The Wortley Hall Estate - Part 1

 

The boiler house chimney in the walled garden

Continuing my exploration of its historic architecture, during my day out to Wortley, having photographed various buildings on Halifax Road and Sheffield Road, I headed off towards Wortley Hall and stopped briefly at Top Lodge, which is Grade II listed for its group value. 

 

Views of Top Lodge

 

It was built in the mid C19 for the Wortley Hall estate and Historic England (HE) describe it as having a Westmorland slate roof; however, it was largely obscured by vegetation and I couldn’t get a clear view of it, but from my photos it seems to be another example of the use of yellowish Grenoside Sandstone. 

 

The gatepiers at the south-west end of The Avenue

Next on my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge were the Grade II listed early C19 Grenoside Sandstone gatepiers, which are decorated with festoons, and the attached railings at the south-west end of The Avenue. 

 

A festoon on the southern gatepier

 

Further along The Avenue is a row of single storey bothies that are attached to the north-west wall of the kitchen garden (1797), which presumably accomodated estate workers and the gardeners, but have since been converted into two private residences. 

 

The single storey cottages and boiler house chimney on The Avenue

Chimney Cottage and Mushroom Cottage, neither of which are listed buildings, are separated by the chimney to the old boiler house, which once heated several greenhouses in the garden. This also fed steam through hollows in some of the brick walls, against which fruit or vegetables that fully satisfied the needs of Wortley Hall were presumably growing. 

 

Mushroom Cottage

 

At the north-east end of The Avenue is another set of Grade II gatepiers and attached railings, which mark the entrance to the gardens of Wortley Hall and are described by HE as being “emphasized by frieze paterae and large ball finials”. 

 

Gatepiers at the north-east end of The Avenue

 

Before entering the gardens, I firstly took a couple of photos of the early C19 Swift Cottage and Garvins Cottage, which are attached to the outbuilding to the rear right of the stable block and are now let out as holiday cottages. 

 

Swift Cottage and Garvin Cottage

 

Although the early C19 stable block, which HE consider was probably built to designs by John Carr, had already been photographed by someone else, I took a single record photograph of the rear elevation and, once inside the gardens, a couple more of the front elevation. 

 

Views of the stable block

 

The next building on my Photo Challenge was the outbuilding to the rear left of the stable block, which has a hayloft within it and, on the right hand side, part of it has been converted to Gardeners Cottage – another property on the estate that is let out as a holiday cottage. 

 

The outbuilding to the rear left of the stable block

 

Making my way back to the main drive, I immediately noted how well the informal gardens are maintained and I later discovered that this work is undertaken by three full time gardeners and several volunteers. Before reaching the house, I stopped to photograph a mounting block which, unlike many others that I have seen on my travels, is not listed but forms an interesting feature. 

 

A mounting block

 

My first views of  the Grade II* listed Wortley Hall were the rear parts of the west wing (1784-1788), by John Platt and completed under John Carr, and the east service wing (1757-1761) by Matthew Brettingham  with HE citing George and John Platt as masons/executive architects.

A view along the east side of Wortley Hall

A Day Out to Wortley - Part 2

 

A view of Reading Room Lane

Continuing my day out to Wortley, I retraced my steps along the Halifax Road and took a few photos of St. Leonard’s church, which was open for the Heritage Open Days festival and which I would visit after taking photos of some of the buildings at Wortley Hall for my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge. 

 

A view of St. Leonard's church

 

According to the National Churches Trust, records indicate that there was a chapel in Wortley in the reign of Henry III and there is evidence that the church existed in 1318, but the church that is seen today consists of a tower (1754) by the Rotherham based sculptor and architect John Platt, but with the rest rebuilt c.1815 and later work in the C19. 

 

The Wortley Arms public house

 

The next building on my Photo Challenge was the Grade II Listed Wortley Arms public house, which Historic England date as mid C18. I just took a couple of photos of its north-west elevation and then turned to photograph the south side of the nave of the church, which shows the 3-light windows with Y-tracery and a reset C14 3-light window with reticulated tracery at the east end.

  

A view of the south nave of St. Leonard's church

 

Continuing along Sheffield Road for a short distance, my next building was the mid C18 Ivy Cottage, with a C19 addition, where dirt obscures the yellowish colour of the massive sandstone. This is again very probably Grenoside Sandstone, which produces very large blocks - as seen in the very large lintel above the central door and for its surrounds – with Greenmoor Rock probably used for the stone slate roof.

  

Ivy Cottage

Looking at the south-west and rear elevations of the Wortley Arms, where the stonework isn’t very dirty and the patina isn't well developed, the same yellowish Grenoside Sandstone is seen here, but the C19 rear wing is quite blackened and I couldn’t confirm that is again used for this. 

