A Day Out to Old Whittington - Part 3

  

An old well on the green at Church Street North

Continuing my day out to Old Whittington, I made my further along Church Street North past Mary Swanwick Primary School, which dates back to 1848 with further additions as the numbers of pupils increased, but it still retains much of its Victorian School character.

 

Mary Swanwick Primary School

 

Just beyond the school, Nos. 48-50 comprise a pair of semi-detached houses that date to the C18 and are built with sandstone ashlar, with a Welsh slate roof. I just took a couple of general record photographs of these and carried on along to the next building on my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge. 

 

Nos. 48-50 Church Street North

 

Holly House is a large C19 house built with coursed sandstone with a hipped Welsh slate roof, which is now used as the Holly Hill Special School. I just took a single photo from the roadside of the rear elevation before retracing my steps along Church Street North. 

 

Holly House

 

Next on my listed was the raised pavement, described by Historic England (HE) as either C18 or C19, which is an interesting feature that adds great character to the Conservation Area. It is set next to small green at the centre of a triangular junction with Church Lane North, where there is one of several old wells in the village - as seen on the 1:25,000 scale Ordnance Survey map. 

 

Views of the raised pavement

 

The next building on my Photo Challenge was Nos. 54-56 Church Street North, a pair of C18 cottages that are built with an iron rich Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation sandstone, possibly the Deep Hard Rock, with a stone slate roof. 

 

Nos. 54-56 Church Street North

 

From here, the road changes to Church Lane North and my next stop, a high boundary wall, is described by HE as “Boundary wall extending along eastern boundary of footpath between No. 65 and the churchyard of St Bartholomew’s Church”, but no information is provided about its date or the reason why it is Grade II listed. 

 

The Grade II listed boundary wall

Returning to Church Lane North, I could only get a glimpse of The Close, a house which the HE description dates as “C16/C17 origin with C18 and later additions and alterations”. It is another example of the use of PLCMF sandstone and, when enlarging my photo, the slates used for the roof look both grey/purple and green in colour. 

 

The Close

 

I then had a good look at St. Bartholomew’s church and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones, which I will describe in future posts, before following a public footpath to High Street through woodland, where I picked some wild garlic that was growing near the stream.

 

steps on the path to High Street from St. Bartholomew's church

Shortly before arriving on High Street, I stopped to take a photograph of the west elevation of the entrance lodge to Whittington Grange, described by HE as “C18/early C19 facade. Stone rubble. Slate roof with large off centre chimney. 2 storeys. Modern leaded casements. Stone porch”. 

 

The west elevation of the lodge to Whittington Grange

 

When passing the entrance to the lodge on High Street, I noted that building work was being undertaken and, although trying to be discreet when taking a photograph from the public highway – which in law I am perfectly entitled to do – one of the workmen had seen me doing this and came to challenge me. 

 

A general view of the lodge to Whittington Grange

Having explained that I was just participating in a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, we got talking about the damp proofing work that they were undertaking and my specialist interest in building stones, before I continued to Elmwood. 

 

A view of Elmwood from the entrance

The HE description of this Grade II listed house is again extremely sparse - “Early C19. Coursed stone. Modern hipped tiled roof. 2 storeys. 3 windows cambered headed sashes to upper floor, square headed casements to ground floor, all with Gothick glazing bars. Later solid porch”, but I had to be content with taking a few record photos that just get a glimpse of it. 

 

A partial view of Elmwood

Further along High Street, the lodge to Whittington Hall Hospital is also partially obscured by a tall hedge and the HE description for this property, which is only listed for group value, is also minimal so I just took a couple of general photos before continuing up Woodmere Drive. 

 

The lodge to Whittington Hall Hospital

The last building on my Photo Challenge was the former Whittington Hall Hospital, which incorporates Whittington Hall (c.1829). It was built by Henry Dixon, who inherited the estate of John Dixon – an industrialist who was the last member of the family who had originally founded a glassworks back in 1710. 

 

Views of the former Whittington hall Hospital

 

Yet again the HE description doesn’t provide very much information, especially relating to the buildings that were added to the original house in the later C19 and I just took a few photos of the south-west and south-east elevations before returning to High Street – passing a modern sculpture with crucibles that is dedicated to the metallurgist Harry Brearley, who lived in Old Whittington for a few years.

