St. James' Church in Ravenfield

 

Differential weathering of sandstone at St. James' church

Arriving in the village of Ravenfield, having examined the geology of Hooton Cliff and the area around Firsby Hall Farm, the first building that I saw was the Grade II* Listed Church of St. James, which was built in 1756 for Elizabeth Parkin – a rich Sheffield socialite - to the design of the eminent architect John Carr.

 

The south elevation of St. James' church

Except for Derby Cathedral, where the main body of the building was rebuilt in 1725, I can’t remember the last time that I had seen a Georgian church and, although I didn’t expect it to have any great archaeological interest, it has some interesting features.

 

The tower

As with most Georgian architecture, it is elegantly proportioned and without extravagant ornamentation, but the ogee arched windows with Y-tracery throughout the church and the quatrefoil panels below the belfry stage of the tower are quite unusual details.

 

A detail of a window head in the nave

On this occasion, however, I was most interested in the sandstone that has been used for the ashlar masonry, which is uniformly light brown in colour, medium grained and has marked current-bedding, with the softer beds within it being differentially weathered.

 

Differential weathering of the sandstone

Except for the Rotherham Red variety of the Mexborough Rock and, perhaps the Wickersley Rock, the Coal Measures strata in Rotherham don’t possess a reputation for producing building stone that is suitable for good quality ashlar masonry and I was very curious to know more about the provenance of this stone.

 

Weathering of sandstone above the plinth

The sandstone in the barn at Firsby Hall Farm and the limited outcrops of Ravenfield Rock, which I had seen earlier on my walk, are current-bedded and have a uniformly light brown/yellowish colour, but it is hard to imagine that the local quarries – or the stonemasons employed there – were capable of producing the high quality masonry for this church.

 

The apse at the east end

Without supporting documentary evidence I can only speculate but, with John Carr being the leading architect in northern England - based in York - it wouldn’t surprise me if a stone that was familiar to him had been shipped from West Yorkshire along the River Aire to the River Don and taken overland to Ravenfield - especially since he was also commissioned to build the now demolished Ravenfield Hall.

 

A weathered sandstone grave slab

The church wasn’t open at the time of my visit and I only spent 15 minutes having a very quick look at the exterior and the churchyard, but there are also a few gravestones that provide interesting examples of weathering and some fine letter cutting.

 

An example of letter cutting