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

Heritage Open Days in Walkley

 

A view along the nave at St. Mary's church

On the day after undertaking a recce for the Nether Edge Festival and having another quick walk through Sheffield General Cemetery, I returned to Sheffield on the second day of the 2024 Heritage Open Days festival, with an intention of visiting some of the places that were open in Walkley. 

 

Walkley Community Centre

 

The first of these was the Walkley Community Centre, which although not a listed building was originally built in 1909 as the Walkley Reform Club and is an important community venue. It still has its original features and fittings and war memorial glass in the snooker room, but when I arrived it was not yet open to the general public.

 

The datestone at Walkley Community Centre

 

The Walkley Ebenezer Methodist Church was not yet open either and so I proceeded to the Grade II listed St. Mary’s church, which I had only briefly photographed from the outside during a previous visit to Walkley as part of a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge.

 

St. Mary's church

It was a very overcast day and I didn’t take much notice of the details of the exterior but, according to the Pevsner Architectural Guide to Sheffield by Ruth Harman, the chancel and 2 bays of a mission church were built in 1861 and the nave, aisles, north-west tower and broach spire were added in 1869 by John Grey Weightman, in association with T.A. Wilson in 1869. 

 

The tower of St. Mary's church

I just took a few more general record photographs before entering the church and going to find the Walkley Historians, who I had met a few times at the Sheffield Heritage Fair and had suggested that I give a talk or lead a walk for them. 

 

St. Mary's church

 

The interior of the church was really gloomy and, with much of the masonry plastered over except for the arcades, I just took a few photographs of the nave and the arcades. I didn’t look at these closely, but the massive nature of the drums to the columns suggests that this is Chatsworth Grit, which is used as dressings to the Crawshaw Sandstone walling in the external fabric. 

 

The west arcade

Moving into the chancel, which is fully plastered, I had a quick look around to see if there were any decorative stones, as I had often seen in later Victorian churches, but I saw nothing of interest to this Language of Stone Blog. 

 

The chancel

When returning to the nave, however, the very fine grained texture and very pale cream colour of the pulpit (1901) caught my eye and it made me immediately think that it is made of Caen stone, as has been used for the font and reredos at St. John’s church (1887) in Ranmoor.

 

The pulpit

 

Although not an expert in decorative stones, I was interested to see that the pulpit  has colonnettes that I think might be made of the polished limestones, Cork Red and Ashburton ‘marbles’, and a true marble from Connemara, but I didn’t get good photographs in the poor light. 

Colonnettes on the font

Sheffield General Cemetery Revisited

 

The monument to Eliza West and Charles Cann

Having quickly completed my recce for the Nether Edge Festival, I wanted to make the most of the sunshine and headed off to south-west entrance to Sheffield General Cemetery, stopping briefly to photograph the Grade II Listed Montague House (c.1836) – one of the three structures thought to be by Samuel Worth and built with coarse grained and often pebbly Chatsworth Grit. 

 

Montague House

 

I have briefly visited Sheffield General Cemetery on several occasions, with the last time being on the November 2023 Sheffield U3A Geology field trip, when the afternoon walk around Nether Edge was effectively cancelled due to the very cold weather – as briefly described in my report on a recce of Cressbrook Dale – but I have never fully explored it. 

 

The map of Sheffield General Cemetery

 

Making my way down the path to Sandford’s Walk, I then continued down the path at the top of the catacombs (1836), which had fallen into a state of considerable disrepair and were restored during the programme of refurbishment of the cemetery from 2021 to 2023. 

 

An information board explaining the history of the catacombs

 

I had previously walked along the path beneath the catacombs, but had never realised that in 1937 a third tier was added using 140 burial boxes made of reinforced concrete. By the turn of the C19, severe cracks had become apparent in the stonework of the lower parts, and the boxes were removed to improve the structural stability during the restoration, with one now on display.

 

A detail of the retained concrete burial box

 

Continuing down the walkway, I stopped briefly to have a quick look at the memorial to Eliza West (d.1916) and her husband Charles Cann (d.1929), which is built with two different granites. During the Heritage Open Days event in 2023, led by Peter Kennett, I was too busy taking photos to hear Peter describe these and he does not mention them in the geological trail published in 2001. 

 

The monument to Eliza West and Charles Cann

 

The dark red granite looks to me like the variety from the Ross of Mull, which is the largest peninsula on the Isle of Mull off the west coast of Scotland. The grey variety might be from Aberdeen, but the granite from the Rubislaw Quarry, which is the most well known granite from this area, is typically a darker grey in colour. 

 

A detail of the granites at the Eliza West and Charles Cann monument

 

Reaching the end of the walkway, I then headed along the Robert Marnock pathway past the catacombs until I reached the Stone Spiral, which was designed by Adrian Hallam and installed in 2024 using sandstones, crinoidal limestone, dolomitic limestone, granites and slate from the UK. 

 

The Stone Spiral

As seen in the photograph used for the accompanying Rock in the General Cemetery leaflet, the large lumps of rock used for this wonderful educational resource have since been obscured by a natural patina, dirt and algae, which makes it very difficult to identify each type of stone. 

 

The Rock in the General Cemetery leaflet

At the Montague Street entrance to the cemetery, there is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) screen wall, which commemorates the 40 military personnel that perished during WWI. Sheffield General Cemetery was considered too dilapidated to have CWGC headstones there and the screen wall was placed in Sheffield City Cemetery, but it was relocated to its present site in 2015.

The screen wall