A Trip to Silkstone

The old glass works at Pot House Hamlet

Continuing with my exploration of geological sites, mediaeval churches and other historic buildings solely by public transport, 2019 has so far proved to have been a productive year, including several trips to Leeds - and others to Selby, Dronfield, Adwick-le-Street, Baslow and Stoney Middleton.

The church of All Saints and St. James the Greater

Having discovered that it was possible to get to the Peak District National Park and back, albeit with some long days involved, I decided to explore some of the mediaeval churches and associated villages in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley – starting with the church of All Saints and St. James the Greater in Silkstone. 

A map of the area between Treeton and Silkstone

I had already made us of the train service to Leeds via Rotherham, to visit churches at Bolton upon Dearne, Thurnscoe and Goldthorpe – taking less than 1 hour and 10 minutes, plus walking time each way – and it would take an extra 30 minutes to reach Silkstone.

A geological map of the area around Silkstone

As usual, when planning my trip, I undertook some research on the geology and historic buildings that I might find and I was interested to know what the Silkstone Rock looked like at the type locality, having previously explored the building stones in Dronfield, which is underlain by a thick and extensive deposit of this rock formation.

Terraced houses on High Street

With my main objective to undertake a thorough investigation of the church, I only had time to have a quick look at some of the historic buildings at the top end of High Street, which are probably built of stone that is locally Silkstone Rock.

The old Ebenezer Chapel

A terrace of Victorian houses to the west of the church, on High Street, is built out of a buff/yellowish sandstone with some brown variation. On Martin Croft opposite, the former Ebenezer Chapel contains a lot more orange/brown colouration, which reflects a high iron content that is concentrated as a once economically viable ironstone in the strata that are found below the Silkstone Rock. 

Silkstone war memorial

Over the road from the chapel, I stopped very briefly to photograph Silkstone war memorial, which is made of Portland limestone that has been recently cleaned. Its extremely white colour gives it a very uniform appearance that could easily be mistaken for white marble, as seen at Ecclesall in Sheffield and on the Headrow in Leeds, but a close examination reveals fragments of oyster shells.

A disused church on High Street

Further down High Street an old church and various houses have stonework that contains the same colour variation and, in general, it seems quite similar in appearance to the sandstone that I had seen in the buildings on High Street in Dronfield.

A house on High Street

I finished my brief tour of the village at Pot House Hamlet, an old industrial centre for making glass and pottery that is now occupied by various independent shops. The old buildings here, which look like they have been cleaned, have quite a strong yellow/orange colouration with a lot of iron banding and, in places, have a distinctive colour that reminds me of ginger nut biscuits.

Pot House Hamlet