Historic Architecture in Tickhill

 

A detail of Tickhill Library

When briefly visiting Tickhill Castle and St. Mary’s church, I encountered a lot of good quality Permian dolomitic limestone that was probably quarried from the Cadeby Formation around Maltby, a few kilometres to the west – in addition to a limestone that I was not familiar with. 

 

A view along Paper Mill Dike

It is not unusual for the best stone to have been brought such distances to build castles and churches after the Norman Conquest but, when briefly exploring Castlegate, North Gate and Sunderland Street, I was interested to see that very many of its modest vernacular buildings and a lot of the boundary walls are also built in limestone. 

 

A boundary wall

The underlying geology of Tickhill comprises dolomitic limestone of the Upper Permian Brotherton Formation and calcareous mudstones of the Roxby Formation, which are overlain by the Triassic Lenton Sandstone Formation – none of which have a reputation for producing building stone, other than for very local use. 

 

A view along Sunderland Street

 

Unsurprisingly, brick rather than stone is the dominant building material, with red pantiles traditionally used for the roofs - although many have been replaced in Welsh slate There are 112 listed buildings in Tickhill, the vast majority of which are of Grade II status, but I didn’t see anything larger than Darfield House – a late C18 three storey house built in limestone ashlar. 

 

Darfield House and the Market Cross

 

I didn’t spend any time closely examining the stonework on any of the buildings that I passed, but none of them are built of very thinly bedded limestone, which I would expect if locally quarried limestone from the Brotherton Formation had been used. 

 

The Market Cross

The Market Cross, which is traditionally dated 1777, is in a circular peripteral Roman Doric temple form, with a saucer dome and four tiers of stone steps leading up to it. Massive blocks of limestone have been used here and these are undoubtedly from the Cadeby Formation.

 

No.18 Market Place

The only civic building that I saw was Tickhill Library, a red brick structure with stone dressings that I initially assumed to be a further example of limestone from the Cadeby Formation; however, when getting up close to it, I discovered that White Mansfield stone has been used for raised lettering and the dressings. 

 

Tickhill Library

Towards the southern end of the Magnesian Limestone escarpment, the Cadeby Formation becomes increasingly sandy and, in the Mansfield region of Nottinghamshire, the rock would be classified as a dolomitic sandstone rather than a dolomitic limestone.

 

A detail of weathered White Mansfield stone at Tickhill Library

It typically contains very fine beds of green clay, which differentially weather to produce a very distinctive surface texture that reminds me of old crinkled leather. Like its counterpart, Red Mansfield stone, it is no longer available and finding a stone suitable for repairing it is not easy. 

 

St. Leonard's Hospital

Before heading home, I had a quick look at St. Leonard’s Hospital, a Grade II* Listed timber framed building, which dates to 1471. The ground floor sub-bays are divided by octagonal posts, which are set on moulded limestone plinths – a feature that I had not encountered before. 

 

Moulded stone plinths at St. Leonard's Hospital