West Bank and Woolley’s Yard in Winster

 

Boundary walls on the public footpath to Wooley's Yard

Arriving at West Bank along the path from East Bank, where I obtained a good appreciation of the physical characteristics of the underlying dolomitised Carboniferous Limestone, the first building on my list to photograph was the Grade II listed early C19 Harness Room Squire Whites, originally a house and stable but with the latter since converted to residential use. 

 

Views of Harness Room Squire Whites

 

Gritstone ashlar with some reddening, from the Ashover Grit, is used throughout, with some of the original stone slates to the roof of the house being replaced with concrete tiles. These have been occasionally used on other properties as an alternative to Welsh slate, but would probably not satisfy the current requirements for materials used in the Peak District National Park. 

 

Views of Rose Cottage

Rose Cottage, which is Grade II listed for its group value, is described by Historic England (HE) as “Mid-C18 incorporating parts of an earlier house. Coursed rubble with gritstone dressings, quoins, coped gables with moulded kneelers, east gable ashlar ridge stack, concrete tiles”. 

 

The dovecote at Rose Cottage

The mixture of limestone and gritstone for the walling is not mentioned and, very surprisingly, there is no reference to the much later west extension or the rebuilding of the north elevation, which has snecked masonry with an unusual partially rock-faced finish and incorporates a dovecote. 

 

Views of Bank House

At Bank House, described by HE as “C17 with C18 refashioning and C19 additions. Coursed rubble gritstone with quoins”, taking advantage of the Winster Secret Gardens event, with visitors wandering around the grounds of houses that would not normally be accessible, I was able to have a look at the west and rear elevations, where coursed limestone rubble is mainly used for the walling and part of the stone slate roofing has been replaced with Welsh slate. 

The geology around Winster with working quarries on the Ashover Grit

 

The provenance of the gritstone used in Winster is not known but, from my working knowledge of the area and having obtained several samples of stone for the Triton Stone Library – now housed in the Redmires Building at Sheffield Hallam University -  I am aware that reddened gritstone often occurs in the area.

 

The stone library in the Redmires Building

The most reddened variety is quarried at Birchover, although other buff/pink varieties are obtained from outliers of the Ashover Grit (renamed as Corbar Grit) to the north of Winster and on the main outcrop to the east of the River Derwent, where it has been described as ‘Matlock stone.’ 

 

A view of the Birchover Quarry

The former Wesleyan Methodist Chapel (1837) is built entirely with red gritstone, with a Welsh slate roof, and the front elevation has tall Venetian windows and a round arched doorway. Also included in the Grade II listing are the railings and the boundary walls into which they are set – described erroneously by HE as being built with limestone. 

 

The former Wesleyan Methodist Chapel

 

A little further down on the west side of the road is the mid C18 Old Shoulder of Mutton Inn, now converted into a residence, where the frontage is again built with red gritstone with an inscription next to the former entrance, but the extension with a carriage arch to the south uses a mixture of limestone and gritstone. 

 

The Old Shoulder of Mutton Inn

 

Opposite this is West Bank Cottage, a substantial 4-bay mid C18 house that is again built in gritstone, with a very large reddened block used for the lintel above the door. Uniformly buff gritstone has been used for the window dressings, which according to HE are C20 replacements of the original mullioned and transomed windows. 

 

West Bank Cottage

Taking a diversion down the footpath to Woolley's Yard, the dry stone boundary walls provide further examples of the local dolomitised Carboniferous Limestone, which made me wonder if these may have been a biproduct of the lead mine that operated here. 

 

The path to Woolley's Yard

 

Continuing past the Grade II listed outbuilding to the north of No. 11 Woolley’s Yard, the C18 Nos. 9 and 10 is a pair of 3-storey cottages that have been converted into one residence, with red gritstone mullioned windows and massive lintels to the doorways – one of which has been blocked up to form a window. 

 

Nos. 9 and 10 Woolley's Yard

 

I didn’t look at the walling to the front elevation close up, but it is mainly built with very pale cream coloured limestone with a few courses of red gritstone and these materials, along with quite thickly bedded grey limestone, are again used for Nos. 6 to 8 Woolley’s Yard. 

 

Nos. 6 to 8 Woolley's Yard

 

Although the HE description is again not very clear, these seem to have originally comprised a terrace of three C18 terraced houses with the northernmost house having its stone slate roof replaced with Welsh slate and its dormer window altered. 

 

No. 6 Woolley's Yard

 

To this has been added a slightly smaller cottage, which is built with more thinly bedded pale cream/buff limestone that looks to be dolomitised. After taking a few general record photos, I retraced my steps back to West Bank, where I next stopped at the Burton Institute, which is marked as a hall on the 1889 Ordnance Survey map and is still the focal point of the community. 