 

The modern sculpture with crucibles on Woodmere Drive

A Day Out to Old Whittington - Part 2

 

The Revolution House

Entering the Conservation Area, having walked up from the bus stop on Sheffield Road, I continued my day out to Old Whittington by finding the first building on my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge – the late C18/early C19 red brick built No. 87 High Street. 

 

No. 87 High Street

 

Next to No. 87 is a high garden wall built with sandstone that is both plane and cross-bedded, with a colour varying from grey/light brown with Liesegang rings to orange, which reflects a very high iron content that is a characteristic of the unnamed sandstones of the Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation (PLCMF). 

 

A garden wall on High Street

These occur to the north of Old Whittington, but the only quarries marked on the old Ordnance Survey maps appear on the Deep Hard Rock, which outcrops to the west and south-west of the village. Boundary walls are typically built with the nearest available stone and small quarries are very often not marked, but the provenance of such sandstones are not easily determined without documentary evidence. 

 

A closer look at the garden wall on High Street

The lower few course of the boundary wall are built with blocks that are larger than those seen in the courses above and are in much better condition, with the thinner blocks often being scoured and deeply weathered, which suggests a higher content of silt. 

 

Long Cottage

A little further along High Street is Long Cottage, which Historic England (HE) describe as C18 or earlier, where the well squared and broached walling stone is very similar to the stone used in the lower courses of the boundary wall. 

 

Old Whittington war memorial

Old Whittington war memorial (1921), by the local sculptor Joseph Syddall, was the next ‘listed building’ on my Photo Challenge, which is described by HE as “Post 1918. Memorial to the dead of both World Wars. Square stone shaft with wreath rises from vermiculated plinth on stepped base. Surmounted by cap and finial with plain stone cross on each face”.

 

A detail of the gritstone used for Old Whittington war memorial

 

I didn’t examine the stone with my hand lens but my photos of the stone, with my thumbnail used as a scale, enable me to make a comparison with my Wentworth Scale, which shows that it is medium to coarse grained. As with the Whittington Moor war memorial, it is very probable that Stancliffe Darley Dale stone from the Corbar Grit (Ashover Grit) is used. 

 

My Wentworth Scale

The next building on my list was the Grade II* listed Revolution House, which HE date as probably C17, with Pevsner stating that it is “allegedly C16 but much restored”. It is built with locally quarried iron stained sandstone, with a thatched roof – a very unusual roofing material in Derbyshire, with the only other example that I recall being in Baslow.

 

The Revolution House

Formerly the Cock and Pynot inn, which was originally a much larger building, it is the place were the plot was hatched in 1688 to depose James II, with William of Orange and his wife Mary being invited to take the English throne - known as the Glorious Revolution. 

 

A plaque on the Revolution House

 

It was opened as a museum in 1938, but it has been closed since 1st April due to budget cuts by Chesterfield Borough Council, who have stated that they have been seeking a suitable community partner to keep it open. According to a local resident that I spoke to, there has been no shortage of volunteers who have come forward and local residents are exasperated by the attitude of the council in respect of this important asset.

 

Various buildings on Church Street North

 

On Church Street North, which was part of the mediaeval route through the village, several stone buildings which were built before the 1883 Ordnance Survey map was published, are not listed but contribute significantly to the character of the Conservation Area. These include Nos. 1-7, the Cock and Magpie Inn (1790) and Clematis Cottage. 

 

Views of the Old Mansion House

 

The Old Mansion House is dated to the C17 or earlier by HE, with C18 and C19 additions, but the garden wall and large shrubs and a tree obscure the view from the road and I could only get partial views of the C19 east elevation from different angles. 

 

Crozzle on the garden wall of No. 6 Church Street North

 

The south section of the garden wall of No. 6 Church Street North is topped with crozzle, a type of slag, which is a familiar sight in Sheffield and other steel producing areas, where steel was once produced by the carburisation of wrought iron using the cementation process. 

 

The Sheepbridge Iron and Coal Works

The nearby Sheepbridge Coal and Iron Works, as shown on the C19 Ordnance Survey maps, may have been the source of the crozzle, but this is just speculation and I moved on to an L-shaped terrace of houses that comprises Nos. 8-14 and 16-18 Church Street North.

 

Nos. 8-14 Church Street North

 

These are described in the Old Whittington Conservation Area Appraisal as "Although much altered, this terrace is of significant importance, being an example of an extended terrace of the 19th century workers cottage". The boundary wall and vegetation obscures the view of these and I just took a few general record photos, noteding the further use of locally quarried iron stained PLCMF sandstone and stone slate for the roof.

