Various Churches in South Yorkshire

 

The chancel in Rotherham Minster

To conclude a great day out on the buses and trains to Batley and Birstall, I had a very quick look at the exterior of All Saints church, and with the Heritage Open Days festival for 2024 coming to an end, the next time I went out was to lead a walk as part of the Nether Edge Festival – a recce for which I had undertaken in the first week of September. 

 

A walk around Nether Edge

Following on from this event, which was attended by 35 people, I next went to the Church of St. John the Baptist in Hooton Roberts to meet Liza Nash, who had contacted me on Facebook the year before to ask if she could use a photo that I had taken of the church, when walking along Hooton Cliff in the summer of 2021. 

 

The south at the Church of St. John the Baptist

 

Although not a member of the Parochial Church Council, she had undertaken a lot of work to ensure that the church did not become redundant, due to the diminishing numbers of parishioners who attended the church, and she wanted to produce a calendar to raise funds. 

 

The Church of St. John the Baptist

 

Having not heard about this for some time, a message on Facebook again was followed by a long conversation instigated by Liza, during which I highlighted my experiences of visiting many mediaeval churches that faced similar problems - including St. Helen’s church in Treeton - and my experience of the very successful Church Explorers Week event that Chris Ellis at the Diocese of Sheffield had organised earlier in the year. 

 

An outcrop of sandstone on Holmes Lane

I had briefly seen the interior the year before, but I had been intrigued about the red sandstone that outcrops on Holmes Lane and in a farm track to the east of the village, which according to the British Geological Survey map is not the Rotherham Red variety of the Mexborough Rock - and I have further investigated this after visiting St. Helen's church in Burghwallis.

 

Variation in the sandstone in the responds of the arch to the south aisle

According to the geological memoir, between Rotherham and Hooton Roberts, the Mexborough Rock changes from the locally distinctive dull red/brown Rotherham Red sandstone - which is characteristic of Rotherham and the villages to the south - to a mottled red/yellow variety. I noted this variation in the masonry of the arch to the south aisle and dressings at St. John’s church, but I have not seen any exposures of this and am still curious to know where this was quarried. 

 

Sandstone used for dressings

 

This was seen in several quarries that are no longer visible or have been infilled and redeveloped and the owners of the Hooton Roberts quarry off Kilnhurst Road have refused access to both the South Yorkshire RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) Group and the Sheffield Area Geology Trust (SAGT); however, from glimpses of this and another quarry on Denaby Lane, the Mexborough Rock appears to have the typical light brown colour that I have seen in old quarries in Mexborough and Darfield. 

 

A detail of the sandstone used for dressings

 

Having met with the churchwarden and subsequently had a long conversation with Liza back in her house, I have been glad to know that the church is still functioning for services and that they have participated in subsequent Church Explorers Week events. 

 

Poppyheads in Rotherham Minster

On the following Saturday, I popped into Rotherham and took advantage of Rotherham Minster being open to take some photographs of the wonderful poppyheads that adorn the choir stalls and which are dated to c.1480. 

 

A view of the crossing in Rotherham Minster

 

I had been inside Rotherham Minster several times over the years and, except for the stained glass, I had photographed all of the features that interested me and, on this occasion, I just spent 10 minutes inside the church. 

 

The Norman font in Rotherham Minster

 

Moving into October, when I was still making plans to travel further afar while the weather was still reasonably good, I spent a couple of hours at St. John’s church at Ranmoor in Sheffield. I had visited this church a few times earlier in the year, to prepare for a talk that I gave on 7th September – entitled The Stones of St. John’s – A Geological Assessment. 

 

The entrance to St. John's churchyard

On this occasion, I was attending another talk as part of the Scissors Paper Stone project, on the subject of Frank Tory by the late Sylvia Dunkley. Treeton History Group had previously invited Sylvia to give a talk on the same subject, but it had to be cancelled during the COVID-19 Pandemic and was never rearranged due to the subsequent demise of this group. 

 

A view along the nave of St. John's church in Ranmoor

I had already taken very many photos of the exterior and interior, but with the lighting being switched on and the font being well illuminated, I could not resist taking another photo that show the Caen stone and serpentinite from the area around Genoa in Italy.

The font at St. John's church

All Saints Church in Batley

 

All Saints church in Batley

To conclude my day out to Batley and Birstall, which included an exploration of the warehouses on Station Road, the public buildings in the Market Place Conservation Area, St. Peter’s church and Batley Cemetery, I had a quick look at the exterior of All Saints church in Batley. 

