Stone Sculpture at Rotherham Minster

 

A flock of sheep

 

A couple of times when Rotherham Minster has been scaffolded in the past, I have tentatively made approaches to ask if might be possible to take some close up photographs of the gargoyles and the headstops, but I didn't get anywhere. 

 

A shepherd

With work experience that includes the production of marketing material for one of London’s building restoration contractors, the writing of various illustrated articles for stone trade and professional journals worldwide and a significant contribution to the Historic England photographic archives – where my black and white prints of post-war architectural sculpture were particularly appreciated - I have been a little surprised by this. 

 

A label stop with two carved figures

Having spent very little time taking photographs of Rotherham in the evening before the onset of sunset, except the west end of the minster while waiting for the bus home, I had always assumed that its north elevation was not well illuminated by sunlight. 

 

A grotesque

The orientation of the minster, however, is not precisely west-east but a few degrees further towards south-south-west and, having spent a mid July evening attending an Annual General Meeting of Rotherham ROAR, I was extremely surprised to discover that the north aisle was bathed in a quality of light that emphasised the colour of the Rotherham Red sandstone. 

 

A flock of sheep

I had my Canon Powershot G16 camera with me, which had an excellent zoom lens, and I was able to get a few decent shots of the various carved label stops, which included various heads – including shepherds with flocks of sheep that I haven’t seen anywhere else. 

 

A grotesque

 

Other figures include scaled grotesques, a hare and a few miscellaneous figures but, except for the brief reference by Historic England, I have never seen any documentary source that describes these excellent stone carvings. 

 

A hare

In several other places where there are carved headstops, their still sharp profiles and carving styles suggest that they are part of the 1873-75 restoration by Sir George Gilbert Scott; however, a footnote in my copy of Pevsner’s guide to West Yorkshire refers to very competent and interesting external carving during the C18 restoration, which may relate to those of the north aisle. 

 

Carved label stops

Several of the figures on the north aisle are stylistically much cruder than others seen elsewhere on the church and the sandstone appears to be more deeply weathered in a few of them, perhaps indicating that some of the original carvings may have survived these restorations.

 

Carved label stops