 

Nos. 16-18 Church Street North

On the opposite side of the road is the imposing Seventh Day Adventist Church (1894), which is not a listed building. Built in the Gothic style, it replaced an earlier Wesleyan Methodist Chapel on High Street (1828), which has been converted into Chapel Cottage.

 

The Seventh Day Adventist Church

A Day Out to Old Whittington - Part 1

 

The topography around Old Whittington

After a very slow start to 2025, with a recce of Burbage Valley and a brief visit to Christ Church in February and a brief exploration of The Crags in Conisbrough in March, April proved to be a busy month and started with a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge at Old Whittington – a small village mentioned in Domesday Book as Witintune, which is set 4 km to the north of Chesterfield. 

 

Whittington Moor war memorial

Alighting from the X17 bus at the Whittington Moor Lidl stop, I made my way across Whittington Moor Roundabout to Station Road and immediately encountered Whittington Moor war memorial (1921), in the form of a wheel cross, which the Derbyshire Courier describes as being made from Derbyshire gritstone. 

 

A detail of the gritstone used for Whittington Moor war memorial

 

I didn’t closely examine the stone with my hand lens, but from the photos that I took, I can see that the roughly tooled sandstone is medium grained and it is very likely that this is Stancliffe Darley Dale stone from the Corbar Grit (Ashover Grit), which was used for many war memorials and Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones in the region. 

 

Whittington Mill

 

Continuing along Station Road, I stopped briefly at Whittington Mill, a flour mill that was powered by water from a mill pond that was fed by the River Whitting to the north, but which has been infilled and redeveloped with industrial units. 

 

The River Whitting

 

I didn’t get near enough to look at the sandstone used to build the mill, but from my photos I can see that it is generally light brown with a considerable proportion of the blocks having an orange/brown colouration. Looking at the 1883 Ordnance Survey map, quarries to the north of Sheepbridge, a few hundred metres to the west of Old Whittington, worked the Deep Hard Rock.

 

The geology around Old Whittington

The first building on my Photo Challenge, the Grade II listed Manor House, has a central section that dates to the C16 or C17, with large mullioned windows, but a high garden wall, shrubs and trees obscures the ground floor of the east elevation. 

 

The Manor House

 

Briefly stopping to take in the view up Whittington Hill, where the marked change in the slope is formed by the underlying Deep Hard Rock, from the Manor House to the north side of Newbridge Lane, there is a change in elevation from 72 m to 94 m above sea level over a distance of 240 m. 

 

Views up and down Whittington Hill

Continuing up Whittington Hill to High Street, the geological map shows that I had passed over the younger Silkstone Rock and that I had actually been walking up the southern limb of  the Brimington Anticline. This is related to the Dronfield Syncline and other folds in the Sheffield region – as described on pp. 148-151 of the geological memoir for the Sheffield district and illustrated in Plate VI. 

 

Plate VI from the geological memoir for the Sheffield district

I had encountered some of these when exploring Coal Aston, Dronfield, Ridgeway, Eckington and Mosborough, which are underlain by strata of the Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation, and during a short 1.25 km walk from Sheffield Road to Church Street North – where the fold axis of the Brimington Anticline has an elevation of 98 m – I had learned something new about the structural geology of the region. 

 

A view across High Street to Church Street North

 

On my walk to date, except for Whittington Mill and the Manor House, I don’t recall seeing any other buildings that are built out of sandstone but, crossing over High Street and entering the Old Whittington Conservation Area, it is obvious that this is the dominant material here and I immediately went in search for the 18 listed buildings on my Photo Challenge. 

 

The Old Whittington Conservation Area

The Crags in Conisbrough

 

An outcrop of the Cadeby Formation on The Crags

A few days after I had contributed to the recce of Burbage Valley with John and Trish of the Sheffield U3A Geology Group, which proved to my last formal connection with the group, I received an e-mail from Justyna, who had moved from Poland with her partner and had settled in Conisbrough several years before Brexit. 

 

The location of The Crags on the geological map

She was in her second year of studying geology with the Open University and, having been researching The Crags, she had been considering using the outcrops of the Cadeby Formation for a future fieldwork project. Noting various posts that I have written in my Language of Stone Blog, she wanted to know if it was possible to accompany me on a field trip.

