Friday 15 March 2024

St. John’s Church in Penistone - Part 1

 
A view west along the nave

Since the beginning of the Heritage Open Days Festival on 10th September 2022, I made a considerable effort to go out on the buses and trains to visit, for the first time, the mediaeval churches at Ault Hucknall, Eyam, Wragby, Hooton Pagnell and Darton – as well as having another good look at All Saints church in Bakewell. 
 
The locations of Treeton and Penistone
 
For my second day out in the first week of October, having had a good long walk around Cusworth and Doncaster to photograph its historic architecture - I took a day off from my usual maintenance at St. Helen’s church in Treeton, to take advantage of the Coffee Morning at the Church of St. John the Baptist in Penistone - a distance of 25 km away as the crow flies. 
 
The porch

Alighting from the hourly train from Sheffield to find that the BBC weather forecast of light rain was accurate on this occasion, I quickly made my way up to the church and, noting that the south aisle and clerestory has windows, castellated parapets and crocketted pinnacles that are typical of the Perpendicular Gothic style, entered the C18 porch. 
 
A weathered head stop on the south door
 
The south door, which Pevsner assigned a probable date to c.1300, has a weathered head stop that is carved in a medium to coarse grained sandstone, with the surrounding masonry inappropriately pointed with a Portland cement based mortar. 
 
A view along the south arcade
 
When entering the church and looking along the south aisle and the 6 bay south arcade, I was immediately struck by the very distinctive yellow colour of the sandstone, which I had only seen before at the village of Grenoside in Sheffield – the type locality for the Grenoside Sandstone – and the geological map shows that this formation and the Penistone Flags, which does not produce good building stone, outcrop in the area. 
 
A geological map of the area around Penistone

I purchased a basic black and white Heritage Inspired church guide and a much better quality colour booklet, which covers all of the churches in the Penistone and Thurlstone team ministry, before having a further look around the interior. 
 
The Penistone and Thurlstone churches guide
 
Both arcades, which are also dated to c.1300, have alternate circular and octagonal piers, double-chamfered arches and simply moulded capitals. The masonry between the arches has regular well squared blocks but the clerestory, although built of the same sandstone, seems to have slightly larger stones with deeper courses. 
 
The north arcade
 
With the coffee morning taking place at the west end of the nave, I didn’t spend any time looking at this part of the church and continued my exploration in the chancel, which again dates to c.1300 but was altered in the C18 with a change in the pitch of the roof.
 
The north and south walls of the chancel
 
The lower part of the walling to both the north and south walls of the chancel are built of irregularly squared and coursed masonry to the height of the arches to the chapels and to the south window. Above this level, the masonry is much more regular and contrasts strongly will the stonework beneath it, which is a feature of interest to a standing buildings archaeologist.
 
Monuments bearing the Bosville family crest
 
There are several large monuments, with those on the north wall bearing the Bosville family crest and dating to 1708 and 1714 and on the opposite side is a C18 white Italian Carrara marble tablet to the Fenton West families of Underbank Hall. 
 
A monument to the Fenton West families

According to the Historic England listing description, there is possible pre-Conquest masonry in the nave and the church guide mentions that an Anglo-Saxon cross shaft is incorporated into the column adjoining the team ministry office, with fragments of herringbone masonry and C12 corbels incorporated into the masonry, but I didn’t see any of these. 

The mediaeval altar
 
Beneath the east window is a mediaeval altar that is believed to have been hidden during the Reformation and was found in a wall cavity at St. James’ church at Midhopestones, before being brought to Penistone in the 1970’s. The octagonal font isn’t mentioned in any of the church guides or by Pevsner and Historic England hardly mentions it, but I took a few record photos of it before having a cup of tea and then going to explore its exterior.
 
The font
 

Another Afternoon in Doncaster

 
Hall Cross

Continuing my day out in Doncaster, having briefly explored Cusworth and the grounds of Cusworth Hall, I photographed the Grade II Listed Keeper’s Cottage and the former Church of St. Edmund, a C18 agricultural building that was converted into a church by George Pace in 1954, before walking back into Doncaster.
 
The former Church of St. Edmund

Once back in Doncaster, my task for the afternoon was to photograph 15 buildings for the British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, of which only St. James’ church (1858) on St. Sepulchre Gate West is built in stone and are not of particular interest to this Language of Stone Blog. 
 
The south end of St. James' church
 
It was built by shareholders of the Great Northern Railway and was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in conjunction with Lord Grimthorpe, the son of the chairman of shareholders, Sir Edmund Beckett. In a very uncharacteristic addition to his description of the church, Pevsner refers to him as a ‘venomous, pompous, righteous bully of St. Albans notoriety’.
 
The north end of St. James' church
 
I had passed by this church many times when arriving in Doncaster from the Rotherham on the bus and train, without ever thinking of taking a closer look at it and, judging by its cream coloured stonework, presumed that it was built with Permian dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation - the building stone that is almost exclusively used in and around Doncaster.
 