 

The rear of the Wortley Arms

 

Attached to the south-east end of the Wortley Arms is the Wortley Men’s Club and Institute, which was built as the Reading Room for Wortley Hall and its front elevation on Reading Room Lane has Mock Tudor style timbers attached to it. 

 

A view up Reading Room Lane to the Wortley Men's Club

 

This building and another row of terraces on the opposite side of Reading Room Lane, which has a similar pattern of Mock Tudor style timbers and were presumably built at the same time, appear on the 1855 Ordnance Survey (OS) map and, although they are not listed, their architectural style and the use of red plain tiles for the roof is very unusual. 

 

The terrace of houses opposite the Wortley Men's Club

 

I headed down Reading Room Lane to the next building on my Photo Challenge, the Old Vicarage (1880), but it is set in private grounds and is obscured by a large hedge and trees and the single photo that I took just shows its chimney stacks and its stone slate roof. 

 

A partial view of the Old Vicarage

 

Returning to the Wortley Arms car park, the dry stone walls are made with a flaggy sandstone that looks quite similar to that used for the boundary walls on Halifax Road. Stone for walling like this would usually be obtained very locally but, I can only see a couple of very small quarries on the 1855 OS map, which are some distance away, and the proximity of the quarries at Green Moor do not rule these out as being the source. 

 

A boundary wall at the Wortley Arms Car Park

Before going to have a quick look at Wortley Hall, I took a couple of photos of the village school, which was built some time between the publication of the 1855 and 1892 OS maps and is likely to have been built after the Forster’s Education Act in 1870, but it has now been converted to residential use.

 

The former school in Wortley

  

A Day Out to Wortley - Part 1

 

A panoramic view from the A629 road in Wortley

Following on from my visits to Walkley and St. Marie’s Cathedral Church in Sheffield, as part of the 2022 Heritage Open Days (HOD) festival, my next day out a few days later was to Wortley – a small village that I had passed through many times in my MG Midget, when living just a couple of miles away in High Green. 

Treeton and Wortley as shown on Google Map

The only time I have spent any time there was back in 2018, when the gardens of Wortley Hall were chosen by the wedding photographers Photogenick as the backdrop for the modelling of my Glowing Edges Designs silk scarves. 

 

Modelling Glowing Edges designs silk scarves at Wortley Hall

 

St. Leonard’s church regularly opens for the HOD but, being a Georgian church that isn’t easy to get to by public transport, it wasn’t high on my priorities but, when seeing that a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge showed that were 14 other buildings in the village that didn’t have a photo, including Wortley Hall, I decided to make the effort to get there. 

 

My British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Wortley

Although only 17 km from Treeton as the crow flies, the only bus that I could catch was the No. 29 operated by South Pennine Community Transport, which first leaves Sheffield at 8:25 am but the next bus departs from Chapeltown at 11:25 am. 

 

The timetable for the No. 29 South Pennine Community Transport bus

 

Having first caught a bus to Sheffield and then taking the train to Chapeltown, I alighted from the bus at the Halifax Road/Park Avenue stop at approximately 11:39 am, which gave me nearly 2½ hours to explore Wortley before returning on the 14:08 pm bus. 

 

No. 6 Halifax Road

 

The first building on my list to photograph was No. 6 Halifax Road (1840), which I saw only from a distance but, despite the considerable blackening of the massive sandstone, the distinctly yellowish colour makes me think that this is Grenoside Sandstone - one of the principal sandstones in the Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation (PLCMF). 

 

Quarries marked on the Building Stones Database for England map explorer

 

Looking at the Building Stones Database for England map explorer, this was worked from the Laycock quarry to the south and the Huthwaite Quarries to the north-west, which I visited when undertaking surveys for the South Yorkshire RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) Group back in 1996 and 1997. 

 

Various buildings on Halifax Road

I simply didn’t enough time to have a close look at any of the other buildings along Halifax Road, very many of which appear on the 1892 Ordnance Survey map, but from my photos I can still see that the stone used to build these is very probably Grenoside Sandstone. 

 

The topography of the area around the A629

 

The A629 road follows an escarpment of an unnamed PLCMF sandstone and, heading north-west through open countryside, there are some fine views of the scarp and vale topography formed by the sandstones and the intervening strata, which dip to the north-east. 

 

A view of the dip slope of the Greenmoor Rock

 

From here, there are also very good views of the dip slope of the thinly bedded Greenmoor Rock, which forms a prominent feature at Hunshelf Bank, where it forms a strong escarpment overlooking Stocksbridge and was extensively quarried for the best quality paving stone. The flaggy sandstone used for the boundary walls in Wortley looks very much like Greenmoor Rock, but the Penistone Flags or other unnamed PLCMF sandstones may be the source of this.

