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| The west elevation of Cadman Road Canal Bridge |
The Church of St. John the Evangelist is sited near to the south-west facing escarpment of the Parkgate Rock, which forms a very strong feature as it runs straight up to Manor Top, one of the highest places in south Sheffield.
Looking at the British Geological Survey 1:50,000 map, a dip of 10 degrees to the north-east is marked, which I noted when walking down Bernard Road to a lowland area underlain by geologically younger mudstones and siltstones – at which point I encountered a very impressive piece of Victorian railway engineering.
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| The railway bridge on Bernard Road |
At this railway bridge, a thick central core of stonework separates two carriageways and, with retaining walls to each side, supports a lattice of steel beams upon which run the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway line that led to the Sheffield Victoria station and another that connects Rotherham to the Sheffield Midland station.
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| A section of walling at the Bernard Road railway bridge |
In the sunshine, the lower part of the first section of stone that I saw appeared very grey, with the less weathered upper part having dark rusty brown colouration in many places. According to Hunt's Mineral Statistics (1858), the nearby Hyde Park quarry was producing 1680 tons of Parkgate Rock per year and the area The hatched marking on the current geological map – denoting infilled land – is quite extensive and it is therefore likely that it has been used here.
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| A retaining wall on Bernard Road |
During investigations of Norfolk Park, the Cholera Monument, Park Hill and the railway cuttings at Sheffield Midland railway station, I have encountered various examples of the Silkstone Rock, some of which is very muddy looking as seen in the Shrewsbury Hospital Almshouses and its contemporary lodges.
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| A retaining wall on Bernard Road |
2760 tons of Silkstone Rock were being produced at the Claywood quarries, with one marketed as 'bluestone' and, although operated by different quarrymen, the freeholder of both this and Hyde Park quarry was the Duke of Norfolk and he may have had some influence on the sandstones that was used for the railway bridge and adjoing retaining walls.
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| The location of Hyde Park quarry on the 1855 Ordnance Survey map |
As with the Chatsworth Grit, the Crawshaw Sandstone and the Loxley Edge Rock in the north-west part of Sheffield, it is not easy to tell the difference between the Parkgate Rock and the Silkstone Rock and the provenance of this stone is still a bit of a mystery to me.
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| The Effingham Road railway bridge |
Continuing my walk, I stopped very briefly to take a single record photograph of the Effingham Road railway bridge, which carries the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway branch line to the Sheffield Midland railway station, which opened in 1870.
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| The west elevation of the Cadman Street Canal Bridge |
My next stop was the Grade II Listed Cadman Street Canal Bridge (1819), off Sussex Street, which spans the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal and was probably designed by William Chapman – the canal engineer for the Sheffield Canal Company.
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| The east elevation of the Cadman Street Canal Bridge |
Except for the brick parapet wall, it is essentially built with what looks to be like another local Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation (PLCMF) sandstone, with moderate iron staining, but I could again not assign a provenance to this sandstone.
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| The perimeter wall to the old gas works on Sussex Street |
Returning to Sussex Street, I then encountered a very large boundary wall at the site of the recently demolished disused gasometer, which is built with yet another PLCMF sandstone that looks similar to the one used for the railway engineering works on Bernard Road.
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| The perimeter wall to the old gas works on Effingham Street |
At Effingham Street, there is another section of the perimeter wall to the old gas works, built with similar looking PLCMF sandstone, which has a light muddy grey colour to the body of the stone, light brown on the surface and with concentrations of iron oxides/hydroxides.
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| A detail of the perimeter wall on Effingham Street |
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