St. Leonard's Churchyard in Wortley

The west lychgate

After my very brief exploration of Wortley Hall and some of its estate buildings, as part of my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, I made my way back to Halifax Road and entered St. Leonard’s churchyard by the lychgate opposite Park Avenue – one of two providing an entrance to the churchyard - which was built as a war memorial in 1921. 

 

The war memorial lychgate

 

Soon after arriving in Wortley and having a look at the buildings on Halifax Road, I took a couple of photos of the east end and the south elevation of St. Leonard’s church from the pavement, but I didn’t notice any features of particular interest. 

 

The north elevation of St. Leonard's church

 

Once inside the churchyard, I just took another photo of the north elevation and then went to find the Grade II listed cross base, with a sundial pedestal (1679). The sundial disc no longer remains and, after taking a couple of quick snaps for my Photo Challenge, continued down to the churchyard extension. 

 

The cross base and sundial pedestal

Here, I went to find the three Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones for Private C.K. Francis of the Queen’s Royal Regiment, Leading Aircraftwoman Beatrice Turner of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and Driver Ethelbert Clarke of the Royal Field Artillery – all of which are replacement headstones made of Botticino marble. 

 

Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones

The only regimental crest that I had not seen before was that of the Queen’s Royal Regiment (West Surrey), with the details of the lamb and flag and the Latin motto – Pristinae Virtutis Memor (In memory of the ancient virtue) – having very sharp profiles. 

 

The Queen’s Royal Regiment (West Surrey) regimental crest

I didn’t spend much time looking at the rest of the headstones and memorials in the churchyard extension, which are mainly a mixture of Victorian headstones, made of fine grained sandstone that is probably the Greenmoor Rock, and C20 granite memorials, but the decoration of one memorial did catch my eye. 

 

A granite headstone

It is made from what I think is Peterhead granite from Aberdeenshire, into which have been cut a cross with Celtic knotwork, geometrical motifs, scrolls and what look to me like acanthus leaves. The designs are quite unusual, but I didn’t see the inscription or the date on the headstone, which may otherwise have provided information about the style of the design.

 

A detail of the granite headstone

Walking back up the hill towards the old churchyard, I stopped in one place to take a few more panoramic photos of the landscape to the north-west of Wortley, before taking advantage of the opening of the church for the Heritage Open Days festival. 

 

A panoramic view from St. Leonard's churchyard

A Brief Exploration of Wortley Hall

 

The crest of James Archibald Stuart-Wortley

My brief visit to the Wortley Hall estate, to photograph the Grade II* listed Wortley Hall and its associated buildings and other structures as part of my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, continued by having a look at the Grade II listed steps and retraining wall to the east of the hall.

 

Views of the balustraded retaining wall

Taking in the panoramic view across the estate towards Pilley, I then turned my attention to the east elevation of the original part of the hall, which was rebuilt in 1686 by Sir Richard Wortley on the same site as the C16 hall and then remodelled from 1742 to 1746 by Giacomo Leoni for Edward Wortley-Montagu. 

 

The east entrance to Wortley Hall

 

Pevsner barely mentions this, only stating that the east wing appears Early Victorian but may incorporate the house designed by John Platt, with the Historic England (HE) description being typically dry and providing no comment on his architectural style, except to mention the Ionic columned doorcase to the main entrance. 

 

The south front remodelled by Giacomo Leoni

 

After taking a few record photographs of this elevation, I went to find the Grade II listed terrace steps and retaining walls to the gardens, which HE date as probably early C19 and are built with rock-faced and ashlar sandstone, with the copings surmounted by gadrooned vases. 

 

Views of the steps on the terrace

When wandering around the south terrace, I was very interested to come across an information panel that describes the fossilised stump of an Upper Carboniferous club moss, Lepidodendron, which is thought to have been found in a local coal mine. 

 

The information board describing the fossil Lepidodendron stump

Fossils like these are quite rare and, in Sheffield, I have seen examples of these at the Botanical Gardens and at the Wadsley Fossil Forest - which have since been buried – and I was therefore surprised to see that it had become quite overgrown in such a well maintained historic garden. 

 

The partially obscured fossil Lepidodendron stump

Continuing with my wander around the gardens, I took advantage of the sunshine to take a few snaps of the south elevation of the hall, which Pevsner describes as being “Good Grecian” and HE refers to the pairs of Ionic columns flanking the outer bays. 

 

The south front of Wortley Hall

To the west of Leoni’s remodelled south front is the west wing (1784-88), which the HE description attributes to John Platt for Lady Mary Bute (d.1784) and completed for James Archibald Stuart-Wortley under the guidance of John Carr of York. 

 

The west wing of Wortley Hall

 

Returning to the south end of the western terrace, the Grade II listed early C19 arbour was the next structure on my Photo Challenge, which has a balustraded wall and scrolled brackets carved with rose and oak leaf motifs, but is only included for its group value. 

 

The arbour

Heading back to the south front of Wortley Hall, a circular pool with a statue is sited at the centre of the garden, which HE credits Lady Caroline Creighton - the wife of James Archibald Stuart-Wortley - as being responsible for the survival of the early C19 landscaping. The Italian white Carrara marble statue of a male figure, which is seated on three entwined dolphins, has unfortunately lost part of both arms. 

 

The circular pool and statue

 

Moving nearer to the south front, I took a couple of photos of the 3-bay central pediment, which projects from the outer bays on each side and has engaged Ionic columns below. The crest is that of James Archibald Stuart-Wortley, which was added after his elevation to the peerage in 1826. 

 

The pediment and engaged Ionic columns

 

Finding the French doors on the south front open, I popped inside to take a quick look at the fireplaces, where I hoped that I might find some interesting marbles. Although I have been told that there are fireplaces that make good use of marble elsewhere in the house, there weren’t any here and I just took a few general record photos and returned to the garden. 

 

A few views of the interior

 

I only spent 30 minutes wandering around the gardens and didn’t examine the sandstone ashlar used for Wortley Hall. From a distance, although the pediment and upper part of the walling beneath the eaves has weathered to reveal a yellow colour, which is characteristic of the Grenoside Sandstone, much of the sandstone lacks this colour but I can’t think of any other sandstone in this part of South Yorkshire that might have been used.

 

A view from the south-west

 

The Wortley Hall Estate

 

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