St. John's Church in Ridgeway

 

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

During my trip to Ridgeway, to explore the geology and historic architecture of the area, I had so far seen various secular and agricultural buildings, which are built in various sandstones that have been quarried very locally – probably the Grenoside Sandstone, the Silkstone Rock and the Parkgate Rock , with a lesser quality unnamed sandstone from the Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation (PLCM) used for the dry stone field boundary walls. 

 

A view along the north elevation

 

Having been unable to see any quarries and other rock exposures, or observe any consistent patterns of colour and texture in the building stones, I could only make an educated guess as to the provenance of the building stones and I was interested to see what stone has been used for the Church of St. John the Evangelist (1840) – designed by Woodhead and Hurst, who were the architects responsible for Christ Church in Stannington. 

 

The north aisle

Once I had entered the churchyard, I walked anti-clockwise around the church and from a distance, although the stone has developed quite a deep patina and the north elevation is covered in green algae, I could see in places that the weathered stone looks like it contains a lot of iron and this is reflected in a pale yellow/orange colouration. 

 

A detail of organic growth on the north aisle

On the north vestry and in several places on the principal elevation of the north aisle, however, there is dark brick red colouration that I suspect is organic and not due to weathering of the stone – especially since this is not seen anywhere else on the fabric.

 

Organic growth on the north aisle

Moving round to the south-west tower, which was added in 1884, the large rock-faced blocks vary from buff colour, through various shades of light brown/orange to deep rusty brown, which can be quite clearly seen through its greyish patina. 

 

The south elevation of the tower

Zooming into the lancet windows above the doorway to the tower, the buff coloured massive sandstone blocks used for the window heads and sills look very similar to the lighter coloured walling stone and is iron stained with feint banding, suggesting that the same cross-bedded sandstone is used throughout the tower. 

 

Lancet windows above the south door of the tower

 

On the east face of the tower, the sandstone in the belfry stage exhibits further variation in colour and texture, with mottled pink/grey stone being exposed by the weathering and subsequent failure of the surface of face-bedded blocks. 

 

Weathering of face-bedded blocks in the belfry

The only place where I took close up photos of the tower were on the doorway, where several of the moulded blocks of uniformly light buff/pink coloured sandstone to the arch and the shafts to the door surround contain beds of clay ironstone nodules, whose orientation show that these blocks of sandstone are edge-bedded. 

 

Clay ironstone nodules in masonry to the door surround of the tower

The masonry to the south aisle, although obscured by the patina and dirt that have accumulated over the last 180 years, appears to be very uniform in colour and slightly yellow compared to the sandstone used in the tower. 

 

Masonry in the south aisle

 

One interesting aspect of the masonry in the original church building is the use of draughted margins to the rock-faced blocks of stone, which is also a feature of Christ Church. These can be particularly well seen in the south aisle where, in places, the very light tool marks can be barely seen against the weathered cross-bedding.

 

A detail of a rock-faced block with draughted margins

Standing back to look at the south elevation of the church at a distance, an untrained eye is probably unlikely to detect the subtle differences in colour and texture that I can see in the various parts of St. John’s church. 

 

The south elevation

Without documentary evidence, it is very difficult to make any firm conclusions about the provenance of the various buildings stones – which is very important if the building in question is listed and needs to be restored with a matching stone – and my observations and comments are based on the innumerous investigations of the historic buildings in and around South Yorkshire and their relationship to the underlying geology. 

 

The Hutton memorial

Before leaving the churchyard, I took a few quick record photographs of the memorial to John Jermyn Hutton, whose grandfather and great uncle had established their scythe and sickle manufacturing business in 1791. The family business, which was a major local employer, eventually moved to the Phoenix Works and continued to be a leader in its field until 1988 when, due to the retirement of its directors, it was sold to a firm in Dronfield that later operated as Sorby Hutton in Sheffield.

 

The inscription on the Hutton memorial