St. John's Church in Mexborough III

 

A gargoyle on the porch of St. John's church

Moving on to the east end of St. John’s church, I didn’t spend any time looking at the very late C19 apse but, from the single photo that I took, I can see that there are occasional red coloured blocks in the masonry and that dolomitic limestone has been used for the parapet – as also seen on the castellated south clerestory.

 

The apse

With the brief spell of bright sunshine having vanished, I only had a quick look at the north elevation, where the aisle was rebuilt in 1891, together with the similarly styled south aisle, the porch and the apse.

 

A general view of the north elevation

I was more interested in the masonry that can be seen in the chancel where, as on the south elevation, the single lancet window is set within coursed rubble walling; however, to my eye, the stonework has a slightly different character to the south side and looks more primitive.

 

The north elevation of the chancel

The extraordinarily long quoins, which are partially covered by the diagonal buttress, are quite unusual and the lowermost section of the wall is built out of rubble masonry that is barely coursed, with little attention being given to the sorting of the stones.

 

The base of the north chancel wall

Although the Historic England listing refers to a C12 core of the church, I hadn’t seen any obviously Norman features while wandering around its exterior; however, looking at the section of masonry that has been exposed here, this is probably the oldest part visible on the exterior.

 

A grotesque above the diagonal buttress

When a relaxation of the COVID-19 Pandemic rules allow churches to be opened as normal, I will go back to investigate this further but, on this occasion, I took advantage of the reappearing sunshine to take another look at the gargoyles on the south elevation.

 

A gargoyle on the south aisle

Looking closely at the Mexborough Rock here, ironstone pebbles can be clearly seen and, although it lacks the red colour, this characteristic is shared in common with the ‘Rotherham Red’ variety of sandstone that is found on the south side of the Don Monocline.

 

A detail of the parapets on the porch and south aisle

Following the south aisle to the porch, where the pattern of masonry and tool marks are identical to those of the rebuilt aisles, the face bedded parapet course is again weathered and delaminating, but the more massive sandstone used for the gargoyles has proved to be much more durable.

Headstops on the porch

The Victorian headstops to the porch, which depict a king and bishop, are made in a finer grained sandstone that has not weathered so well, with the lamination of the sandstone to the king’s head resulting in the loss of much detail.

 

Delamination on the king's head

Looking up at the tower, a very steep roofline marks the original position of the nave roof, which adds further to the archaeological interest of the church, but with no option but to come back and see the interior at a later date, I then headed off to explore Castle Hill.

 

A view of the old roofline