 

The south-west entrance to the churchyard

 

The architect Walter Hanstock, in partnership with both Michael Sheard and his son Arthur Walter Hanstock, designed very many of these buildings and it is therefore quite fitting that he was responsible for the restoration (1872-3) of this Grade I listed mediaeval church, which Historic England (HE) dates to the C13, but most of the fabric was built c.1485. 

 

My first view of All saints church

Entering the churchyard at the south-west corner, I was immediately struck by the large numbers of the trees growing in the immediate vicinity of the church, which threw much of the fabric into the shade and made it difficult to obtain photographs of the entire structure. 

 

A view of the west end of the church

 

Once inside the churchyard, I obtained a much better view of the west end, especially the tower, with its corbelled, machiolated and castellated parapet with tall square pinnacles – and it reminded me very much of the tower at St. Peter’s church in Birstall. Pevsner describes it as being a “corbelled-out parapet of the Leeds region”, but provides no other examples. 

A view of the west elevation of the tower

When travelling around Barnsley to look at their mediaeval churches, I discovered that All Saints church in Darton was one of five sister churches that had ties with the Cluniac Monk Bretton Priory and were built with a very similar design. 

 

A view of the north elevation of the tower

 

In Medieval Churches of West Yorkshire, Peter Ryder also draws attention to several churches that have virtually identical towers, which suggests that the same master mason may have been responsible for the design of these. 

 

The north aisle

 

Continuing along the north aisle, Ryder describes the rebuilding in the Perpendicular Gothic style as having taken place in the half century either side of 1500 - adding that the church “escaped the Victorian era very lightly; most of the windows still have their 16th or 17th century plain square-headed or round-arched lights”. Pevsner just describes them as “All windows Perp, and most of them straight-headed”. 

 

Pevsner's description of All Saints church

 

I noted that large blocks of a yellowish cross-bedded sandstone with orange variation has been used for the walling and the infill of the north door, which is very probably Birstall Rock, but the C20 vestry is built with a different sandstone that I didn't look at closely. 

 

The C20 vestry

Moving round the east end of the church, the canopies of the mature trees again made it difficult to obtain a good photograph and I didn’t get close enough to have a good look at the stonework or photograph the details. 

 

A view along the south elevation

 

The south aisle has the same style of windows as the north aisle, which are all square headed but with some of these having round arched lights, but I just took a few general photos without examining the details. 

 

A view of the porch and south elevation

 

All around the church, large slabs are used for paving, which includes many inscribed grave slabs, and to the east of the porch there are a few raised slabs and a Grade II listed recumbent effigy, which HE describes as a robed figure with hands together on the chest and probably C13. 

The effigy to the east of the porch

Having note that a car was parked outside the church, I was hoping that I might have an opportunity to look in the interior, but I couldn’t see any lights on and, after photographing some of the inscribed grave slabs, I made my way to the entrance on Branch Road and headed back to the railway station - stopping at the Union Rooms on the way to have a well earned pint.

 

Grave slabs in the churchyard

An Exploration of Batley Cemetery

 

A detail of the headstone of corporal J.W. Gay

Ever since encountering a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) headstone in St. John the Baptist’s churchyard in Dronfield back in February 2019, where I was interested in the design of the regimental crest of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment – albeit a replica of the original made by a CNC milling machine - I have made a point of visiting churchyards and cemeteries to find these, when on my travels. 

 

CWGC headstones with regimental crests that I had not seen

On my day out to Batley and Birstall, when I had planned to look at the historic architecture on Station Road and in the Market Place Conservation Area and St. Peter’s church in Birstall, my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge included buildings and structures in Batley Cemetery and I therefore prepared a short list of headstones with regimental crests that I had not seen before. 

 

The gatepiers, gates and railings

Before entering the cemetery, I firstly photographed the Grade II listed gatepiers and boundary wall, which are built in massive sandstone, along with the gates and railings, and also the Grade II listed cemetery lodge (1866) - where the same sandstone is used for the walling and dressings. 

 

The gatepiers and lodge

The architect responsible was Walter Hanstock, whose work I had seen in the warehouses/showrooms on Station Road, the Zion Methodist Chapel, the town hall and Batley baths in Market Place Conservation Area and at the Sunday School on Blakeridge Lane. 

