A Geology Field Trip in East Leeds

 

Micklebring Quarry

A few days after my trip to Wingerworth in Derbyshire, where I had a good look at the exterior, interior and churchyard of All Saints church and photographed various historic buildings, I headed off to Leeds with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group. 

 

The geology of east Leeds

 

On this occasion, Bill Fraser of the Leeds Geological Association – who had taken us around Roundhay Park in Leeds back in 2021 – had agreed to lead us around four sites to the east of Leeds, where the Carboniferous Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation (PLCMF) and the Permian Cadeby Formation are exposed. 

 

The road cutting at William Parkin Way

Meeting at The Springs shopping centre car park, next to junction 46 of the M1 motorway, our first stop was at William Parkin Way – a road cutting that was excavated in 2018 and which once created an excellent section through sandstones, siltstones and mudstones of the PLCMF, but which is gradually being overgrown. 

 

Examining rock specimens

Although the vegetation has started to take hold of what would have been quite a spectacular rock exposure, once we all got our eye in, the subtle variations in colour and texture that distinguish them could be quite clearly seen. 

Samples of very fine grained grey sandstone

I collected a couple of samples of very fine grained pale grey sandstone, which has some iron staining in the form of Liesegang rings and, on the thinly bedded specimen, there is carbonaceous material that indicates a coal forming environment. 

 

An old quarry in the Cadeby Formation

 

On the vast majority of field trips, we devise a circular walk that provides the group with some good exercise, as well seeing some interesting geology, but this time the sites were at some distance apart and we returned to our cars and drove to Garforth Garden Centre and walked down to an old quarry in the Permian Cadeby Formation. 

 

A 'hills and holes' landscape

 

Returning to the public footpath, we stopped to look at a ‘hills and holes’ landscape, produced by the waste from the mining of the Yellow Sands Formation, which occurs immediately below the Cadeby Formation, for use as moulding sand in iron foundries. 

 

The escarpment at Roach Hills

 

We were then taken on a quick diversion to the limestone escarpment at Roach Hills, to look at the change in the landscape that occurs at the Carboniferous-Permian unconformity – with good views of the topography and the outliers of the Cadeby Formation in the area around Kippax. 

 

A view from the limestone escarpment

 

As at Roundhay Park, Bill came well prepared with photographs of some quite large fossil Schizodus clams, which can be found after the fields have been ploughed. I was particularly interested in these, as my experience of Permian fossil bivalves and brachiopods was of very small species, whose growth had been very restricted by the hypersaline conditions in the Zechstein Sea where they lived. 

 

Views of the Micklefield Quarry

 

After lunch, we then took another short drive to the Micklefield Quarry SSSI, where there is an excellent section of the dolomitic limestone of the Cadeby Formation – both the lower Wetherby Member and the upper Sprotbrough Member. 

 

Bill showing the position of the Hampole Beds

 

The most interesting feature here is the Hampole Beds, which separate the two members and represent a period when sea levels had fallen and, on the edge of the shallow platform formed in the Zechstein Sea, large shallow lakes and lagoons were formed. In these relatively still waters, very fine grained muddy sediments that include green clay were deposited. 

 

A detail of the Hampole Beds

 

Our final destination of the day was the linear village of Aberford, which I briefly visited back in 2019 during a trip to see All Saints church in Barwick-in-Elmet. Having parked the cars, we firstly had a look at the various textures found in a boundary wall, which is built in dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation. 

 

Examining dolomitic limestone in a boundary wall

 

We finished an excellent day by taking a quick look at the stromatolite algal mats that can be seen in the roadside verge on Cattle Lane. These flat domed structures, which I had previously seen at the South Elmsall Quarry, are formed by the fine calcite mud adhering to the algae and with this growing by new layers repeatedly being added by the same process. 

 

Stromatolite algal mats

 

All Saints Wingerworth - The Churchyard

 

The lychgate at All Saints church

Passing through the lychgate at All Saints church in Wingerworth, my first view of its churchyard was its western extension, where the headstones closest to me date back to the mid 1960’s, with pale grey granites and a medium grained sandstone, which is probably Stancliffe Darley Dale, being the most common materials. 

