An Exploration of Stannington - Part 2

 

The Old School House on Nethergate

Arriving on Uppergate Road along the public footpath that runs from the escarpment to the north, I continued my exploration of Stannington by going in search of the Grade II Listed Fox House Farmhouse (1738) and its adjoining cottage. 

 

Fox Hill Farmhouse

Together with the various houses on either side of it, I didn’t stop to examine the sandstone used here and just assumed that it was another use of the locally quarried Crawshaw Sandstone, as there were no obvious variations in the colour and texture that would have attracted my attention.  

 

Various houses on Uppergate Road

The road kerbs are made of a very coarse and gritty sandstone, which is quite grey in colour and looks like the stone used for Stannington War Memorial and the horse trough on the opposite side of the road, which is Chatsworth Grit from the Rivelin Valley. In most places that I have seen it used for kerbs and walling, the very coarse grains are usually rounded fingernail sized pebbles, but here they are very angular. 

 

Very coarse gritty sandstone used for the kerbs

Continuing my walk down Reynard Lane to Nethergate, I traversed the lowest beds of the Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation and the uppermost sandstone in the Millstone Grit Group, the Rough Rock, although I didn't notice any distinct changes in slope. 

 

A dry stone wall on Reynard Lane

 

Looking at the dry stone boundary walls, however, there is a very noticeable change in the physical character of the sandstone used to build them. Although the coping stones have a significantly greater bed height than the flaggy stones used for the bulk of the walling, both have a concentration of iron on the joint plane, which adds a a rusty brown colour – as seen during a previous walk from Ranmoor to Fulwood and the Porter Brook, where the Rough Rock is the principal building stone. 

 

Views along Nethergate

Walking along Nethergate, which once formed a separate settlement to the one at Upper Gate, I just took a few general photographs of the various substantial houses and outbuildings that are marked on the 1855 edition of the Ordnance Survey map for Sheffield, but which are not listed or appear on the Local Heritage List.

 

The 1855 Ordnance Survey map of Stannington

Further along Nethergate is the mid C17 White House Farmhouse, which I just photographed from a distance, but which the Historic England listing describes as being built in gritstone rubble. Looking at the colour of the massive dressings, these look like the Chatsworth Grit that I had seen on my walk so far, but the walling stone has a lot more colour variation. 

 

White House Farmhouse

Without exposures in quarries and rock outcrops to see, or reference buildings that are built using stone that is documented, the Coal Measures sandstones seen in Sheffield are not easy to identify and, although I have presumed that the Crawshaw Sandstone is the principal building stone in Stannington, it has a lot more variation in colour and texture than the very uniform stone from Bole Hill that was used to build very many Sheffield Board Schools – as I explained to the owner of the late C17 to early C18 Well House, when he contacted me via Facebook to ask about its stone. 

 

Well House

The geological memoir for the district mentions that the Crawshaw Sandstone has been mistaken for the Rough Rock to the south of Dore and “on the west side of Sheffield, around Steel Bank, a large area of sandstone formerly believed to be Loxley Edge Rock is now assigned, with some hesitation, to the Crawshaw Sandstone." When describing its use as a building stone, very coarse grained varieties are likened to the Chatsworth Grit and it also states that “Finer-textured stone may be got from many different beds and will give good service if competently selected.” 

 

A detail of a gatepost at Well House

 

Having already seen the Old School House on Nethergate, continuing with my walk up School Lane, I was interested to see another Victorian school, which is now used as the Christ Church Hall and Office. Although neither of them are have been designated for national or local listing, they provide further examples of the stone built architecture that gives character to Stannington. 

 

The Church Hall and Office