Bolsover Parish Church - The Exterior

A general view of Bolsover Parish Church

After having a brief look at some of the historic architecture in the Central Conservation Area of Bolsover and an outcrop of rock, at the junction of High Street/Castle Lane, I arrived at the church of St. Mary and St. Laurence – referred to locally as Bolsover Parish Church. 

The tower

No record of a church is recorded in Domesday Book but in the reign of Henry II, 1154-1189, William Peverel the Younger granted a church at Bolsover to the Darley Abbey but there is no conclusive evidence of the Norman church in the external fabric. 

Evidence of subsidence in the west face of the tower

Starting at the C13 tower, with its broach spire, the masonry surrounding the Transitional west door shows distinct signs of settlement, with the north wall being 23 cm lower than the south wall, which was exacerbated by mining subsidence. In the early 1990’s, the tower was underpinned using an innovative system and the stonework was repointed in 2016.

The broach spire

Roughly squared and coursed masonry is used up to the level of the spire, which is built with ashlar, and yellowish dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation is used throughout. The limestone has developed a uniform greyish patina and, apart from some stones in the spire, the stonework appears to be entirely original. 

A general view from the north-east

Moving round to the north elevation, with the porch unusually sited here, there is a complete change in the masonry, with dolomitic limestone ashlar being used throughout. This reflects the fact that a fire completely gutted the church in 1897 and, excluding the tower and the Cavendish Chapel, was rebuilt by Louis Ambler, only for another fire to ravage the church in 1960. 

The chancel with new stone used in its buttresses

Walking round to the south elevation, I didn’t stop to closely examine the stone but extensive repairs to the buttresses of the chancel are very obvious. The new stone is pale in comparison and lacks the yellowish colouration of the original masonry. 

The C12 tympanum in the south elevation of the chancel

Stopping briefly to photograph the tympanum on the south wall of the chancel, the lintel and the voussoirs look to be of the same limestone and, to my eye, different in colour to the surrounding ashlar. This would support the idea proposed by Wood, that this a reset C12 detail, and not C13 as advocated by Pevsner and Williamson. 

The Cavendish Chapel

As a geologist, the highlight of my quick survey of the exterior was the Cavendish Chapel, which was built c.1624. It is built in dolomitic sandstone from around Mansfield, a sandy variety of the Cadeby Formation that has been interpreted as being formed as a sand bank at the mouth of a river, and the Little Castle at Bolsover Castle is built out of the same stone. 

The east elevation of the Cavendish Chapel

Both Red Mansfield and White Mansfield were both highly valued as a building stones and used all over the country; however, all of the quarries that once produced these are now closed and it is not easy to find a suitable matching stone for restoration work. 

A detail of stonework in a window surround 

The surrounds to the windows in the east elevation of the Cavendish Chapel are made out of laminated, iron rich sandstone, with prominent Liesegang rings, which was probably sourced locally from one of the Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation sandstones that are found beneath the limestone escarpment. Similar sandstone is also found in the Little Castle, with a possibly source for this suggested as the quarry that supplied the stone for Hardwick Hall. 

A general view of the south elevation

When talking a general photograph of the south elevation, I noticed that the window surrounds of the south aisle and chancel are much paler in colour than the surrounding ashlar walling. A close examination with a hand lens revealed that a Jurassic oolitic limestone, with shell fragments, has been used for these.

A detail of a window in the south aisle