 

Headstonesin the extension to All Saints churchyard

 

Although I had spent quite a lot of time looking at various headstones earlier in the year, for the Bolsterstone Graveyard Project and the "Let’s talk about the stones” walk at Moorgate Cemetery, I didn’t go and have a close look but I could still see that many more recent headstones in the distance are made of ‘black granite’ – a material that has become very popular since cheap materials have been imported from India and China. 

 

A slate plaque in the Garden of Remembrance

 

Stopping very briefly to photograph a grey/blue slate plaque that may be Kirkby slate from Cumbria, at the Garden Of Remembrance, I then came across a couple of large Georgian headstones, dated 1807 and 1812. These are single and double headstones respectively, but they have the same basic design and are presumably made by the same memorial mason, although I didn’t notice any maker’s name. 

 

Georgian headstones

 

When helping my friend Catherine with the identification of stones that she was encountering while undertaking the Bolsterstone Gravestone Project, she drew my attention to these maker’s names or initials, which are usually very discreetly placed. 

 

The headstone of Emily Parkin Reaney

 

On the headstones of Emily Parkin Reaney (d.1878) and John Parkin (d.1877), which I think are Swithland slate from Leicestershire, the inscriptions recording J. Wright of Danesmoor as the maker is surprisingly cut into the face of the stone, albeit in small lettering at the top of the stone. 

 

The headstone of John Parkin

 

Compared to the bold lettering and numbering and the magnificent flourishes and swirls that accompany some of the letters, these pale into insignificance. A Wright Stone Services still operates in Danesmoor, which may have some family connection with this J. Wright, whose work can also be seen in the sandstone headstone of Joseph Mirfin (d.1878). 

 

The headstone of Joseph Mirfin

 

I next encountered a large cross, surrounded by iron railings, which looks like a war memorial but is in fact the memorial to Frederick Charles George FitzClarence-Hunloke (d.1878) and his wife, the Hon. Adelaide Augusta Wilhelmina Hunloke (d.1904), who was further commemorated by the insertion of a new window by Clayton and Bell into the east end of the church.

 

The memorial to Frederick FitzClarence-Hunloke

 

Continuing my walk around the oldest part of the churchyard that surrounds the church, I discovered a cluster of four squat headstones whose various details I couldn’t read, but which the church guide says all date to the C17.

 

C17 headstones

 

I didn’t look closely at these, but I think that they are made out of a medium to coarse grained sandstone, rather than the flaggy sandstone used for the larger traditional headstones that I had previously seen. - as is the small headstone of Joseph Withers, where no date can be seen. 

 

The headstone of Joseph Withers

 

Opposite the south door, there is the socket stone of what the church guide considers to be an Anglo-Saxon preaching cross, but it is not recorded as a Listed Building or a Scheduled Monument, which is unusual for a supposed ancient structure like this. 

 

A supposed socket for an Anglo-Saxon preaching cross

 

My exploration of the churchyard was only very brief and most of the headstones that I saw are made out of a flaggy sandstone that could be from the Wingfield Flags which, like their near equivalent formations - the Greenmoor Rock and the Elland Flags - further to the north, was suitable for paving stones and presumably headstones. 

 

The tomb of John Gratton

 

The tomb of John Gratton (d.1882), which is in the form of a hipped raised slab, is one of the few exceptions to this. This dark grey granite looks like the Rubislaw variety from Aberdeen in Scotland, which was widely used in later Victorian banks, other prestigious buildings and substantial monuments throughout Britain. 

 

The headstone of Ann Howson

The weathered medium grained sandstone headstone to Ann Howson, with its winged cherub, hourglass and skull, also does not have a date visible. Although I am far from being an expert in funerary symbolism, calligraphy and letter cutting styles. I have seen many headstones from the reign of King George I and King George II – 1714-1760 - at Hill Top Chapel in Attercliffe and All Saints churchyard in Darton and I think that this probably also dates to the C17.

