St. Cuthbert's Church Fishlake - Part 1

A general view of St. Cuthbert's church from the north-east

Having had a good walk in the Peak District, to explore the geology around Chrome Hill, a few days later I returned to the lowlands of Doncaster to visit St. Cuthbert’s church in the small village of Fishlake, which featured heavily in the national news following its flooding in November 2019 – along with other villages set next to the River Don.

A view of St. Cuthbert's church from Main Street

Arriving in Fishlake on the First Mainline 84b bus from Doncaster, which takes 45 minutes, a short walk along Main Street soon brings the church into view. First impressions of the tower suggest another example of a church that has been largely extended in the C14 and C15, with typical Perpendicular Gothic style windows and ornamentation. 

The superficial geology in north-west Doncaster

The British Geological Survey map shows that it is set on a small outlier of the Hemingbrough Glaciolacustrine Formation, comprising silt and clay, and is surrounded by alluvial sediment, with the nearest source of the dolomitic limestone from which it is built being the Don Gorge near Conisbrough, about 20 km downstream of the River Don. 

The west window of the south aisle

Entering the south-west corner of the churchyard and walking clockwise round the church, the west window of the south aisle is, according to Pevsner, in the Early English style and is the only window in the church remaining from this period; however, the surrounding walling is good quality ashlar that is usually considered to be typical of a later period. 

The west elevation of the tower

Looking up at the tower above the west doorway, also C13 according to Pevsner, the pattern of masonry is consistent throughout its height and there are no obvious changes in the shape, size and tooling of the ashlar blocks, which is usual when there is a new phase of construction. 

Variation in the masonry in the north aisle

Moving round to the north aisle, the ashlar that forms its west end passes into a section of walling composed of irregularly sized and coursed blocks, which then passes into a large section of walling composed of predominantly very thin bedded limestone - more characteristic of the Brotherton Formation - with distinct pink colouration and then back to ashlar. 

A general view of the north aisle

All of the windows to the north aisle are squared headed windows in the Decorated Gothic style, but the style of the walling would seem to indicate three phases of building, with the crude walling comprising thin bedded stone being the earliest. 

The north window of the north chapel

The north chapel has two large 5-light windows with cusps and tracery, which is a hybrid of reticulated and flowing in form and is also Decorated Gothic, and beyond this is the chancel, where the north wall has two infilled arches and the masonry surrounding these is much cruder than the ashlar of the chapel. This is considered to be the position of an earlier C13 chapel, which was removed before the mid C14. 

A blocked arcade in the north wall of the chancel

The extensive Decorated Gothic style work continues in the large east window, which has seven lights with cusped ogee heads and elaborate flowing tracery above.

The east window