A Trip to Cawthorne - Cannon Hall

A view of the south elevation of Cannon Hall

April 2019, like March, had generally dry and warm weather and proved to be another busy month. Starting with a trip to Worsbrough, a few days later I travelled even further into Barnsley, with a trip to Cannon Hall and the village of Cawthorne which, involving two changes of public transport and a journey time of over two 2½ hours in each direction, required a full day out. 

The geology around Cawthorne and Cannon Hall

The oldest part of Cawthorne, including All Saints church, is set on high ground formed by the Parkgate Rock, and an old quarry is marked on the 1906 Ordnance Survey map, less than 350 m due south of the village. 

An old map of Cannon Hall

Alighting from the No.92 bus from Doncaster at Tivy Dale Road, a walk of 1 km takes you across parkland to Cannon Hall, which is set on a ridge of Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation sandstone. An 1894 map records an old quarry less than 200 m away from the house, which was built in the late C17. 

Flaggy sandstone used in a dry stone retaining wall

At the western approach to the house, there is a formal garden with a dry stone retaining wall built out of light brown flaggy sandstone - probably from the estate quarry - which contains many dark brown/purple coloured stones that indicate the presence of high levels of iron – a reflection of the fortunes that were made by owners of Cannon Hall from the local iron industry. 

A general view of the main house at Cannon Hall

Viewed from a distance, the stonework to the upper floor of the wings of Cannon Hall – added in 1804 to the earlier wings of 1768 – looks quite different to that of the original house, which is comparatively pale in colour. 

The original 5 bay house at Cannon Hall

Looking closely at the latter, the heavily eroded masonry has been extensively restored in a very unusual way. The mortar mix used for general pointing, with coarse aggregate, has also been applied in large areas of masonry – as I had seen with brick repairs in the building restoration industry in London. 

A detail of mortar repairs to the stonework

Inside Cannon Hall, I noted fireplaces built in polished Derbyshire crinoidal limestone and Italian marble but, from an architectural perspective, the house is quite plain and the most interesting stonework can be seen in Fairyland - set in the parkland a short distance from the house.. 

A salvaged arch and pond in Fairyland

This landscaped ornamental garden, with its water features, makes use of stonework that is thought to have been salvaged from the ruins of mediaeval churches in Cawthorne and Silkstone, as well as an arch from the demolished Chantrey Tower at Cook's Study Hill, near Huddersfield.

Salvaged window tracery an a door arch in Fairyland

The arches and Perpendicular tracery, however, didn’t look like those that I had seen at All Saints church in Silkstone but the stone seen here is strongly cross bedded - a feature of the Parkgate Rock - differentially weathered and often quite coarse in texture.

Strongly cross bedded gritty sandstone in reused tracery

Heading back down towards the village, to further investigate the building stone in its vernacular architecture, I didn't see any follies or other structures in the grounds but the footbridge over Daking Brook, built in 1765, is Grade II Listed.

The Grade II Listed footbridge in Cawthorne Country Park