 

The cemetery lodge

 

The sandstone used for the gatepiers and the lodge – for the walling and dressings – is uniformly light brown in colour and is very probably Thornhill Rock, which Hanstock seems to have favoured and was widely quarried near Morley and easily transported by rail to Batley. 

 

The Cross of Sacrifice

 

The Cross of Sacrifice is made out of a uniformly coloured and medium grained sandstone, which I didn’t look at closely; however, Bolton Woods stone from the Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation to the north of Bradford has often been used for war memorials in the north of England. 

 

Views of the memorials in Batley Cemetery

Walking up to the cemetery chapels, the area between these and the entrance is the oldest part of the cemetery and there is a mixture of traditional slabs made out of sandstone that is very likely to be from the Elland Flags, with larger obelisks and other large more ornate memorials being made of massive sandstone and a variety of granites. 

 

The cemetery chapels

Quite unusually, Historic England describe the Anglican and Nonconformist chapels (1865), also by Walter Hanstock, as being decorated with carved details that include grotesques, beasts, birds, figure heads, flora and foliage, but I did not get near enough to see these. 

 

A view to Blakeridge Mills

Continuing up the hillside to an elevation of approximately 110 m, on which the newer parts of the cemetery are set, I stopped to take in the view of Blakeridge Mills and the Church of St. Thomas (1868) in the distance – another building designed by Walter Hanstock. 

 

The plan for Batley Cemetery

 

I then set about trying to locate the CWGC headstones, using a cemetery plan that I had downloaded, with the first of these being Private A.A. Smithson of the Cameron Highlanders, which looks like it is made with Stancliffe Darley Dale gritstone. 

A detail of the headstone of Private A.A. Smithson 

The next headstone, made with Portland stone, was that of Private B. Stenchion of the Parachute Regiment in the Army Air Corps, which wasn’t included in my list but I had not seen the regimental crest depicting a parachute before. 

 

A detail of the headstone of Private B. Stenchion

The headstone of Bombardier T. Brannan of the 145th (Berkshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment is also made of Portland stone and the regimental crest interestingly depicts the Uffington White Horse – a prehistoric hill figure cut into the chalk downs in Berkshire – although in reverse. 

 

A detail of the headstone of Bombardier T. Brennan

Private W. Bromley of the New Zealand Otago Regiment has a headstone made of Portland stone, which has weathered to an extent that fragments of shells can clearly be seen and looks original, but the worksheet states that the stone used is Woodkirk Blue.

 

A detail of the headstone of Private W. Bromley

 

In Moorgate Cemetery in Rotherham, I came across several CWGC headstones that I originally thought were probably made with Stancliffe Darley Dale stone, but subsequently learned from their worksheets that these were in fact Woodkirk Blue stone. Returning to the cemetery at a later date, I had another look at these and it was evident that this sandstone is finer grained and weathers differently – an observation also confirmed when visiting other churchyards at Royston and Wadsley and Burngreave Cemetery. 

 

The headstone of Private C. Bruce

 

Private Bromley’s worksheet also includes the headstone of Private C. Bruce of the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) but, from my photograph of the regimental crest, the stone looks more like a medium grained gritstone from the Millstone Grit Group than a Coal Measures sandstone.

 

A detail of the headstone of Private C. Bruce

A Walk From Birstall to Batley

 

A detail of Dock Ing Mills

Leaving St. Peter’s church, having had a good look at the various stones that have been used for its fabric and fixtures in the interior, I made my way up Kirkgate to the junction with Bradford Road and continued towards Batley, with the intention of completing my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Birstall and Batley. 

 

My British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Birstall and Batley

After 200 metres, I stopped to take a few photos of Flock House, the site of which is marked on the 1894 Ordnance Survey (OS) map as Flock Works, but buildings on this site first appear on the 1908 map. It is now occupied by a number of businesses, with Birstall Mill Carpets reflecting its former use, and on the east elevation a lifting beam is still in place. 

 

Flock House

 

On the opposite side of Bradford Road, I stopped to take a photograph of a terrace of houses known as Colbeck Row, which is built with sandstone that has a very distinct mainly orange colour, which I had seen in the old school buildings on Kirkgate in Birstall and which I presume to be locally quarried Birstall Rock. 

