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| An outcrop of Mexborough Rock at No. 16 Vicar Road |
At the end of School Street in Darfield, having had a quick look at some of its stone buildings, I caught sight of the tower of All Saints church but, before going to explore it, I had a wander down Vicar Road to see what I could find.
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| Terraced houses on Vicar Road |
Passing the terrace of houses next to the Maurice Dobson Museum & Heritage Centre, which is built of typical Mexborough Rock - brown/yellow medium grained sandstone with clay ironstone nodules - I headed down the escarpment.
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| A view across Wombwell Ings to Hoober Stand |
Here, there are views across Wombwell Ings to the distinctive landmark of Hoober Stand on the skyline, which is set a ridge of Abdy Rock 6 km to the south. The broad flood plain of the River Dove and the River Dearne, with which it converges 600 metres south of All Saints church, runs for 10 km down to Denaby Main, where it joins the River Don.
The British Geological Survey memoir refers to the large spread of alluvium here and it has been postulated that these deposits were, in part, formed in branches of a large lake that occupied part of the lowlands of Doncaster to the east during the Quaternary Period.
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| Boundary walls on the escarpment of the Mexborough Rock |
Halfway down Vicar Road, realising that the mainly modern houses wouldn’t provide much more information about the Mexborough Rock, I walked back up the hill and took a good look at the sandstone used in various boundary walls. In the absence of rock exposures, these usually provide a good indication of the underlying geology, because undressed walling stone is a low value commodity that is usually never moved very far.
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| The garden wall at No. 20 Vicar Road |
At No. 20, the garden wall is built with yellowish massive cross-bedded sandstone, as seen in the terrace of houses at the top of the road and similar stone can be seen in the wall on the other side of the road, which has a few distinctly reddened blocks.
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| An outcrop of Mexborough Rock at No. 18 Vicar Road |
The irregularly shaped and sized blocks in both walls show a high degree of weathering, with rounded edges and corners, and this is emphasised in the lowest courses that are susceptible to damage from crystallising salts.
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| A detail of cross-bedding and clay ironstone nodules at No. 16 Vicar Road |
Continuing up Vicar Road, the garden wall of No. 18 is seen to rest on a small outcrop of massive Mexborough Rock that contains sporadic clay ironstone pebbles, which have now weathered away to leave voids. At. No. 16, there is a larger outcrop, which has distinct cross-bedding, a large nodule and partings of mudstone with many small pebbles.
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| The Maurice Dobson Museum and Heritage Centre |
I then popped into the wonderful Maurice Dobson Museum at No.2 Vicar Road, which is one of the very few listed buildings in Darfield and, after having a good look around, I had a cup of tea in the cafe and bought Krakatoa:The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester, before heading off to All Saints church.
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| Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded |
If you walk to the bottom of the hill in Vicar Road, there are further stone terrace houses and boundary walls one of which appears to be topped with what look like furnace bricks.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Next time that I go to Darfield, I will go and take a look.
ReplyDeleteDid you enjoy the book? I read it a number of years ago, it was fascinating.
ReplyDeleteYes, as a geologist with an interest in volcanoes, I enjoyed it very much... :-)
DeleteThe four cottages at the bottom of Vicar Rd were built in 1912.
ReplyDeleteThe five terrace houses next to the museum were built separately, numbers 8,10 and 12 were original, numbers 4 and 6 were added later.
ReplyDelete