The porch
 
Arriving at the very dirty south porch, however, I immediately thought that the dark brown colour of the patina and dirt was more typical of Jurassic oolitic limestone than Magnesian Limestone. The distinctive ripple marks in the stone used for the shafts confirmed to me that this is Ancaster limestone, which is also recorded in the Historic England listing description.
 
Ripple marks in Ancaster limestone
 
After taking photographs of the headstops to the porch, which are partly covered in clinker like deposits that typically contain damaging concentrations of sulphates, I walked round to the north elevation to photograph the separately listed iron railings.
 
Headstops on the porch
 
Here, in the car park that once formed part of the railway sidings, the tarmac has worn away to reveal setts that are made of the very distinctive markfieldite, a microdiorite that has green hornblende and pink feldspar as major mineral components and has been extensively used throughout the UK for ballast upon which railway tracks are laid.
 
Exposed markfieldite road setts
 
I then made my way along Waterdale to Hall Cross Hill, where I stopped briefly to look at Hall Cross (1793), built with coarse cross-bedded dolomitic limestone, before going to find various listed buildings to photograph in the Georgian district of Doncaster.
 
Hall Cross
 
Reaching the churchyard at the Grade II* Christ Church (1829), I took a few photos of the gatepiers and railings and then had a very quick walk around the exterior, which according to the church website is built in Roche Abbey stone, to take a few general photos for my own records.
 
Christ Church
 
The church was designed in a Commissioners Gothick style by William Hurst of the Doncaster based architectural practice Woodhead and Hurst, who were also responsible for Christ Church (1830) and St. George’s church (1825) in Sheffield, but Sir George Gilbert Scott enlarged the chancel in the 1850’s.
 
The tower at Christ Church
 
In the churchyard, the two Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones to Private E.R. Daubney of the Lincolnshire Regiment and Sapper H.W.O. Hirst of the Royal Engineers are both replacements, made with Botticino marble and with the inscriptions and regimental crest cut with a CNC milling machine.
 
Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones

At the time of my visit, the café in the church was open and I went inside to take a couple of photos of the nave and the chancel, which was illuminated with purple lighting, but I didn’t explore it further and went to complete my Photo Challenge, before doing some shopping at Doncaster fish market and catching a train back to Sheffield.
 
A view along the nave at Christ Church
 

Tuesday 12 March 2024

Cusworth Hall Museum and Park

 
The south elevation of Cusworth Hall
 
After arriving in Cusworth on the No. 41 bus, it took less than half an hour to photograph the listed buildings and other vernacular architecture in the old village and then walk up Cusworth Lane and along Back Lane to the entrance lodge to Cusworth Hall.
 
The south elevation of the entrance lodge
 
Passing through the lodge to its south side, I had a very quick look at the dolomitic limestone ashlar, which will have been quarried from the nearby Cadeby Formation. This has been extensively quarried at Sprotbrough and Cadeby and looking at a weathered and delaminating block, which seems to be face bedded and exposes burrows, it seems more like limestone from the upper Sprotbrough Member than the lower Wetherby Member. 
 
Face bedded limestone with burrows

The Grade I Listed Cusworth Hall was built in 1745 by George Platt, for William Wrightson, with alterations by James Paine completed in 1753. It was occupied by the Battie-Wrightson family for more than 200 years, but was sold to Doncaster MBC in 1961 and opened as a museum in 1967. 
 
The north elevation of Cusworth Hall

Approaching the house from the north, two 5 bay service wings face each other across the entrance courtyard. Much of the masonry to the front elevations of these have developed a dark brown patina, as also seen in the house, which is very different to the greyish patina that usually forms on dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation. 
 
The service wings
 
This colour reminds me very much of the weathering of Jurassic Bath stone in a polluted urban environment, which I came across very many times while working in the building restoration industry in London. It contrasts strongly with the very pale cream limestone used to restore the west wing, which I first saw back in 2007 when very briefly visiting with the Curator of Natural History at Doncaster Museum, when I was working on the Doncaster Geodiversity Assessment.
 
Restoration of the west service wing in 2007
 
When undertaking preliminary research for my day out, I didn’t even think to check the opening times at what is described as a ‘jewel in Doncaster's crown’, especially since I had planned to arrive during the late morning on a Saturday. 
 
A view of the south elevation
 
Much to my great surprise, I found that the museum was shut – although the current website now shows it as being open on a Saturday – so I just resigned myself to having a quick look around the rest of the exterior and the grounds, which were landscaped by Richard Woods in the 1760’s. 
 
The Paine Chapel
 
The repairs that I had noticed to the west service block in 2007 are just one part of a major award winning refurbishment that was undertaken at the time, including a complete renovation of the chapel, which James Paine had added together with the library at the opposite end.
 
Restored stonework to the Paine Chapel
 
Looking closely at the stonework here, the unrestored masonry is quite deeply weathered and exhibits cavernous decay and differential weathering of softer beds, to reveal shallow angle cross-bedding and ripple marks in the limestone. 
 
