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A view up Holmes Lane |
In Hooton Roberts, my observations of the dip and strike of the strata – and the erosion of the small valley that runs down to a stream that continues towards Kilnhurst - indicates that there could be a small fault bound anticline, and/or a horst like geological structure here.
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A general view of Hooton Roberts |
My old paper BGS map marks a fault on the north-west side of the village and
further research of other old maps describes the south-east
side as possessing topographic features that have names such as
Hooton Cliff and Burr Cliff, which
suggests that the rock here was readily accessible for quarrying. I
continued
my investigation of the “Hooton Roberts Rock”, by surveying some
of the old buildings that can be found in this village.
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The Earl of Strafford |
The
Earl of Strafford public house, built around the turn of the 17th
century and considerably enlarged in the later part of the 18th century, is the oldest listed building in Hooton Roberts – apart
from St. John the Baptist's church – and its walls are built out of
“Rotherham Red” sandstone, with the quoins and dressings made
from a buff/brown variety of sandstone.
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Sandstone dressings at the Earl of Strafford public house |
When
undertaking a survey of the geological
sites in
Rotherham for the South Yorkshire RIGS Group, back in 1989, I very
briefly visited the Hooton Roberts Quarry, which is excavated into a
buff/brown variety of Mexborough Rock – 1
km to the west of the village – and this
is probably
the source of these dressings.
Many
of the
agricultural and vernacular buildings of a later date
are wholly built using this stone but several others use this
together with
“Rotherham
Red” sandstone, and
it also appears in some of the boundary walls that run alongside the
main road.
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Boundary walling in Hooton Roberts |
No
evidence of old
quarry faces has yet been
seen in
the village, which would show the extent of the colouration of
the rock here,
but
the abundance of red sandstone - and the general practicalities of building vernacular architeture using locally extracted stone - would suggest
that the deep blood red stone used to build houses next to the church of St. John the Baptist was quarried nearby.
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Vernacular architecture in Hooton Roberts |
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