School Street in Darfield

Darfield Village Club

After my long day trip to Derby, which continued into the late evening with the editing of my photographs, I could easily be forgiven for having a rest; however, I wanted to make the most of the final weekend of the Heritage Open Days festival and I set off again the following day – this time to the village of Darfield, a few kilometres to the east of Barnsley. 

The geology around Darfield

I had briefly visited Darfield Quarry back in 1996, to look at the Mexborough Rock, when undertaking survey work for the South Yorkshire RIGS Group; however, I didn’t see any buildings that are built out of this stone and I therefore decided that it would be good idea to take a good look at All Saints church. 

All Saints church

Arriving on the X19 bus on the A635 Doncaster Road, I set off towards the centre of the old village along School Street, where I shortly encountered blocks of late Victorian houses, dated 1898, with rock faced finishes to the stone frontage. 

Terraced housing dated to 1898

All Saints primary school, listed on the 1854 map as the National and Infants School, predates the sinking of two colliery shafts in 1862 by two separate companies, which spurred the rapid growth of the village in the second half of the C19 - as with so many other places in South Yorkshire.

All Saints primary school

Further down the street, the garden walls to the late Victorian terraced houses have the most elaborate coping stones that I have ever seen, with their irregular nailhead like pattern and batted margins. The texture of the massive medium to coarse grained sandstone contrasts strongly with the finer grained laminated sandstone, which is used as the general walling stone.

Decorated coping stones

Entering the Darfield Conservation Area at the end of School Street, I was particularly impressed by Darfield Village Club, built in 1911, which I am very surprised is not a listed building. The walling again comprises thinly bedded rock faced sandstone, with plain ashlar dressings made of uniformly buff coloured medium grained sandstone. 

Darfield Village Club

The Mexborough Rock in Darfield Quarry, like the "Rotherham Red” sandstone at the southern end of the outcrop of the Mexborough Rock, contains frequent ironstone/clay pebbles, sometimes in distinct beds. I did not notice these until I came to the building on the corner of School Street/Church Street, where nodules are seen in the lintels and door jambs.

The corner of School Street/Church Street