Historic Architecture in Wickersley

 

Nos. 35-37 Morthen Road

The day out with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group to Charnwood Forest really made me appreciate being part of this group, not least because it enabled me to see Precambrian rocks that, not having a car, I would otherwise be unable to visit. 

 

The Ordnace Survey map of Wickersley

Having seen spectacular outcrops of volcaniclastic siltstone, I set out the next day to investigate the historic buildings of Wickersley, a suburb of Rotherham that, except to investigate the Listerdale Estate when surveying the RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) in South Yorkshire and to unsuccessfully find the same quarries and obtain a sample of Wickersley Rock earlier in the year, I don’t know very well. 

 

Listed buildings in Wickersley

The listed buildings in Wickersley that I wanted to photograph for the British Listed Buildings website are mostly situated in the Conservation Area around Morthen Road, to the south of which the 1854 Ordnance Survey map shows as an area that was intensively quarried for grindstones, for which there was once a great demand from the cutlers in Sheffield since the C18. 

 

Wickersley on the 1854 Ordnance Survey map

Starting at the roundabout on Bawtry Road, I encountered various stone built houses that have been proposed as Locally Listed Buildings, with the Wickersley Neighbourhood Plan also recognising the importance of the boundary walls. The colour of the sandstone, which I assumed to be the Wickersley Rock, is buff/yellow, although in places there is some reddening of the stones. 

 

Westthorpe Farm

 

At the corner with Church Lane, I stopped to to take a couple of photos of Wickersley War Memorial, a simple Latin cross made in grey granite, of unknown origin, which has a large polished octagonal section upon which the names of the fallen are inscribed. 

 

Wickersley War Memorial

Continuing down Church Lane to take a good look at St. Alban’s church, which will be described in another post, I was interested to see some unusual tapered columns with mushroom like capitals at No.2, which form part of the portico to the house and to the converted outbuilding. 

 

Tapered columns at No.2 Church Lane

I could only see these columns from a distance, but the distinctly reddened sandstone strongly contrasted with the Wickersley Rock that I had seen so far on my walk. It is presumably from the same source as the sandstone use in the gable end of the outbuilding on Church Lane, which is Rotherham Red sandstone. 

 

The gable end to the outbuilding at No.2 Church Lane

Returning to Morthen Road, I then came to the Grade II Listed Nos. 35-37, a pair of late C18 cottages that were re-fronted in the early C19 with semicircular bays, with a part of the building formerly used as a Primitive Methodist Chapel. 

 

Nos. 35-37 Morthen Road

Looking from a distance, the semicircular bays seem to be another example of Rotherham Red sandstone, whose nearest source would have been Whiston, which is only just over 3 km as the crow flies. Looking at my photos closely, the texture of the upper part of the left hand bay looks unblemished and free of surface defects which, together with slightly odd colour variation, makes me want to look at it closely to determine its nature.

 

The gazebo on Morthen Road

A little further down the road, on the opposite side, is a Grade II Listed early C18 gazebo. According to the Wickersley Parish Council website, it was next to The Needles coaching inn and it is thought that it was where passengers would wait for the stagecoach in the early C18, when Morthen Road was the toll road between Rotherham and Bawtry. 

 

Wickersley Old Hall

Crossing the road again, I could only get a glimpse of the early C18 Wickersley Old Hall from the public footpath and carried on along Morthen Road until I reached the former Christian Institute (1862), now apartments, which was incorrectly marked by Historic England as Wickersley Hall. 

 

The former Christian Institute

 

All along Morthen Road, although the sandstone is predominantly yellowish in colour, I did notice that there was reddening of the stone in places, but this colouration is very patchy and I didn’t see any building that was made out of Wickersley Rock that is mainly red. 

 

A detail of a boundary wall on Gillott Lane

 

Walking down Gillott Lane, an old boundary wall to the plot of land, which is being redeveloped as No.4, contain a much larger proportion of reddened sandstone that looks like the red/yellow mottled variety of Rotherham Red sandstone; however, with several quarries in the immediate vicinity, I can’t imagine that stone for boundary walling would be brought from Whiston and I therefore assumed that parts of the Wickersley Rock must be very reddened.

 

Walling stone on Gillott Lane