The Tower

St. Helen's church tower

Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described St. Helen’s church - in Treeton - as a very confusing building and, having had a good look around the exterior and interior, I have to agree with him.

The description of St. Helen's church by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner

As a geologist, with an interest in building stones, I have a good eye for recognising the various patterns that can be seen in the stonework of an historic building - and the construction history of St. Helen's church particularly intrigues me.

A general view

Treeton Rock forms the escarpment upon which St.Helen’s church is set but, being an inferior building stone, the principal building stone used here was quarried from the nearby Mexborough Rock – locally known as “Rotherham Red” sandstone – which is used throughout the external fabric and forms the base of the 12th century tower.

The west elevation

The masonry is roughly squared and irregularly coursed, with larger blocks used for the quoins, and appears to be built in a single phase. The stonework is uniformly weathered, with a general blackening of the stone, but later repairs can quite clearly be distinguished by their colour, shape and tooling characteristics - especially in the structural repairs to the south-west corner.
 

A detail of restoration work

The top of the tower is constructed in dolomitic limestone, which gives St. Helen's church its unique character. Local tradition has it that the stone was robbed from Roche Abbey, after its dissolution, but Pevsner, English Heritage and other authorities give an earlier date to this addition. Like the lower part of the tower, without documentary evidence, the dating and analysis of its construction history has to be very subjective. 

Limestone & Sandstone

Whatever the provenance of the limestone, it was no mean achievement to bring it to Treeton from its nearest possible source - which is several miles away - using the materials handling and transport technology that was available at the time. There is no doubt that this work would have been undertaken at great expense to the landowner at the time.