New and original masonry on the Paine Chapel

When used for ashlar masonry or plain walling, limestone from the Cadeby Formation is usually quite resistant to weathering; however, on several buildings that have been restored recently, I have seen marked efflorescence on blocks that are not subject to rising damp and which contributes to accelerated decay, which seems to relate to sedimentary structures within the limestone - as is typically seen in Ancaster freestone, where ripple marks are highlighted by weathering.
 
New and original masonry on the Paine Chapel

Having taken general record photographs of the exterior, without closely examining the stone, I noticed a gate pier where there is a great contrast in the colour and texture between this and the adjoining walling – illustrating some of the physical differences between the lower and upper members of the Cadeby Formation. 
 
A gate pier and adjoining walling
 
The lower cream to yellowish coloured Wetherby Member tends to be oolitic and shelly, with well defined massive beds that are often associated with bryozoan reefs, as seen at North Cliff Quarry in Conisbrough. The Sprotbrough Member, which is well exposed at Warmsworth Park, displays large scale cross-bedding, a greater degree of dolomitisation that has obliterated the primary texture and fossils and tends to be much paler in colour. 
 
A view towards Doncaster
 
Before following a path to the Upper Fish Pond, I stopped to look at the view towards Doncaster, where there is a rapid fall in the elevation of the land beyond the South Don Fault, which separates the limestone of the Permian Brotherton Formation and the mudstones of the Roxby Formation. The lower ground, which also includes the Triassic Chester Formation, is largely covered in Quaternary river terrace deposits and alluvium laid down by the River Don. 
 
The superficial geology between Cusworth Hall and Doncaster

I carried on down the path to the north end of the Upper Fish Pond to photograph the Grade II Listed boathouse, which is probably part of Richard Wood’s landscaping in 1763 and is in the form of a grotto constructed with limestone boulders and rubble.
 
The boathouse
 

An Introduction to Cusworth

 
A plaque at the site of the old Cusworth Hall

For my first day out in October 2022, having spent an afternoon in Bakewell to photograph various listed buildings a few days earlier, I decided to head out to Doncaster again to visit Cusworth Hall Museum and Park, which involved a 10 minute bus journey from Doncaster Interchange.
 
A map showing the locations of Treeton and Cusworth
 
Alighting from the No. 41 bus from Doncaster at the Cusworth Lane/Filby Road stop, I walked along Cusworth Lane for just over 100 metres past later C20 brick houses until I reached the junction with Back Lane, which forms the continuation of the main road. 
 
The geology and topography around Cusworth
 
Although I didn’t realise this at the time, from the moment the bus turned off York Road onto Cusworth Lane and headed in a south-westerly direction, it followed the boundary between the dolomitic limestone of the Brotherton Formation and the reddish brown mudstone and siltstone of the younger Roxby Formation. 
 
The online GeoIndex Onshore map viewer doesn’t show this at the 1:50,000 scale, but this linear feature, which is also reflected in the topography, is a continuation of the South Don Fault with a downthrow to the south-east. It forms part of a regionally important structure known as the Don Monocline, which largely controls the course of the River Don between Sheffield and Doncaster and also includes the North Don Fault. 
 
The Cusworth Conservation Area

Continuing down Cusworth Lane, I soon arrived at the boundary of the Cusworth Conservation Area, which includes the old village, the Grade I Listed Cusworth Hall and the parkland around it, which forms part of a much larger area of the original estate that has national historic interest. 
 
Manor Cottage
 
To the right hand side on rising ground, Manor Cottage, which is probably late C17, is one of three Grade II Listed buildings in the old village of Cusworth, which are built of limestone rubble with red pantile roofs, as are the rest of the buildings in the Conservation Area - both old and new. 
 
The Mistal
 
Next to this is The Mistal, a mid C18 cowhouse that has been converted to a house and has its stone slate eaves course, as also seen at Manor Cottage, replaced with concrete tiles. I did not get close enough to look at the limestone but, judging by the boundary walls, massive limestone from the Cadeby Formation and not thinly bedded limestone from the Brotherton Formation has been used for both of these buildings. 
 
Views of the Manor House
 
The C17 Manor House has the same pattern of building materials, including stone slate eaves, which is quite typical of the vernacular architecture that I have seen along the length of the Magnesian Limestone, from Knaresborough to Palterton. 
 
The British Orthodox Church
 
On the south side of Cusworth Lane, the C20 houses are not within the Conservation Area and the graveyard of the unlisted British Orthodox Church of St. Mark and St. Hubert next caught my eye, where the various headstones are of a very small size compared to most others that I have seen in various churchyards and cemeteries. 
 
Vernacular architecture in Cusworth
 
I took a very quick look at the houses at the west end of Cusworth Lane and then, after following it beyond the right angle bend, continued up past various traditionally built houses to Back Lane and then made my way to the entrance lodge at Cusworth Hall.
 
The entrance lodge at Cusworth Hall