my brief exploration of the area around Thorpe Hesley, where my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge was cut short due to my failure to access or locate the public footpaths during a walk from the A629 to Thorpe Hesley, I wanted to investigate the geological site listed as Hesley Park - one of several sites that I had seen on the Sheffield Area Geology Trust (SAGT) website and had visited during previous walks.

 

The Measures between Thorncliffe Thin and Parkgate Coals

 

Without giving any details in a very general account of the “Measures between Thorncliffe and Parkgate Coals”, the geological memoir does mention ironstone bands known as the White Mine and Yellow Mine, but SAGT refers only to “Strata above Thorncliffe Coal”.

 

The site of the Hesley Park geological site

 

Using a simplified online Ordnance Survey map, I entered the grid reference of the Hesley Park site and, once I had alighted from the No. 135 bus from Thorpe Hesley, I made my way up through Chapeltown Park to the old railway line that now forms the Blackburn Valley Trail and followed this to the small housing development at Coppice Rise.

 

An outcrop of an unnamed PMCFM massive sandstone

I had a walk around the area pinpointed by the grid reference provided, but all I could see were a few outcrops of what I had identified from the geological map as being the unnamed sandstone between the Silkstone Rock and the Parkgate Rock.

 

Fig.11 in the geological memoir for Barnsley

This comprises an upper layer of massive sandstone and a cross-bedded flaggy sandstone at a lower level, but there was no sign of the dark grey shales with nodules or the black platy shale with ironstone band, which have been recorded between this sandstone and the Thorncliffe Thin Coal in Fig. 11 on p.37 of the geological memoir

 

Specimen 1

 

With my Estwing hammer, I obtained 3 specimens form the lower outcrop, with the first of these being very fine grained with a light muddy brown colour. It has a thin layer of ironstone along the joint plane and iron staining extending approximately 1 cm into the body of the rock and contains several fragments of carbonized plant stem fossils.

 

Specimen 2

 

The second specimen has the same very fine grained texture and light muddy brown colour, but it is obvious thinly bedded and has three bedding planes exposed, with tiny flakes of muscovite mica visible. The third specimen has the same general colour and texture and has noticeable lamination, with it breaking into three pieces when carrying it home in my rucksack and the bedding planes also exhibiting muscovite.

 

Specimen 3

Listed Buildings in Thorpe Hesley

 

Thorpe Hesley war memorial

I have used downloaded 1:25,000 scale Ordnance Survey (OS) maps to plan a walk that involves crossing open countryside very many times but, except for the walk from Glen Howe Park to Spout House Hill - where I think that the signposts have been deliberately defaced – and on the recce of Ilkley Moor for the Sheffield U3A Geology field trip, I had not lost my way until my walk from the A629 to Thorpe Hesley. 

 

The west elevation of Holy Trinity church

Having been unable to photograph 4 of the 9 buildings on my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge and the midday sun on the last day of August sapping my energy and my enthusiasm, I slowly made my way along Wentworth Road to the track that leads to the Grade II listed Holy Trinity church (1839), by J.P. Pritchett, in Thorpe Hesley. 

 

The south elevation of Holy Trinity church

 

I had seen some of his later work in Huddersfield – the Grade I listed Huddersfield railway station and the Grade II* listed Lion Buildings and St. Peter’s church – but this church, described by Historic England (HE) as in the Gothic Revival style with Early English windows, seems to be a hangover from the Georgian architectural style. 

 

Quarries shown on the Building Stones Database for England map explorer

As noted in my previous post, the 1854 OS map show various small quarries in the area, which worked unnamed sandstones from the Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation that were presumably used for the vernacular architecture, with the Building Stones Database for England map explorer showing a quarry in Thorpe Hesley.

 

Weathered masonry and replaced blocks 

I didn’t spend much time examining the cross-bedded sandstone used for the walling, but it contains a considerable proportion of fine grained sediment that has been differentially weathered and several blocks have been replaced. 

 

A Rotherham Red sandstone door surround

 

Rotherham Red sandstone from the Mexborough Rock has been used for the door and window surrounds, but for the cappings to the buttresses, string courses, plinth band, window sills and for the ashlar to the spire, a massive light brown sandstone of unknown provenance has been used. 

 

The tower and spire

Outside the west side of the church is Thorpe Hesley war memorial (1920) which, according to a report in the Rotherham Advertiser, was made by Tyas and Guest of Swinton, who were also responsible for war memorials in Conisbrough, Mexborough, Laughton-en-le-Morthen, Wombwell, Thurnscoe and other places in the area. 

 

Thorpe Hesley war memorial

The last building on my Photo Challenge for Thorpe Hesley was the Grade II listed Nos. 67-71 Thorpe Street, which HE describes as “C16 core to left-hand part, extended and altered C18 and C19”, but the masonry has very little of interest and I just took a few general record photos before catching the hourlyly bus to Chapeltown. 