 

Colbeck Row

 

Quite unusually, pp. 109-113 of the geological memoir for the Huddersfield district provide a detailed description of the Birstall Rock, with mentions of the washout of underlying coals after a period of uplift and the conditions of deposition. The section on building stones describe it as being extremely variable and, although once quarried widely, it is not particularly durable. 

 

An extract from the geological memoir

 

I continued along Bradford Road through the area known as Birstall Smithies, which the 1894 OS map shows with Birstall Foundry and several mills – marked as flock, woollen, cloth, cotton, shoddy and mungo – all of which are set around the terminus of the London & North Western Railway goods line from Batley, which opened in 1852. 

 

Birstall Smithies on the 1894 OS map

Most of the buildings that I passed were single storied and built of sandstone and brick, but have since been put to other commercial use and many of them have been demolished and replaced by various C20 industrial, commercial and residential buildings. 

 

Carlinghow Mill

 

Due to the delay earlier in the day, due to my failure to identify the correct stop to catch my bus to Birstall, and the time spent at St. Peter’s church, I decided not to look for the listed buildings in Birstall or visit the Bagshaw Museum and carried on for 1500 m past a mixture of C19 and C20 industrial, commercial and residential buildings until I came to the C18 Carlinghow Mill – a water powered corn mill, with an attached barn and other outbuildings. 

 

The west range at Dock Ing Mill

 

A little further along Bradford Road, on the south side, is a complex of buildings that form Dock Ing Mill (1899), which constitute several single storey buildings with north-lights on its west side and a two storey range, with a central castellated tower, on the east side. 

 

The east range at Dock Ing Mill

Zooming in to the tower to photograph the raised lettering that describe the building as Docking Mills, which is its alternative name, the sandstone used to build it has a high proportion of blocks that are orange in colour, which strongly suggests that this is another example of the Birstall Rock. 

 

The former National School at No. 521 Bradford Road

 

The next building on my Photo Challenge was the former National School at No. 521 Bradford Road (1848), which is built with sandstone that has a uniformly grey/brown colour and lacks the wild orange colouration of the Birstall Rock. To my eye, it looks like the Thornhill Rock that is widely used in Batley and the 1854 OS map shows that the quite substantial New Hall Quarry on the nearby Carlinghow Hill was working this formation. 

 

Views of the tram depot

 

On the opposite side of Bradford Road, Birstall Rock is again used for the tram depot (1874), which was originally used for horse drawn trams and then those powered by steam, with Batley and Dewsbury being pioneers in the introduction of electricity as the source of energy. 

 

A view of Blakeridge Mills

I then made my way down Centenary Lane to Cross Bank Road and Cemetery Road, where I took a photo of Blakeridge Mills, which was the main mill of John, Thomas, and Joshua Taylor - the largest woollen manufacturers in Batley. 

 

The Cross Bank Methodist Sunday School

 

After going to look at Batley Cemetery, which I will describe in my next post, I made my way back to Blakeridge Road, where the next building on my Photo Challenge was the Cross Bank Methodist Sunday School (1882), but Historic England make no mention of the architect. 

 

The Cross Bank Methodist Sunday School

 

Vivien Tomlinson's Family History website, however, describes the now demolished Wesleyan Methodist Church (1871) as being designed by Sheard and Hanstock, with Red Mansfield dolomitic sandstone used for the voussoirs and granite for the columns. These materials, along with Thornhill Rock used for the ashlar masonry, are used in the Sunday School and Walter Hanstock was again the architect for this. 

 

Views of St. Mary's church

The next building on my Photo challenge was the Gothic Revival style Church of St. Mary (1870). I just took a few record photos and didn’t take a close look at the dressed sandstone used for the walling and the ashlar dressings, but it is quite similar to the sandstone seen in the warehouses on Station Road, which I thought was most likely to be Thornhill Rock. 

 

Blakeridge Mills

Heading back to Batley along Blakeridge Road, I passed several large buildings that formed part of Blakeridge Mills, but which now been converted into apartments, before heading down Stocks Lane towards All Saints church. Passing Batley Health Centre, I was interested to see a fine relief sculpture, depicting beech leaves, cut into one of the walls but I have not yet been able to find any information about this. 

 

The relief sculpture on Batley Health Centre

 

After walking around the exterior of All Saints church, which I will describe later, I continued to Branch Lane and Commercial Street. Here, looking across the car park of Tesco Extra, the Park Road School (1876) was the last building on my Photo Challenge that I managed to photograph, before continuing to the railway station.

Park Road School