St. John's Church in Ault Hucknall I

 

The Church of St. John the Baptist

Continuing with my day out to Ault Hucknall, having walked across the fields from Glapwell and eaten my lunch while sitting on a chest tomb, I introduced myself to the Heritage Open Days co-ordinator of the day at the Church of St. John the Baptist and proceeded to take a set of general record photographs while walking clockwise around its exterior. 

 

A general view

 

Since first investigating the Grade I Listed St. Helen’s church in Treeton back in 2016, I have visited more than 100 mediaeval churches and, as a geologist with specialist skills in stone matching, I have taken particular note of their building stones. Also, having once surveyed the stonework at All Saints church in Pontefract for Ed Dennison Archaeological Services Ltd, I have developed an interest in standing buildings archaeology. 

 

The west end

With no formal training in this discipline, I have relied mainly on the Buildings of England by Nikolaus Pevsner and Historic England listing descriptions to learn about their architectural styles and, looking at the west end from a distance, I could see that there have been many changes to St. John’s church over a period of 400 years in England’s history – from the C11 to the C15. 

 

The north elevation

 

Already noting that the church is built with a Coal Measures sandstone and not dolomitic limestone from the Permian Cadeby Formation, as is usually seen in churches built upon the Magnesian Limestone escarpment, I moved on to the lean to north aisle, where there is a distinct change from the stone used for the window dressings and the walling above them. 

 

Red sandy dolomite used in the 1855-1858 restoration

The trefoil lancet windows were replaced during the restoration (1885-88) by William Butterfield and use a reddish sandy dolomitic limestone, which has a very similar texture to the buff/pink variety seen in the adjacent farm buildings, where softer clay beds have been differentially weathered. 

 

Red sandy dolomite used to restore lancet windows

 

The original stonework is a medium to coarse grained cross-bedded and plane bedded Coal Measures sandstone, which contains a substantial amount of clay ironstone nodules. It has been formed into large well squared blocks that can also be seen in the lower part of the west end, which has an early Norman window in the upper part. 

 

Sandstone with clay ironstone nodules

 

Taking the steps up to the doorway to the tower, which quite unusually is on the first floor, I noticed a block of stone with chevrons, which seems to be part of the original wall to the north aisle. Romanesque details like these are often found when an early church has been rebuilt and the masonry reused in the later structure, but it seems that this fragment is contemporary. 

 

A block of stone with a chevron pattern

 

Moving round to the east chancel wall, the reddish sandy dolomite seen in the north aisle has again been used. Although the Historic England description refers to the replacement of the lancet windows in the north aisle, there is no mention of major work to the east end but, as only Coal Measures sandstone is used in the mediaeval fabric, the use of the same stone suggests that this is part of Butterfield’s restoration. 

 

The east wall of the chancel

Continuing to the south elevation, which is not mentioned by Historic England or Pevsner, it is the Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire - Vol. 1. The Hundred of Scarsdale - by J. Charles Cox (1875) that provides the most information about the later alterations in the Perpendicular Gothic style. 

The south elevation

To quote, “The south porch, all the square-headed windows of the south aisle and south chapel, together with the east window of the chancel, the roofs of the aisle, the upper storey of the tower, with its embattled parapet and crocketted pinnacles, and the rest of the battlements and pinnacles that ornament the south side and the chancel, are all of the last style of Gothic architecture.” 

 

A detail of the masonry to the two stages of the tower

 

No specific mention is made about the walling but, standing at a distance, it is possible to see subtle differences in the colour and texture of the stone used for the walling of the upper stage of the tower and the lower stage and the walling to the south aisle. 

 

A view along the south elevation

When referring to the interior, Pevsner assigns a C14 date to the south arcade, which would have been built during the extension of the church by the addition of the south aisle. If the south aisle wall had been completely rebuilt in the C15, both it and the new south porch would presumably have the same style of masonry; however, although the porch has battlements and buttresses in a similar style, the walling itself is very roughly squared and coursed rubble and is not bonded with the well coursed and squared masonry of the south aisle.

The porch