 

The headstone to the son of William Fletcher

 

The sandstone headstone to the son of William Ivory Fletcher is very badly weathered, with it being impossible to make out all the details of the epitaph, although it looks like he died in 1846. The makers name, J. Fletcher can be seen on the side of the headstone, where the delamination of the flaggy sandstone along the bedding planes, which can be clearly seen, will probably cause the headstone to fail completely in the not too distant future. 

 

A detail of delamination on the headstone

 

I finished my very quick walk around the part of the churchyard to the west side of the new extension to the church, where most of the headstones that I could see date back to the 1940’s and 1950’s. Here, grey granite from the Cornubian batholith in Cornwall/Devon and medium grained uniformly light brown sandstone, again probably Stancliffe Darley Dale, are the most common materials used during this period. 

 

Various post-war headstones

 

All Saints Wingerworth - The Interior

 

12th century decoration on the chancel arch

As a geologist, with a particular interest in historic architecture and the building stones used in them, my walk around Wingerworth had provided a good introduction to the Deep Hard Rock – a Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation (PLCMF) sandstone formation that is very rich in iron. 

 

The south door

 

I had only stopped very briefly to photograph various listed buildings for the British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, without getting close enough to examine any of the sandstones. Once inside the porch of All Saints church, having had a quick look at the exterior, the high iron content of the sandstone in the Norman round arched doorway is obvious - with its general yellow/orange colouration and dark rusty brown blotches. 

 

A scalloped capital to the south door and surrounding masonry

 

Surprisingly, without using a hand lens, I could see that the sandstone used for the weathered scalloped capital and some of the adjoining blocks is very coarse grained – a characteristic that I don’t normally associate with sandstones from the upper part of the PLCMF.

 

A detail of the scalloped capital

 

Entering the nave of the original church, my first view was of the column to the arcade, with its simply moulded capitals, beyond which is the long nave of the modern extension of 1964, which was designed by Naylor, Sale & Widdows and constructed with precast concrete arches. 

 

A view of a column to the arcade with the modern nave beyond

 

Looking east down the nave of the old church, the walling has been plastered or limewashed, obscuring archaeological evidence of its construction history, but the stonework of the arcade and to the chancel arches is better exposed. 

 

A view east along the old nave

On the westernmost arch of the arcade, there are well preserved remnants of painted decoration of unknown age, which consist of red scrolls on a blue background. Having visited over 120 mediaeval churches, I have seen very occasional examples of decoration with red ochre but nothing as extensive as this. 

 

A detail of painted decoration

 

Moving down to the east end, the round chancel arch is very simple, as are all of the doorways and the arcade, which leads the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture for Britain and Ireland (CRSBI) to suggest that the church dates to c.1100. There is a squint to the north side of the arch and above it there is a very rare rood loft, with a staircase that provides access to it. 

 

A view of the chancel arch, squint and rood loft

 

Continuing to the chancel, I was quite amazed to discover that the soffit of the chancel arch is covered in further examples of painting, which is believed to date to the C12 and consists of a series of roundels, in which there are the head of Christ and four saints. 

 

The painted decoration to the chancel arch

 

Once inside the chancel, again there is no bare stonework to see but in the north wall, which has a few wall memorials made of various marbles, has a blocked door with a rounded arch that is presumably contemporary with the other Norman elements, but I have seen no reference to this. 

 

The blocked north door of the chancel and wall monuments

 

Tucked away in the north-east corner of the sanctuary, there is a recumbent effigy of a priest, which is dated to C.1200 and is made with Magnesian Limestone. Although there isn’t much information on this effigy, the city of York was a centre for making these during the C13, using limestone from the Cadeby Formation at Tadcaster. 

 

The effigy of a priest

 

Before returning to the former nave of the old church, I was interested to see a further example of painted decoration to the east side of the chancel arch, which is not mentioned by Historic England, Pevsner, CRSBI or the church guide. 

 

Painted decoration to the east side of the chancel arch

 

Retuning to the nave, I noted the lead lined sandstone Norman font, which is in the form of a large simple tub on a later octagonal plinth, before going to have a quick wander around the modern extension to the church. 