 

The Burton Institute

 

With its late Perpendicular Gothic style first floor windows and the quatrefoil window to the right of the entrance are interesting details, it further contributes to the aesthetic quality of the Conservation Area and I am surprised that it is not even listed for its group value. The front elevation is built with buff gritstone with red gritstone for the side elevations – both of which have sections of coursed and random rubble walling incorporated into the ground floor. 

 

Ashton House

 

A little further down West Bank is a substantial early C19 house listed by HE as “House Attached South of Kirkby House and Attached Shop” but since named Ashton House, which is only listed for its group value but I thought was quite impressive, with its tall chimney stacks, projecting quoins, hoodmoulds and other architectural details.

 

The gate piers to Dower House

 

The very ornate gate piers to Dower House, at the corner of West Bank and Elton Road, are described by HE as having grotesque masks, foliage, cartouches, guttae and serpents. The house was opened for the Winster Secret Gardens and this enabled me to see the late C17 rear elevation of this large house, which is built with limestone walling and gritstone dressings.

 

Views of Dower House

From East Bank to West Bank in Winster

 

Winster Methodist Chapel

When planning my day out to undertake a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge in Winster, comprising 53 buildings, my intention was to arrive at 13:08 on the No. 172 bus and then catch the next bus at 15:28 to Darley Dale and travel back to Bakewell on the Transpeak service. 

 

The route of my exploration of Winster

Reaching Rock View on East Bank at 12:46, having managed to photograph 16 of the 18 buildings on my route and walked less than 600 m, my next task was to find the Primitive Methodist Chapel set on the steep slope of Winster Bank, which was not on my list.

 

A dry stone wall on the footpath to the Primitive Methodist Chapel

 

Eventually locating the public footpath, I immediately came across a dry stone boundary wall, which is largely composed of large irregular blocks of a porous, very pale cream coloured Carboniferous Limestone that is full of voids, with smaller roughly rectangular blocks of grey limestone used for later repairs. 

 

A section of the dry stone wall

 

When living in Bakewell and undertaking a survey of the RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) in the Peak District National Park, from the British Geological Survey memoir, I was aware that some of the Dinantian limestones were affected by secondary dolomitisation, but there wasn’t a single site on my list of places to visit where I was able to see this. Very many years later, the Sheffield U3A Geology Group organised a field trip to Harborough Rocks, but I was unable to attend and this still remains a gap in my fieldwork. 

 

A detail of dolomitised limestone in a dry stone wall

 

Wyns Tor, 50 m to the south of East Bank, is cited in the Geological Conservation Review as “the best example of a tor developed on dolomitized limestone in Britain and the site contains important information on the nature of rock weathering, periglacial processes and landscape evolution in this part of the Pennines”, but I wasn’t aware of this at the time of my visit. 

 

Dolomite tors in the south-east of the Peak District

A little further down the public footpath to the Primitive Methodist Chapel, I spotted a small outcrop at the base of the dry stone wall in which a very open texture with voids can be clearly seen, with many of the stones in the adjoining wall having a similar appearance. 

 

An outcrop of dolomitised limestone next to the public footpath

 

The chapel, which dates to 1823 and was extended in 1850, is built with limestone rubble walling and red gritstone dressings and, after a period of disuse that led to a state of disrepair, has been quite recently restored by Crooks Architecture in Hathersage. 

 

The Primitive Methodist Chapel

 

Although I didn’t have my Estwing hammer with me, I managed to obtain a few small specimens of dolomitic limestone and, examining these with a hand lens, they are very crystalline and while there is no general reaction with hydrochloric acid, calcite crystals in the rock do effervesce. 

 

Specimens of dolomitised limestone

 

Fine specks of a black mineral are scattered throughout the body of the rock and the geological memoir states that manganese – seen in the Permian Magnesian Limestone - and iron were introduced when the dolomitisation occurred. The specimens are also very heavy and this may reflect mineralisation associated with the lead rakes in the immediate vicinity. 

 

Lead rakes shown on the geological map

 

Making my way back up the path, I continued west along East Bank to another path, which led me through an area of very hummocky ground that the Derbyshire Historic Environment Record shows to be the site of the old Weston shaft - “A deep engine shaft, at a disturbed hillock, that leads to extensive pipe and vein workings” - which is part of the Upper Orchard Mine. 

 

The location of the Upper Orchard Mine

I did not have time to explore this part of Winster, where the lead mine and spoil heap extend to 1 ha in area, but a satellite view of this part of the village shows that the area is grassed over and has remained undeveloped, with both the shaft and spoil heap marked on the 1884 and 1899 Ordnance Survey maps as old lead mines. 

 

The 1899 Ordnance Survey map of Winster

Continuing along the public footpath, although I couldn’t see the lead mining area, there are fine views over Winster to the north and north-west and, after stopping to a take a couple of photographs, I made my way down to West Bank. 

