Bolsover Parish Church - The Interior

A view along the nave to the east

The exterior of Bolsover Parish Church, particularly the Cavendish Chapel, provided plenty to interest me as a geologist, and I was looking forward to exploring the interior as, unlike most mediaeval churches that I had visited that had been restored in the C19 by unsympathetic architects, it has all of its masonry exposed. 

A view along the nave to the west

I was very interested to see the extremely blotchy appearance of the stonework to the arcades, whose columns looked like they have been built in Jurassic oolitic limestone, like the windows to the south aisle. 

Efflorescence and staining on the north aisle wall

The walls to the aisles are built in dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation and, in many places, appear to be suffering from damp – with efflorescence and staining appearing in places. 

Fire damaged masonry to the wall of the tower

At the west end of the church, much of the available space was taken up with selling books, an area for serving refreshments and a general meeting place, where several women were embroidering the covers for kneelers. The exposed masonry to the tower wasn’t easily accessible, therefore, but reddened blocks of the yellow limestone are evidence of fire damage.

Church kneelers

The walls of the baptistry are also composed of roughly squared and coursed blocks of highly reddened limestone, which indicates that this masonry was retained or reused after the fire of 1897 and that only the exterior was refaced with ashlar in the subsequent restoration. 

Fire damaged masonry in the baptistry

In the baptistry, there are also a large section relief showing the Nativity, dated to c.1300, which had been buried during the English Civil War to prevent damage and then rediscovered in 1705, a couple of mediaeval grave slabs and a font that was donated by the Parish of Chesterfield after the first fire. 

The Nativity in the baptistry

The church guide describes the font as being C14, yet the Historic England listing describes it as being C19 in date. Looking closely at the upper octagonal bowl, with ogee arches decorated leaves, the small carved heads are very crude in comparison to the large angels on the base that supports it. 

The font

Furthermore, the upper bowl is made of limestone that, to my eye, seems slightly yellow in colour compared to the stone used for the base and is more weathered, with small details like noses being lost. It would therefore appear that a Victorian base has been added to the bowl of the original mediaeval font. 

Details of figurative carvings on the font

At the east end of the south arcade, the arch leading to the Cavendish Chapel has been blocked up with an ashlar wall into which are set six very crude animal heads, dated to the C12. These were discovered beneath the buttress to the chancel in 1961, when the foundations for the vestry were being excavated.

12th century animal heads