Historic Buildings in Woodhouse - I

 

Trinity Methodist Church

After a good exploration of Normanton Hill and the Shire Brook Valley, I walked up the escarpment of Woodhouse Rock to the outskirts of Woodhouse - a village which is marked as a substantial isolated settlement on the 1855 Ordnance Survey map, but which is now just another suburb of the City of Sheffield.

 

Quarries shown on the 1855 Ordnance Survey map

Before catching the first of two buses back to Treeton, I had a very limited amount of time to have alook at the historic buildings that are at the heart of the old village.  Although I have seen no evidence of these, the sandstone presumably came from the old quarries in the Woodhouse Rock on Beighton Road and Retford Road.

 

Old quarries on the Woodhouse Rock (WR)

During my travels in the old West Riding of Yorkshire, Woodhouse is one of the few places that does not appear in my old copy of Sir Nikolaus Pevsner’s guide, yet there are several listed and other interesting historic buildings in this village.

 

An oblique view of Trinity Methodist Church

The empty Grade II Listed Trinity Methodist Church, formerly the Wesleyan chapel, was built in 1878 with local laminated sandstone used for the general walling. The high quality massive sandstone for the pilasters, arched window heads and parapets to the pediment, however, was probably brought in from elsewhere.

 

The old Wesleyan Sunday School

Next door, the building now occupied by Trinity Methodist Church was originally the Wesleyan Sunday School and the contrast between the stone used for walling and dressings here is not obvious and, therefore, it is likely that they all came from the same quarry.

 

Lindum Holme

Miscellaneous vernacular buildings can also be found along Chapel Street, with a large house named Lindum Holme having its bay windows, door surround and window surrounds built with a massive sandstone - cut from very large blocks – which has a distinctive pink/orange tinge that I can’t recall seeing before.

 

The former United Methodist Free Church

Further along Chapel Street, there are two more disused chapels dating to 1889 and 1905 that are again built with sandstone similar in character to the general walling stone seen in the buildings described above. I didn’t stop to have a close look at any of these but the former appears to have the same sandstone throughout, with best quality stone being used for the dressings of the latter.

 

An old chapel now used for selling carpets

From Chapel Street, I took a diversion down Tithe Barn Lane to take a quick look at St. James’ church from a distance. Enlarging the single photograph that I took, the dressings are built in what looks like Rotherham Red sandstone but, not being able to investigate further at the time, I returned to the top of Cross Street.

 

St. James' church