All Saints Silkstone - The Interior

A detail of the monument to Sir Thomas Wentworth

Entering the interior of All Saints church in Silkstone, the first impression is that the arcades are uniform in style, just like the exterior, and there are no changes to the pattern of the masonry to the walling, which would indicate various phases of building.

A view to the east along the nave

Pevsner considers that the current Perpendicular Gothic church replaces one of c.1200, which had a central tower, and that the circular columns to the arcades are reused from the earlier structure – as is also seen at Ecclesfield and High Bradfield in Sheffield.

A view to the west along the nave

Looking closely at these, the sandstone in the uppermost drum of the columns, the octagonal section capitals and the moulded blocks of the arches lacks the slight orange/red colour variation seen in the general walling above them.

A general view of the north arcade

The provenance of the sandstone used in the church is not known but this variation could be attributed to the use of the best beds in the quarry for the columns and arches, with inferior quality stone used for the masonry that would be subsequently plastered.

A detail of an impost to the tower arch

The only elaborate decoration appears on the imposts of the tower arch, which again reminded me of the church of St. Nicholas in High Bradfield and also St. Michael’s church in Hathersage, both of which are strongly Perpendicular Gothic style in character.

A round arch at the entrance to the chapel of St. James

Entering the rebuilt chancel, there is more evidence of the late Norman church with the round arch to the St. James Chapel that, together with the adjacent walling, is the last remnant of the original crossing tower.

The monument to Sir Thomas Wentworth and his wife Grace

The Bretton Chapel contains a spectacular monument to Sir Thomas Wentworth, d.1675, and his wife Grace, d.1698, that is made of lightly veined white Carrara marble for the effigies and veined black marble for the tomb chest. These, and the side panels, depict the clothes, armour, weapons and other accoutrements that are typical of the time of the  English Civil Wars.

A side panel on the monument to Sir Thomas Wentworth

As usually seen in mediaeval churches, several Neoclassical wall memorials provide further examples of black and white Italian marbles, but the Victorian font particularly caught my eye, with its use of various "marbles" from Derbyshire, Ashburton in Devon and Co. Cork in Ireland.

Various "marbles" in the font