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| No. 79 New Road |
Continuing with my planned walk to Maltby, having briefly examined the scattering of erratic pebbles up to the size of a fist, in the fields to the south of Letwell, I got talking to a group of walkers and joined them on the path to Firbeck – crossing bedrock comprising the Brotherton Formation and the Edlington Formation.
Arriving in Firbeck on Kid Lane, I immediately noticed a large rock faced Permian dolomitic limestone building at the entrance of the private Park Hill Drive, which I assume to be a former lodge at the entrance of the St. Leger estate at Park Hill.
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| The house at the entrance to Park Hill Drive |
I had always associated the village with Firbeck Hall, an Elizabethan mansion that I intended to see for the first time, and I have therefore been interested to discover a little bit more about the history of South Yorkshire – the instigation of the St. Leger Stakes, which now takes place every year at Doncaster Racecourse.
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| No. 79 New Road |
Quickly walking down to the south end of New Road, passing miscellaneous C20 brick built houses, I was interested to see the cottage at No. 79, which was built in 1876 along with No. 64 and which the Historic England listings describe as being built in a Cottage orné style - the archetypal “chocolate box” cottage.
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| No. 64 New Road |
Retracing my steps along New Road towards St. Martin’s church, I stopped to have a good chat with a couple of residents who occupied the two stone built semi-detached cottages that apparently belonged to the church.
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| Cottages on New Road |
From the road, the limestone is seen to have a pinkish coloured patina and it looks like the stone used for the Victorian part of St. Peter’s church in Letwell, which was built in 1867. Old Ordnance Survey maps show that they were built in the second half of the C19, between 1851 and 1890 and it is quite possible that the stone came from the same quarry.
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| 23 to 27 New Road |
After having at look at the exterior of St. Martin’s church, which I will describe later, I carried on down to the terrace of houses that form 23 to 27 New Road, which were built in the same period according to the Historic England listing and also have a slightly pink coloured patina to the stone.
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| 15 to 19 New Road |
A little further down the road, another terrace of houses comprising 15 to 19 New Road were built in the late C18, with the limestone used here having a lighter colour. The building stone for all of these houses would have been obtained locally but, unless documentation is available, the source will remain unknown, because all of the quarries have long since disappeared.
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| Manor Farmhouse |
The oldest and largest vernacular building that I saw in Firbeck is Manor Farmhouse, on the opposite side to the terraced houses above, which dates back to the late C16 – early C17. Although it has been altered and the window surrounds look like they have been restored, the elevations that I could see still retain mullioned windows in their original proportions.
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| The Black Lion |
With time moving on and still having a 6 km walk ahead of me, I carried on down to Lime Avenue, from which I had hoped to gain access to the grounds of Firbeck Hall, which has plans for conversion into apartments, but they were fenced off. Returning to New Road, unfortunately the Black Lion public house wasn’t open, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and, after taking a photo of a stone lion on the opposite side of the road, I set off towards Stone.
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| A stone lion |
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