A Brief Survey of Kersal Mount

 

A view of Kersal Mount from its garden

Following Storm Dudley, which had led to the Sheffield U3A Geology Group field trip to Conisbrough being cut short, Storms Eunice and Franklin wreaked havoc for several more days in the middle of February 2022 and I didn’t get out again until the 25th of February. 

 

Buildings on the British Listed Buildings website requiring photos

In January, I had started to prepare my talk for the Ranmoor Society, on the subject of local geology and architecture, by having a brief walk around Ranmoor. I had been asked if I could make reference to some of the large houses in the area, so I planned a short walk to see Tapton Hall and to photograph various buildings for the British Listed Buildings website. 

 

The entrance to Kelsal Mount

Alighting from the No. 51 bus from Sheffield city centre, I firstly stopped to look at the Grade II listed gateway and boundary wall to Kersal Mount (c1869), before going to ask if I could look at the exterior of the house, which is now a care home. 

 

The approach to Kersal Mount

 

The house was designed by Hill and Swann for Joseph Burdekin Jackson of Spear and Jackson, a manufacturer of steel, files, saws, edge tools, machine knives and other tools for mining and engineering purposes, based at the Etna Works in Attercliffe. With William Bowler, another engineer from Sheffield, he was granted a patent in 1855 for “improvements in furnaces and fireplaces, and the prevention of smoke” and was later appointed as the Master Cutler in 1879. 

 

The main entrance with an oriel window above

Above the main entrance on the east elevation, there is an oriel window with a conical roof and its semi-circular bracket elaborated by carved cherubs that flank a keystone, which itself has a bird of prey carved in relief. The sandstone is very evenly grained and of an extremely uniform buff colour, which in places shows no signs of sedimentary structures. 

 

Detailing above the main entrance

 

The doorway is flanked by two grey granite shafts that are topped with Corinthian capitals, which from part on an impost band that is richly decorated with floral carvings. I didn’t have a close look at the granite but although it doesn’t have well defined rectangular feldspar phenocrysts, it could be from one of the quarries on the Cornubian batholith in Devon and Cornwall. 

 

An impost band with a Corinthian capital

Looking at the base of the column and the plinth course sections to the door surround, which looks like it has had some impermeable coating, the sandstone is distinctly yellow in colour. As I had by now discovered, when exploring the western suburbs of Sheffield, the owners of houses like this could afford to bring in the best sandstones from Derbyshire or West Yorkshire. 

 

A detail of the main door surround

To my eye, the rock-faced walling stone contrasts quite strongly with the dressings, in both colour and texture, with its planar bedding being clearly visible when getting close up. Based on my investigation of the Sheffield Board Schools, I think that this is probably Crawshaw Sandstone from Bole Hills in Crookes/Walkley – quarried 1500 m away as the crow flies. 

 

A detail of the rock-faced walling stone

Taking a quick look at a small part of its south elevation, I was very interested to see that the gargoyles and the masonry details to the eaves are also made from a similar yellowish medium grained sandstone to the one briefly described above. 

 

A gargoyle

 

My investigation of the historic architecture and the building stones of Sheffield hasproceeded by applying a lot of educated guesswork, with some sandstones like the very coarse Chatsworth Grit being well exposed in several natural outcrops and relatively easy to identify in buildings; however, once the full range of physical characteristics of a particular rock formation become familiar, they are easier to identify, especially when used together with a stone of a different character, as seen at Kersal Mount. 

 

A gritty sandstone ornamental feature and rock-faced walling

 

Based on my experience as a stone matching specialist, unless the stone has unique characteristics or there is documentary evidence, it really isn’t easy to identify many of the sandstones seen in Sheffield, or to specify the best stone that could be used for its repair, without referring to a resource such as the Triton Stone Library. 

 

The Triton Stone Library in temporary storage