Building Stones in Mosborough

 

A Thumbprint Labyrinth Stone on Stone Street

Continuing with my exploration of Mosborough, having had a good look at Mosborough Hall, I took a few photos of the Grade II Listed buildings to the north of it, which include farmhouses, a barn, cowsheds and miscellaneous agricultural buildings that were associated with Mosborough Hall Farm but, other than further examples of Parkgate Rock walling, there was not much to see. 

 

Various listed buildings around Mosborough Hall Farm

 

Inadvertently missing the Grade II Listed entrance gates to Mosborough Hall, which I came back at a later date to photograph, I carried on down the Sheffield Road until I found a snicket that links to South Street, where I found a boundary wall that is built of grey siltstone with a high concentration of iron as Liesegang rings and dense accumulations of iron oxides on joint planes. 

 

A boundary wall on South Street

 

The next listing building to photograph was the winnowing barn at Eckington Hall Farm, dating to the mid C17, which has now been converted to residential use. As with so many private properties that I have photographed, views are obscured by boundary walls and I had to settle for a few shots from the footpath that runs next to it. 

 

The winnowing barn at Eckington Hall Farm

On my various walks, as a geologist I am always interested in learning more about the rocks around me – from outcrops in natural landforms and quarries, or as seen in vernacular buildings and boundary walls that are built with the cheapest stone.

 

Ironstone in a wall of the winnowing barn

 

With stone being heavy and costly to move and transport, the builders of boundary walls and the basic walling for agricultural buildings and simple cottages would use the nearest stone available. During my travels in South Yorkshire and North-East Derbyshire, I have encountered several spectacular examples of ironstone in walls, which effectively map the underlying geology. 

 

Houses and walls on South Street

The next listed building was the Grade II Listed Summerhouse, a short distance further along South Street, which was built in the early C17 and the Historic England description states that it was probably part of the gardens to Mosborough Hall. 

 

The Summerhouse

Although the quoins to the left side look like they have been renewed with a massive sandstone, the stone used for the walling and the rest of the dressings looks no different to any of the buildings built out of Parkgate Rock, which I had seen on my walk. 

 

Vernacular architecture and walling on Chapel Street and Duke Street

Passing by the Grade II Listed No.31 South Street, which has walls of partly rendered Parkgate Rock, I walked down Chapel Street to have a look at some of the buildings and boundary walls in this much more recently built part of the village, where there is also an example of crozzle.

 

Rotherham Red sandstone in a boundary wall

In one section of walling, I noticed that the Parkgate Rock is mixed with blocks of Rotherham Red sandstone, which I had seen used for dressings at the Mosborough Hall Hotel but didn’t expect to see being used for general walling like this. 

 

No. 2 Duke Street

 

Making my way back to High Street along Duke Street, I stopped very briefly to photograph No. 2, which dates to the mid C18 and is built in Parkgate Rock, before crossing over the road to take a photograph the Aberdeen grey granite Mosborough War Memorial, which is set in the grounds of St. Mark’s church. 

 

Mosborough War Memorial

Having finished my task to photograph Mosborough’s listed buildings, I continued walking up High Street and was interested to see that a terrace of converted houses built on the east side of the road is built in what looks to be Silkstone Rock, which I had investigated briefly when exploring the area around Park Hill flats in Sheffield. 

 

Silkstone Rock on High Street

 

The British Geological Survey GeoIndex Onshore map, when adding ‘Mines and Quarries’ to the data, shows the locations of known quarries, both on the Parkgate Rock and the Silkstone Rock but I don’t know if any remains of them still exist. 

 

The location of old mines and quarries around Mosborough

 

After a very productive afternoon spent exploring the geology and historic buildings of Mosborough, before getting the bus back to Sheffield, I just had to stop and photograph the Thumbprint Labyrinth Stones by Steve Roche – relief sculptures, based on the thumbprints of local residents, which are set into the boundary wall to a block of flats on the corner of High Street and Stone Street. 

 

The Thumbprint Labyrinth Stones