 

Nos. 67-71 Thorpe Street

A Walk From the A629 to Thorpe Hesley

 

A field of sunflowers

On my day out to Halifax and Huddersfield, I left Treeton at 8:30 am and arrived back home at 7:30 pm, with 6 ¾ hours of this time being spent in transit on 4 bus journeys and 2 train journeys. Although I would have liked to have spent more time in Halifax, I nonetheless had a very productive day and it took me nearly 6 weeks to write the 15 Language of Stone Blog posts that record my adventure.  

 

The British List Buildings Photo Challenge for Thorpe Hesley

A few days later, on the last day of August 2024, my next walk was undertaken much closer to home, around Thorpe Hesley, to undertake another British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, before continuing to Chapeltown where I hoped to find exposures of the strata above the Thorncliffe Coal – as part of my continuing investigation of the Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation (PLCMF) in South Yorkshire. 

 

Former farm buildings at Monks Smithy House

 

Alighting from the No. 135 bus at the Upper Wortley Road/Kirkstead Abbey Mews stop on the A629 road, the first building on my list was the Grade II listed Monks Smithy House, which Historic England (HE) dates as probably C16/C17 but with reused mediaeval masonry and round headed windows that may possibly be Norman, but which Heritage Gateway suggests are C16/C17. 

 

The farmhouse at Monks Smithy House

 

The house and associated farm buildings were previously known as Kirkstead Abbey Grange, which supposedly is a link to the Cistercian monks from Kirkstead Abbey in Lincolnshire, who were provided with a charter of 1161-1166 that allowed them to mine the ironstone and build forges. 

 

Nos. 41 and 43 Scholes Lane

 

I just took a few general photographs that show the sandstone fabric and the stone slate roofs, but didn’t have the opportunity to examine the stonework and continued with my walk. Being unable to get through the brambles that were blocking the public footpath to Grange Lane Farmhouse, I returned to Scholes Lane, where Nos. 41 and 43 (previously named Nether Fold) were the next buildings on my list to photograph. 

 

Converted farm buildings at Nos. 41 and 43 Scholes Lane

HE describe it has having have a late C15/early C16 timber framed core, with tree-ring analysis of timber from No. 43 dating it as c.1495, but later alterations were carried out and further additions are dated to the C19. The underlying bedrock is an unnamed PLCMF sandstone and the 1854 Ordnance Survey (OS) map shows quarries nearby, but I didn’t  look closely at the walling stone. 

 

Grassed over rock waste to the north of Nos. 41 and 43 Scholes Lane

Continuing along the footpath, I passed a grassed over pile of waste rock that first appears on the 1892 OS map and which the 1935 edition marks with an air shaft. Several air shafts are marked in the vicinity and the whole area was widely exploited for both coal and iron ore, with the sites of Scholes Colliery and Scholes Old Colliery being both less than 250 metres away. 

 

Old collieries shown on the 1892 OS map

My plan was to keep going along the footpath until I came across one of the two paths at right angles, which would take me to my next building to photograph in Scholes and then find another path that would take me to the bridge and cascade at Morley Pond in Wentworth Park. 

 

Another view of the grassed over rock waste

 

The footpath that I was following was not clearly defined and, after looking back at the waste tip to get my bearings and carrying on past a field of sunflowers, I did not see any signpost for the footpath marked as Little Lane and inadvertently continued along a minor path that diverges from the public footpath that I should have taken. 

 

A distant view of Hoober Stand

 

After crossing over another public footpath that would have taken me to Scholes, but which again I didn’t identify, the views of Hoober Stand and the spire of the new Holy Trinity church in Wentworth suggested that I was heading in the right general direction, but I soon discovered that I had arrived at Wentworth Road in Thorpe Hesley and not Scholes Lane. 

 

A view of the steeple of Holy Trinity church in Wentworth

 

A Brief Look at Huddersfield Town Centre

 

A keystone on the Britannia Buildings

Leaving Halifax on the No. 501 bus, I arrived at Huddersfield bus station at 4:25 pm and had just over 45 minutes before my hourly train to Sheffield departed, so I spent the time having a very quick walk around the Town Centre Conservation Area to photograph some of the listed buildings.

 

Listed buildings in Huddersfield town centre

Having briefly visited Huddersfield a few times, I was aware that the vast majority of these have been built with the medium grained sandstone from the Rough Rock that is still quarried at Crosland Hill and a lasting memory is that the wealth generated by its textile industry is expressed in its very many fine examples of architectural sculpture. 

 

Nos. 4 and 6 High Street

The mid C19 Grade II listed Nos. 4 and 6 High Street first caught my eye, mainly for the elaborate stone carving, which Historic England (HE) describes as "Wealth of high quality ornamental carving, rarely repeating itself: eg 6 keystones with masks, sculpted spandrels to archway and 1st floor windows, Romanesque capitals to colonnettes, and bands of foliage around voussoirs of doors and archway, and under 1st floor sills". 

