Historic Buildings on Glossop Road II

 

The portico to the south elevation of King Edward VII School

Leaving St. Mark’s church to continue my investigation of the historic buildings on Glossop Road, I had a quick look at the Grade II Listed St. Mark’s Vicarage (c1870). I couldn’t really see the characteristics of the quite dirty sandstone used for the rock-faced walling, or the massive sandstone used for the dressings, but the boundary walling is built with well bedded iron banded sandstone, which may be from the Rough Rock. 

 

St. Mark's Vicarage

 

I took a quick diversion to Broomfield Road, to see its rear elevation, where I also noticed a neo-Gothic style house, built between 1851 and 1892, which has grey/yellowish sandstone walling and massive buff sandstone used for the dressings. Although I could only get a view from the public footpath, I can see from my photos the marks left by abrasive cleaning in the not too distant past. 

 

A house converted into apartments on Broomfield Road

 

Returning back to Glossop Road, my next stop was the former caretaker’s house (c1838) to King Edward VII School and the large Egyptian style gate piers, which are made of massive blocks of sandstone that have undoubtedly been quarried from the Millstone Grit Group. 

 

The caretaker's house and gatepiers

On this occasion, I was far too concerned about trying to get some good photos in the high contrast late November light with my Canon EOS 2000D camera, which seems to be inferior to the 12 year old model that it had replaced, and I didn't really notice the stone that these are built with.

A view of King Edward VII School from Glossop Road

The Grade II* Listed school itself was originally built as the Wesley College in 1838 to a design by William Flockton, the renowned Sheffield architect, with further work by Flockton Gibbs in 1899 and by Flockton, Gibbs and Flockton in 1905; however, I could only get limited views from a distance over the high boundary wall.

 

Another view of King Edward VII School from Glossop Road

According to the Sheffield Society of Architects, sandstone from Hathersage - presumably the Kinderscout Grit - was used for the original school and for later work, which for me raises many questions about how such large quantities of the best quality sandstones used for dressings and ashlar – often in very large sizes - were moved to Sheffield before the opening of the railways from Grindleford (1893) and Huddersfield (1850). 

The new extension to King Edward VII School

I know that low flat wagons with small, very wide wheels were used to take stone for the Palace of Westminster from North Anston quarry to the Chesterfield Canal at Kiveton Park – a distance of over 3 km – but the distance from Hathersage to Sheffield is much greater (12 km) and, despite the turnpike roads from Stoke etc, the Millstone Grit edges still had to be negotiated. 

 

Mount Villa and Broomspring

At the corner of Newbould Lane and Broomfield Road, opposite the north-west corner of the grounds of King Edward VII School, the pair of large semi-detached houses also by William Flockton (1840) and marked as Mount Villa and Broomspring on the 1855 Ordnance Survey map, provide another example of the use of massive ashlar blocks of quite a uniform buff colour. 

 

A boundary wall on Broomfield Road

The Stoke Hall quarry in Grindleford, which has supplied much evenly buff coloured coarse grained sandstone to Sheffield, opened in 1835 and, given that stone could by then be transported from the Derwent Valley, it is probable that many superior buildings built of fine ashlar use this stone, for dressings at least; however, a quick look at the boundary walling shows that local very coarse grained Chatsworth Grit has been used here. 

 

Rutland Court

 

The adjacent Rutland Court, built between 1851 and 1892, is built in different sandstones again, which another example of recent stone cleaning reveals. The relatively thin coursed walling stone, which looks like the Crawshaw Sandstone, is generally buff coloured but the much more massive sandstone used for dressings is slightly yellow in comparison. 

 

The Sheffield Religious Education Centre

Continuing up Glossop Road, the large blocks of ashlar masonry at the Sheffield Religious Education Centre (c1850) are very blackened, with their colour and texture not easily determined but, on the opposite side of the road, The Mount (c1830) by William Flockton - with its giant Ionic columns - is built in another example of uniformly buff coloured stone. 

 

The Mount

 

Walking further up Glossop Road to the junction with Westbourne Road, the corner site is occupied by a large house West Mount (c1840), now offices, designed in the Classical Revival style with a single bay projecting centre and Ionic columns – described by the Historic England listing as in antis, referring to its similarity to a Greek temple. 

 

West Mount

 

Looking from a distance, the grey to orange colouration of the walling stone is very different to the buildings of a similar age that I had seen during my walk along Glossop Road and, when observing closely, the very coarse texture is quite typical of the Chatsworth Grit.

 

A detail of walling built with Chatsworth Grit