 

A view from the path to West Bank

 

An Exploration of East Bank in Winster

 

A view down East Bank

Continuing my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Winster, started on Wensley Road, I turned down East Bank to where Peace Haven forms part of the property described by Historic England (HE) as the C17 House to the North West of Bowling Green Inn – Grade II Listed for group value - which is quite confusing and doesn’t precisely identify the property in question. 

 

Peace Haven

HE goes on to describe the building materials as coursed rubble gritstone with quoins but, although massive gritstone has been used for the dressings, blocked up windows and isolated blocks of stone, I think that the bulk of the cream/yellowish coloured walling is probably dolomitised Carboniferous Limestone. 

 

Marmalade Cottage and No. 3 East Bank

 

The irregularly coursed and very roughly dressed walling contrasts strongly with the pattern of the masonry to the adjoining early C19 Marmalade Cottage and No. 3 East Bank, which form part of a terrace that is clearly built with light brown/red gritstone and includes the unlisted East Leigh. 

 

East Leigh

On the opposite side of East Bank is the Bowling Green Inn, dated as C18 with C19 alterations, which is an example of well coursed but quite roughly squared gritstone that is often very reddened. Except for Lansdowne House and Georgic House, which still retains its original stone slate roof, nearly all of the listed buildings that I had seen to date have had their roofs renewed with Welsh slate and this can be seen here. 

 

Bowling Green Inn

 

Buxton House, a pair of early C19 cottages that have been converted into a single residence, has its front elevation built with dressed and very well squared and coursed red, mottled and light brown gritstone walling and dressings, but the East Lane elevation uses irregularly sized, shaped and coursed blocks of limestone and occasional blocks of gritstone. 

 

Buxton House

 

Continuing up East Bank, which progressively steepens, all of the buildings that I could see are marked on the 1884 Ordnance Survey (OS) map and the same pattern of grey limestone and/or reddened gritstone appear in all of them. 

 

A view up East Bank

The Headlands (c.1800), which I could only glimpse from the road, and the house to the south-west - dating to the C17 and refashioned in the C18 - are quite substantial and were evidently built for residents that had a much higher social status than the lead miners, who occupied the humble cottages in the area known as Winster Bank. 

 

The Headlands and the house to the south-west

Opposite these houses is the elegant Wesleyan Reform Chapel (1852), which is not listed but makes a significant contribution to the Conservation Area, which essentially includes all of the tightly packed buildings marked on the 1884 OS map, but very surprisingly has not had a Conservation Area Appraisal produced for it. 

 

The Wesleyan Reform Chapel

Further up the hill, Nos. 3 and 4 Anson Row and Portaway Cottage are another terrace of four C18 picturesque cottages, which are built with limestone rubble walling and red gritstone dressings but, as with very many of the listed buildings that I had so far seen, they don’t possess great architectural merit. 

 

Nos. 3 and 4 Anson Row and Portaway Cottage

 

“Jasmine Cottage and attached house at north end” was the next building on my list to photograph, but the HE listing description again isn’t that easy to follow and, if there wasn’t a name plate on Jasmine Cottage, I am not sure that I would have found it.

 

Jasmine Cottage and attached house

 

The most notable feature to my mind are the massive red gritstone quoins and for the door surround to Jasmine Cottage and I just took a few photos of the pair of buildings from different angles, before walking further up East Bank.

 

Dolomitised limestone in a boundary wall

 

Passing one of the boundary walls built with limestone rubble, I noticed that some contain irregular blocks that are full of voids and which I presume to be the dolomitised limestone from either the Eyam Limestone or Monsal Dale Limestone formations. A little further on, the next building on my list was the early C19 Rose Cottage, where I could only see part of the front elevation and its original stone slate roof. 

 

Rose Cottage

Continuing along East Bank, which here runs east to west along the southern extremity of the village, I could only look down at the rear elevation of the C18 Manse House. By now I had noted the various building stones that reflect the geology around Winster and, with respect  to the styles and features of its simple vernacular architecture, there is not much more to say other than the projection to the rear is described by HE as a shallow gabled stair turret.

 

The rear elevation of Manse House

 

The next building on my list was Autumn Cottage, another C18 cottage built with limestone rubble walling, reddened gritstone dressings – which includes very large stones for the quoins, door surround and mullioned windows - and Welsh slate has replaced the original stone slate. 

 

Autumn Cottage

 

The walk from Wensley Road had taken me from an elevation of approximately 237 m to 275 m, which provided me with great views across Winster to the high ground formed by the outlier of Ashover Grit, which I had explored a few weeks earlier at Rowtor Rocks and Stanton Moor. 

 

The topography between Winster and Stanton Moor

 

Taking the public footpath that eventually led me to West Bank, I took photographs of the front and rear elevations of Rock View – yet another C18 house built with limestone rubble, red gritstone dressings and a Welsh slate roof. 

 

Rock View