 |
| A restored window in the north aisle |
According
to the guide book for the church of St. Nicholas, the next phase of
reconstruction took place shortly after 1326, when new windows were inserted into
the cobble masonry that forms the aisles and to which the parapets were added - both of them being built in dolomitic limestone.
 |
| A plan of the church |
The windows to the aisles are consistent in style, and it has been assumed that they originally contained
Y-shaped tracery – as seen in the westernmost bay to the north
aisle - and the surrounds to their window arches are irregular and similar to those of the clerestory.
The
bonding of the cobble masonry adjacent
to
the lower parts of the window jambs to the clerestory, which
contrasts strongly to the squared limestone walling above it,
suggests
that the
windows here
are
contemporary
with those of the aisles.
When
surveying various mediaeval churches, I have looked for patterns in the tooled stones that provide clues to
the relative dates of their various structural
components – as well as examining them with
a hand lens and using a steel knife, hydrochloric acid and other tools to
determine their physical and chemical composition.
Such
authorities as Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, English Heritage, the South
Yorkshire County Council Archaeology Service and various
local
historians have
given various interpretations of the construction history of these churches and,
as a geologist, I have just been following their footsteps and trying to fill in a few gaps...
 |
| The south side of the clerestory |
No comments:
Post a Comment