 

The garden wall of Anvil Cottage on Halifax Road

St. Marie's Cathedral Church in Sheffield

 

A detail of the effigy of Fr. Charles Pratt

 

My visit to Walkley to take advantage of the properties opened for the Heritage Open Days festival of 2024 wasn’t very successful and I made a mental note to return the following year, when all of the buildings are open and hopefully the lighting conditions in St. Mary’s church will be better.

 

A view from Fargate

Alighting from the No. 95 bus in Sheffield city centre, I made my way down Norfolk Row to the Gothic Revival style Grade II* listed Cathedral Church of St. Marie (1847-1850), designed by Weightman and Hadfield, which is built on a very restricted site and is not easy to photograph.

 

A view up the tower

I had walked down Norfolk Row very many times over the years, without taking much notice of it, but since taking an interest in the building stones used for Sheffield’s historic architecture while undertaking my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenges, I had become very curious about the yellowish Upper Carboniferous sandstone that is used for the walling.

 

A view along the south elevation

Since leaving Walkley, the very gloomy weather hadn’t improved and, although I didn’t stop to examine the stonework, I have often thought that this could well be Grenoside Sandstone, but I haven’t seen any documentation to confirm this.

 

The sculpture of the Annunciation by Thomas Earp

 

At the south-east corner of the cathedral, at the junction of Norfolk Row and Norfolk Street, there are various extensions – one of which is decorated with a deep relief sculpture, which is set in a canopied niche with two ogee arches and cinquefoils. The long Historic England (HE) description, with its usual complete lack of sentences and paragraphs, provides no information about these and although the cathedral website has a photo of the sculpture, it is not annotated.

 

A detail of the sculpture of the Annunciation

 

 Referring to the Pevsner Architectural Guide for Sheffield, Ruth Harman says that the building is a sacristy that was added in 1879 by M.E. Hadfield and Son. She adds that the sculpture is the Annunciation and made by Thomas Earp’s studio and, looking at the pale cream colour of the stone, my educated guess is that Ancaster limestone from Lincolnshire has been used for this.

 

A view along the nave to the chancel

 
Entering by the south porch, where Heritage Opens Days banners had been placed, I expected to be greeted by a volunteer - as had been my experience at every property that I have visited during many of these festivals – but I could not find a single person in the cathedral who might be able to provide some help and I didn't see any printed guide for a tourist. 

 

A shrine made with alabaster and Frosterley and Derbyshire marbles

 

I had been informed that the cathedral has a set of C15 alabaster relief sculptures and also that there is an example of the use of Frosterley marble from County Durham, which I have seen used as flooring in the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Leeds and in the C12 font at the Church of St. Mary and All Saints in Chesterfield. Wandering around the cathedral, I found this in the colonnettes of what I presume to be some kind of shrine, with back panels made of alabaster.

 

A Frosterley mable colonnette

 

The principal feature of Frosterley marble is the abundance of large solitary rugose corals set in an a black micritic matrix, the like of which I have seen in the field at Mullaghmore in Co. Sligo in the Republic of Ireland and at Hob's House landslip in Monsal Dale, Derbyshire.

Derbyshire fossil 'marble' with crinoid stems

This structure is topped with a slab of Lower Carboniferous Derbyshire fossil 'marble', from the Peak District National Park, which contains large crinoid stems that are also broken down into their ossicle components. The limestone formed as knoll reefs, which are common in the Eyam Limestone Formation, and was once widely quarried and polished as a decorative stone but the only supplier now is at Rowsley, which still obtains Mandale stone from the Once-a-week Quarry.

 

A column made with Derbyshire fossil 'marble'

 
Having a very quick look around the chancel and sanctuary, I noticed that crinoidal limestone has also been used for several columns, but I didn’t see it anywhere else. Continuing my wander, an altar in the mortuary chapel is made of what I thought was probably a green marble but, looking closely at my photo, I am wondering if it might actually be scagliola. 

 

The altar in the mortuary chapel

 

There is also an effigy of Fr. Charles Pratt (d.1849) by Thomas Earp that is holding a model of the church, which was heavily influenced by St. Andrew’s church in Heckington, Lincolnshire. I didn’t look at the material that it is made of, which seems to be coated with a grey pigment and the angel on the corner looks like it has been replaced. 

 

A detail of the effigy of Fr. Charles Pratt

 

HE state that it is made of alabaster but, as described in my recent post on the architecture in Huddersfield, in my experience their field workers very often make schoolboy errors when trying to identify the stone used in a building.

 

A headstop 

 
Ruth Harman also mentions that the reredos in St. Joseph’s chapel, also by Thomas Earp, is made of Caen stone and that green Pyrenean marble has been used for the shrine in this chapel and other marbles can be seen around the cathedral.

A headstop

On this occasion, I just took a few photos of the headstops and grotesques when leaving by the south porch but I will make a point of coming back in the near future and make a formal appointment to see the alabaster carvings.

 

A grotesque