Harthill - Part I

The approach to Harthill down Winney Hill

During my investigation of St. Helen’s church, I have had the advantage of it being on my doorstep and I am therefore able to explore it at leisure; however, when surveying an unknown ancient building – as a professional – this luxury of time is not always available.

An exploration of the "Rotherham Red" sandstone on the No. 74 bus

Continuing with my exploration of South Yorkshire and beyond - by public transport – a trip to the village of Harthill seemed an obvious choice for my next project. The No. 74 bus follows the outcrop of the “Rotherham Red” sandstone, passing through a handful of villages where it has been used to build a wide variety of vernacular buildings and mediaeval churches.

Vernacular architecture - "Rotherham Red" sandstone and clay pantiles

Harthill is one of the most remote villages in the borough of Rotherham and it is the most southerly settlement on the “Rotherham Red” sandstone, which disappears beneath the Yellow Sands Formation and the Cadeby Formation - just over a mile away in Derbyshire.

A house built of Magnesian Limestone with a Welsh slate roof

When various volunteers in the South Yorkshire RIGS Group drew up a list of potential Regionally Important Geological Sites, based on a trawl through printed maps, memoirs and documents held in museums and libraries, not a single old quarry was identified in any of these villages.

The Old Rectory and Harthill War Memorial

Nowadays, Google Map and a wide variety of old parish maps and other documents are freely available for desk top research online but, when I was preparing my trip to Harthill, I could only find one or two places where evidence of these old quarries might be found.