 

A view of the font

During my travels around Sheffield, to photograph its listed buildings, I have visited St. Mark’s church in Broomhill and Christ Church in Fulwood, where these Victorian churches were modernised by George Gaze Pace and I was therefore very interested to see the various marbles used for the flooring and the stained glass. 

 

Views of the modern nave

 

I finished my rapid visit to All Saints church by taking a few quick snaps of the Hunloke Mausoleum, which was added to the mediaeval church in 1783 and has since been incorporated into the modern church - with part of it now being used as a vestry.

 

The Hunloke Mausoleum

 

All Saints Wingerworth - The Exterior

 

All Saints church

When photographing its historic architecture, as part of the British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, the main reason for my visit to Wingerworth was to see All Saints church – a Grade I Listed mediaeval building that, very unusually, now just forms the narthex to a much larger church that was designed by Naylor, Sale & Widdows and was dedicated on 6th June 1964. 

 

A view from the old stables to Wingerworth Hall

 

Approaching the church from Longedge Lane, having already got a glimpse of its south elevation while photographing the old stables to Wingerworth Hall, Pevsner’s description: “The rest, including the W tower (diagonal buttresses, embattled), the clerestory and all the battlements, is Perp.” seems to me quite accurate, with all of these seemingly built in one phase using the same stone.. 

 

The west elevation of the tower

 

My immediate impression was that the large massive sandstone ashlar, which has a very distinct grey patina and dark brown iron staining in places, is very different to the sandstone in all of the historic buildings that I had seen since arriving at the Hunloke Arms Inn bus stop. 

 

The porch

Continuing to the south elevation, a gabled parapet follows the line of the arch to the doorway of the porch, which Historic England dates to the C19. The massive sandstone looks the same as that used in the Perpendicular Gothic style tower and clerestory, but I did not closely examine it. 

 

A view of the south elevation

 

Standing back to photograph the elevation, the later masonry clearly contrasts with the rubble walling that forms the south wall of the original nave, which is built out of yellow/orange sandstone that has marked iron staining. This has the same colour characteristics as the stone used for the Hunloke Arms Inn and other buildings and is presumably locally quarried Deep Hard Rock. 

 

A blocked Norman doorway

 

A closer look reveals a blocked round arched doorway, which Pevsner includes in his description of the Norman features of the church. Furthermore, although there is no mention of the blocked door, the entry for All Saints church in the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture for Britain and Ireland comments that the simplicity of the features suggests a date of c.1100. 

 

The chancel

 

Noting the square headed Perpendicular Gothic style windows, which have been inserted into the C12 masonry, I moved along to the chancel. Here, there is an abrupt change in the masonry, with a butted joint separating the C12 rubble walling of the nave from well squared and coursed stonework with a tooled finish in the chancel. 

 

The junction between the nave and chancel

 

The Historic England description refers to extensive restoration to the chancel during the mid C19, but its original lancet windows are C13. I again didn’t closely look at the stonework, but the sandstone in the walling appears to be similar to that in the nave and contrasts strongly with the castellated parapet, whose grey colour matches the stonework in the clerestory but it still retains very sharp profiles. 

 

A view from the south-east

 

Moving round to the east end, the post mediaeval additions to the church can clearly be distinguished. The Hunloke Mausoleum, which was added in 1783, is built with a sandstone that has developed a distinct yellow colour. Butted against this is a single storied structure built with rock faced sandstone, which was added along with the new nave in 1964. 

 

A view along the east elevation

 

Retracing my steps, I stopped to have a closer look at the door surround and datestone to the Hunloke Mausoleum, where the sandstone is quite coarse grained and the yellow colour looks like this could be due to lichen or other organic growth. 

 

A datestone above the door to the Hunloke Mausoleum

The doorway to the mausoleum is adjacent to the quoins of the chancel, where I noticed that these are made with a very coarse grained sandstone that contains sporadic pebbles of white vein quartz, which are very common in the Chatsworth Grit that forms the gritstone edges.

 

A pebble in a coarse grained gritstone quoin to the chancel

 

I didn’t spend any further time examining the quoins or other dressings, which could be quarried from the Millstone Grit Formation and returned to the tower to photograph some of the gargoyles, before entering the porch.

 

Gargoyles on the tower