St. Peter & St. Paul Old Brampton - II

A general view of the south elevation

Continuing my investigation of the church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Old Brampton, the east end of the south elevation kept me occupied for some time, with various stone carvings built into the walls of the chancel and south aisle. 

A stone carving on a buttress to the chancel

In the angle buttress, there is a large block of face bedded gritstone that is decorated with what could be three crossed swords, but there is no mention of this in Pevsner, the Historic England listing or the church guide. Fragments of old grave slabs are often found reset into the fabric but the thickness of the stone suggests that this may be a deliberate decoration of one of the stones used in the buttress. 

The south elevation of the chancel

In the wall below the parapet of the chancel, which like the east end appears to have been raised, there are four trefoils with grilles in the centre; however, when looking at the interior of the chancel, these are not visible and their position generally corresponds with the corbels that support the roof timbers.

A green man on the south wall of the chancel

Above the doorway with triangular head in the centre of the south wall of the chancel, there is a carved head of a green man. On the east wall of the south aisle, above the window, there is a damaged tablet carved with a seated figure of Christ and to the left is a figure of the Virgin and Child, which Pevsner dates to c.1300.

Sculptures on the east wall of the south aisle

Looking closely at the laminated sandstone in the walling, the high concentration of iron is apparent as dense layers of brown coloured oxides that frequently cover the surface of many blocks and others are seen to be rippled siltstone, which is very susceptible to weathering. 

Details of building stones in the chancel wall

It is likely that most of this poor quarried Coal Measures sandstone has been quarried very locally, with the nearest gritstone for the quoins and dressings brought in from Baslow Edge, with possible other sources for the better quality general walling stone. 

A figure on the south aisle

In the south wall of the south aisle, there is a reset carved figure just below the parapet, another green man next to the left jamb of the right hand window and another small head to the right of the head of the same window. These would have been removed from their original places during the insertion of the late Perpendicular Gothic square headed windows, as also seen in the clerestory, and randomly placed in their current positions. 

A green man on the south aisle

The porch, according to Pevsner, is also Perpendicular Gothic and its front is built out of large blocks of gritstone, which are very similar in character to those used in the parapets and buttresses and contain well defined graded bedding. 

Views of the porch

The roof is made from large flat slabs of fine grained sandstone that probably come from the Wingfield Flags,a short distance to the west at the head of the Linacre Valley. These are the equivalent of the Brincliffe Edge Rock/Greenmoor Rock further to the north and, like its northern equivalent, this formation was once highly valued for paving stones, stone slates, gravestones, kerbs and road setts.

The porch arch and south door 

The roof of the porch is supported inside by a vaulted arch and, on the outside, the arch to the doorway is decorated with now eroded carving and its apex is styled with an ogee arch. The south doorway is Norman, but it has been reset with a slightly point arch in the C13 style.

The vaulted arch inside the porch

Carrying round to the west end of the north aisle, the narrow lancet is the only window to survive from the C13 and, except for the east window to the chancel and the slit window in the tower, all of the windows are square headed in a Perpendicular Gothic style.

A lancet window in the west wall of the south aisle