 

Detailing above the west door

The voussoirs of the arches are made of red sandstone which, in buildings of this age, I usually associate with Red Mansfield stone, a sandy variety of the Permian Cadeby Formation that is classified as a dolomitic sandstone. 

 

A colonnette made of dark Shap granite

 

I was interested to see that dark Shap granite from Shap Fell in Cumbria, with its distinctive rectangular phenocrysts, has been used for the colonnettes on the ground floor and for most of the windows on the upper storeys. The Guide to the Building Stones of Huddersfield booklet notes that a grey granite, probably the Rubislaw variety from Aberdeen, has also been used for colonnettes on the upper storeys but, quite strangely, HE describe all of the colonnettes as polished marble. 

 

Guide to the Building Stones of Huddersfield

 

Continuing along High Street, the former Prudential Assurance Buildings (No. 71 New Street) was designed by Alfred Waterhouse and completed in 1898 and is built with red brick with red/brown terracotta dressings, which is a characteristic of other branches that I have seen in Leeds (1891), Nottingham (1890) and Sheffield (1896). 

 

The former Prudential Assurance Buildings

 

The plinth and the colonnettes to the doorway on New Street are made of pink Peterhead granite, which HE again describe as marble. The differences between sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks are taught to schoolchildren aged 7 to 8 as part of Key Stage 3 Science in the National Curriculum and it is therefore quite shocking that the HE fieldworker did not know that granite and not marble has been used here and at Nos. 6 and 8 High Street. 

 

Pink Peterhead granite at the former Prudential Assurance Buildings

 

Continuing down Ramsey Street, I next encountered the Grade II listed Huddersfield Town Hall, which is built in two phases: the municipal offices fronting Ramsey Street (1878) and the 3-storey concert hall (1881) forming the southern Princess Street end. 

 

The municipal offices at Huddersfield Town Hall

Its designer was the Huddersfield Borough Engineer, John Henry Abbey, who was assisted by Frederick Wild of Huddersfield and Mr. B. Stocks of Huddersfield was brought in as a consultant after the death of Abbey in 1880 – as reported on pp. 543-540 in the 22nd October 1881 issue of Building News – and it is designed with the Corinthian order of the Classical style. 

 

The entrance to the concert hall on Princess Street

Medium grained gritstone from Crosland Moor was selected for the building and the architectural sculptor was Thomas Stocks, from nearby Berry Brow. The Hudersfield Public Arts Trail states that Matthew Hale, Friedrich Handel, William Hogarth, Isaac Newton, William Shakespeare and James Watt are depicted on the keystones, but I just took a few quick snaps of a few that caught my eye on the Princess Street elevation. 

 

Sculpted keystones on the Princess Street elevation

I wanted to have another look at the sculptures by James Woodford in front of Huddersfield Library and Art Gallery (1937), but the area was closed off due to the creation of the new library hub. I continued along Cross Church Street to the Grade II* listed St. Peter's church (1836) by J.P. Pritchett of York, where I just took general photos of each elevation. 

 

Views of St. Peter's church

 

Opposite the church, the keystone a nd the surrround to the southern entrance of Kirkgate Buildings are more fine examples of architectural sculpture, with similar quality work also seen on the Kirkgate elevation, but HE have removed this building from the Heritage list. 

 

A keystone on Kirkgate Buildngs

 

Making my back towards the railway station along John William Street, I took very quick snaps of the Grade II* listed Britannia Buildings (c.1858) by the local architect William Cocking, which were originally built as a warehouse, showroom and offices. 

 

The east elevation of Britannia Buildings

It is designed in the Neoclassical architecture in the grand palazzo style, with the John William Street elevation especially being adorned with yet more examples of high quality sculptural work to the keystones and decorative detailing. 

 

Sculpted keystones on Britannia Buildings

 

HE describe that this was built on the site originally reserved for the town hall and is one of Huddersfield’s mid-C19 purpose-built commercial premises built as part of the Ramsden Estate’s planned New Town development. It further adds that remodelling in the 1920s included shopfronts on the St. George’s Square elevation, with an eclectic mix of classical and Egyptian motifs. 

 

The north elevation of Britannia Buildings

 

At parapet level on the St. George’s Square elevation, the balustrade has large gadrooned urns and the central segmental section has the Royal Arms sculpted in high relief and is topped with a large sculpture of Britannia and a lion. 

 

The Royal Arms and the sculpture of Britannia

With just a few minutes before I had to catch my train back to Sheffield, after another great day out, the last building that I photographed was the Grade II* listed Lion Buildings (1853), another building by J.P. Pritchett, on the east side of St. George’s Square. I was particularly interested in the large lion, which I thought is made of Portland limestone but which is in fact a fibreglass replica that was installed in 1978 after the disintegration of the original lion by John Seeley.

 

The glass fibre lion at Lion Buildings