Another Stone Matching Exercise

 

A sample used for stone matching

Ever since I have known Rotherham, I have taken an interest in the Rotherham Red sandstone and I have seen many outcrops of this in Rotherham, Whiston, Harthill and in Anston Stones Wood - with my last trip to Canklow Wood and Boston Park adding further to my knowledge of it.

 

Rotherham Red sandstone at Boston Park

Having a specialist interest in building stone, I have also surveyed innumerable historic buildings made of this locally distinctive stone - including my own terraced house - and I like to keep a note of the stones that have been used for their repair or extension – especially when they are located within Conservation Areas.

 

Rotherham Red sandstone at Moorgate Cemetery

For the last five years, I have been helping out with the day to day maintenance at St. Helen’s church in Treeton, which sometimes involves climbing on to some of the roofs to clean them, and I have got to know the fabric of the building – and the surrounding churchyard - very well.

 

Cavernous decay at St. Helen's church in Treeton

 

In this time, I have seen a very noticeable deterioration of some of the Rotherham Red sandstone masonry, which in my opinion should have been replaced long ago, or at least repaired with stone slips or tiles - an ‘honest repair’ advocated by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) - which has been used successfully before on this Grade I Listed church, as well as others in Whiston and Todwick.

 

A repair with stone tiles at St. Helen's church

I have no idea of what money is available to spend on repairing it and I am not party to the decision making processes at the church but, having been told that the last source of Rotherham Red sandstone would no longer be available for the foreseeable future due to the costs of removing the overburden, I decided to undertake a stone matching exercise for my own interest.

 

The Triton Stone Library

Although I no longer have the large collection of building stone samples, which formed the basis of the Triton Stone Library, I knew that samples from the New Red Sandstone would be far too bright in colour; however, when obtaining a sample of the Upper Carboniferous Watts Cliff stone from Blockstone – which Harris Quarries were now offering as an alternative - I also asked for Permian Stoneraise Red Lazonby from Penrith to be included for reference purposes.

 

The Civic Buildings in Rotherham

Back in 1997, when taking photographs for The Building Stones of Rotherham, by Michael Clark, I noticed that Triassic Red St. Bees sandstone had been used for some small repairs to the old Town Hall on Effingham Street and it has also been used in the new Rotherham MBC Civic Buildings on Main Street.

 

Devonian sandstone in Treeton

I contacted three suppliers of this stone, along with another Devonian red sandstone that has been used to build a few small houses at the edge of the Conservation Area in Treeton, including an addition to existing houses on Front Street, which I think fits perfectly with the Rotherham Red sandstone houses in the village.

 

Various areas of decay on the stonework at St. Helen's church

As usual, the large samples from Blockstone arrived immediately and, after problems with the post during the COVID-19 Pandemic, which was now into week 49, I received my sample of Devonian sandstone and I took it to St. Helen’s church to see how it compared.

 

Matching stone when dry

The Rotherham Red sandstone at St. Helen’s church does show some marked colour variation, with yellowish and deeply reddened blocks being quite common, and I therefore chose a few places on the masonry to undertake the matching – with the sample of stone being compared when dry and wet.

 

Matching stone when wet

Returning home, I undertook a simple stone matching exercise in my office, with the three new square samples next to a piece of a drill core of Rotherham Red sandstone from my own house and two samples that I collected in Canklow Wood.

 

Matching stone when dry and wet

The comparison was again made, with the stones firstly dry and then wetted, which is a test that is extremely important when choosing a red sandstone, because their colour can change quite dramatically when wet.

 

The contrast between dry and wet stone