St. Mary's Church in Bolsterstone

 

St. Mary's church in Bolsterstone

During my trip to Bolsterstone in November 2022, the main reason for my visit was to help my friend Catherine with the identification of the stones used for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones, as part of the Bolsterstone Graveyard Project, but I did take the time to have a very quick wander around the exterior of St. Mary’s church (1879).

 

A view of the south elevation

 

The church had already been photographed for the British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, so I simply took a few general record photographs and, being in company, I didn’t closely inspect the sandstone from which it is built. 

 

A detail of the north aisle

Most of the stonework is quite blackened, which largely obscures the colour variations that may occur in the sandstone but, stopping to have a closer look at the north aisle, I could see that the massive very coarse grained sandstone varies from light grey brown to orange, with general iron staining and the formation of banding and Liesegang rings being a feature of the stonework where the patina and dirt have been weathered away. 

 

A detail of a window in the north aisle

 

Walking around the church at some distance, there has been some delamination of the tracery and window surrounds but, where the sandstone is laid on its natural bed, there is no scouring or pronounced decay – except in small areas beneath some of the string courses and other drip mouldings - and I didn’t see any signs of restoration. 

 

General views of the masonry at St. Mary's church

 

The rain and generally overcast sky eventually cleared to reveal blue sky, which enabled me to take a few photographs that better showed the general masonry to the south elevation, although again I didn’t get very close to the stonework. 

 

A view of the south elevation

 

The windows to the chancel have head stops, which I didn’t particularly notice on this occasion, but I did manage to use the zoom lens on my Canon Powershot G7 X Mark II to capture an angel and one of several dragons that project from the string course to the tower, which is just below the castellated parapet. 

 

An angel and dragon on the tower

 

The head stops to the porch depict a figure with either a crown or coronet and an archbishop, about which the only reference that I can find - Early History of Stocksbridge and District no 15 - Bolsterstone 1 by Joseph Kenworthy – states: ‘The corbels outside and inside the porch represent Sir Robert Rockley, Henry Bower, Archbishop of York and Richard de Westhall’. 

 

A head stop on the porch

 

Sir Robert Rockley (c.1340 - c.1415), who established a private chantry chapel in1412, and Henry Bowet (d.1423), Archbishop of York – who lived during the reign of Henry IV - have come up in my brief online search, but I am a geologist and not a genealogist and I am more interested in the provenance of the coarse gritty sandstone that has been used to build the church. 

A head stop on the porch