 

The distribution of the Cadeby Formation around the Don Gorge

 

In a subsequent phone call, I explained that as the principal surveyor for the South Yorkshire RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) Group, and later for the Doncaster Geodiversity Assessment (DGA), I had visited many sites in Doncaster and had used several sites along the Don Gorge for field trips with the XP School in Doncaster and with the SUGG.

 

Conisbrough on the Ordnance Survey map

 

When researching one of my field trips with the SUGG in February 2022, which had to be abandoned at midday due to the approach of Storm Dudley, I had discovered the Friends of the Crags (FOTC) website and emailed them to ask for information but did not get a response. I therefore suggested to Justyna that we meet up at the playing field at Old Road and then she would show me around The Crags. 

 

The totem and information panel at Denaby Thicks

We first went down to Denaby Thicks at the west end of The Crags, where a 'totem' and an information board describes bell pits and the powder works, which were actually located several hundreds of metres away but nevertheless provides information on the local industrial history. 

 

A view towards Denaby Thicks

 

Taking just one photo of the plantation to the west of the totem, we took a quick look at Denaby Thicks and, although we could see no rock outcrops, the ground has obviously been worked in the past, as seen on the LIDAR map, and sandstone quarries are shown on the Building Stones Database of England map explorer. 

 

A LIDAR map showing the old quarry in Denaby Thicks

We then followed the public footpath eastwards until we entered an area of scrubland, with a network of paths criss-crossing it, but there were no obvious landmarks to pinpoint the location of the various outcrops of the Cadeby Formation, including irregular masses with no obvious bedding  that appear to be bryozoan reefs. 

 

A small outcrop of a bryozoan reef

When undertaking the LGA, I saw similar features that stood out on the hillside along Cadeby Cliff/Constitution Hill, albeit not as well developed as those seen at Hooton Pagnell and South Elmsall Quarry and at Maltby Crags in Rotherham.

 

A small outcrop of the Cadeby Formation

 

Several small outcrops, which I didn’t stop to closely examine, occur alongside the footpaths that Justyna was leading me around and these are actually noted on the 1903 edition of the Ordnance Survey 25 inch to the mile scale map.

 

An outcrop of the Cadeby Formation with thick irregular beds

Following one of the established and surfaced paths up the escarpment, on the way to North Cliff Quarry, we encountered a substantial outcrop of limestone, which has thick irregular bedding that distinguishes it from the reefs, but it lacks the very regular beds that are are a feature of the lower beds of the Cadeby Formation. 

 

A brief description of mammal bones found at The Crags

Although there is no totem or any mention of the locality, the FOTG website mentions that woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros and horse bones dating to the Quaternary Period – all of which had been gnawed by a hyena - were found in 1878, when the Doncaster Water Company was constructing tunnels and pipes to bring water from Thrybergh Reservoir. 

 

Sand and gravel in a rift at Nearcliff Wood Quarries

The bones are described as having been found in clay and washed down from caves, presumably based on contemporary discoveries at Creswell Crags, but it is quite likely that these were deposited along with glaciofluvial sand and gravel in rifts - as seen at Nearcliff Wood Quarries and at Levitt Hagg, where Colin Howes of the Doncaster Naturalists' Society has long since advocated that these rifts need further investigation. 

 

A view from the north edge of North Cliff Quarry

Continuing along the footpath, Justyna and I were very surprised to see that the part of the hillside had been set on fire and that this had happened too in North Cliff Quarry, which actually made it much easier to explore the quarry, which is littered with cans, bottles and rock waste and which, when overgrown, can be quite hazardous. I later reported this to Doncaster MBC and suggested that it might be a good idea to clear the rubbish, but no action was taken as far as I know.

 

A view of North Cliff Quarry

 

When I first visited this quarry back in 1997, several burnt out cars had been dumped here, which were subsequently removed when it was assigned RIGS status. Unfortunately, along with statutorily protected Sites of Special Scientific Interest, geological sites like these are not maintained and kept clear of rubbish – even when they are popular field trip locations.

 

Massive beds of limestone overlain by a bryozoan reef

Justyna had to instruct her Polish sheep dog to sit still, while we had a good look at the bryozoan reef and the thickly bedded limestone upon which it lies, which are oolitic in places and contain many small fossils of the bivalve Bakevellia. 

 

The north quarry face

 

We finished our brief exploration of The Crags by having a look at the quarry face in the south-west corner of the quarry, which is obscured by trees and which Justyna had not seen during a previous visit. where thickly bedded limestone is overlain by flaggy limestone. 

 

Massive and flaggy beds of limestone