St. John’s Church in Penistone - Part 1

 

A view west along the nave

Since the beginning of the Heritage Open Days Festival on 10th September 2022, I made a considerable effort to go out on the buses and trains to visit, for the first time, the mediaeval churches at Ault Hucknall, Eyam, Wragby, Hooton Pagnell and Darton – as well as having another good look at All Saints church in Bakewell. 

 

The locations of Treeton and Penistone

 

For my second day out in the first week of October, having had a good long walk around Cusworth and Doncaster to photograph its historic architecture - I took a day off from my usual maintenance at St. Helen’s church in Treeton, to take advantage of the Coffee Morning at the Church of St. John the Baptist in Penistone - a distance of 25 km away as the crow flies. 

 

The porch

Alighting from the hourly train from Sheffield to find that the BBC weather forecast of light rain was accurate on this occasion, I quickly made my way up to the church and, noting that the south aisle and clerestory has windows, castellated parapets and crocketted pinnacles that are typical of the Perpendicular Gothic style, entered the C18 porch. 

 

A weathered head stop on the south door

 

The south door, which Pevsner assigned a probable date to c.1300, has a weathered head stop that is carved in a medium to coarse grained sandstone, with the surrounding masonry inappropriately pointed with a Portland cement based mortar. 

 

A view along the south arcade

 

When entering the church and looking along the south aisle and the 6 bay south arcade, I was immediately struck by the very distinctive yellow colour of the sandstone, which I had only seen before at the village of Grenoside in Sheffield – the type locality for the Grenoside Sandstone – and the geological map shows that this formation and the Penistone Flags, which does not produce good building stone, outcrop in the area. 

 

A geological map of the area around Penistone

I purchased a basic black and white Heritage Inspired church guide and a much better quality colour booklet, which covers all of the churches in the Penistone and Thurlstone team ministry, before having a further look around the interior. 

 

The Penistone and Thurlstone churches guide

 

Both arcades, which are also dated to c.1300, have alternate circular and octagonal piers, double-chamfered arches and simply moulded capitals. The masonry between the arches has regular well squared blocks but the clerestory, although built of the same sandstone, seems to have slightly larger stones with deeper courses. 

 

The north arcade

 

With the coffee morning taking place at the west end of the nave, I didn’t spend any time looking at this part of the church and continued my exploration in the chancel, which again dates to c.1300 but was altered in the C18 with a change in the pitch of the roof.

 

The north and south walls of the chancel

 

The lower part of the walling to both the north and south walls of the chancel are built of irregularly squared and coursed masonry to the height of the arches to the chapels and to the south window. Above this level, the masonry is much more regular and contrasts strongly will the stonework beneath it, which is a feature of interest to a standing buildings archaeologist.

 

Monuments bearing the Bosville family crest

 

There are several large monuments, with those on the north wall bearing the Bosville family crest and dating to 1708 and 1714 and on the opposite side is a C18 white Italian Carrara marble tablet to the Fenton West families of Underbank Hall. 

 

A monument to the Fenton West families

According to the Historic England listing description, there is possible pre-Conquest masonry in the nave and the church guide mentions that an Anglo-Saxon cross shaft is incorporated into the column adjoining the team ministry office, with fragments of herringbone masonry and C12 corbels incorporated into the masonry, but I didn’t see any of these. 

The mediaeval altar

 

Beneath the east window is a mediaeval altar that is believed to have been hidden during the Reformation and was found in a wall cavity at St. James’ church at Midhopestones, before being brought to Penistone in the 1970’s. The octagonal font isn’t mentioned in any of the church guides or by Pevsner and Historic England hardly mentions it, but I took a few record photos of it before having a cup of tea and then going to explore its exterior.

 

The font