Warmsworth Old Village - Part 2

 

The south elevation of Warmsworth Hall

Continuing my exploration of Warmsworth old village, I walked up Glebe Street to High Road and carried on until I reached the Holiday Inn Hotel, which has been built inside the former grounds of the Grade II* Listed Warmsworth Hall (1702).

Warmsworth Hall

It is built in coursed limestone rubble, which has very often has blocks of a much greater size and thickness of blocks than the limestone seen in the lower part of No. 11 Glebe Street, which may be from the Brotherton Formation, and this looks like limestone from the Cadeby Formation.

The west elevation of Warmsworth Hall

The quoins and dressings, which are slightly paler in colour, are from the Cadeby Formation, with the roof quite unusually being stone slate rather than red pantiles, which is the traditional roofing material seen in the architecture on the Magnesian Limestone.

Gatepiers to Low Road East and Low Road West

After taking photos of the gate piers at Low Road East and Low Road West, which I hadn’t realised had been already photographed for the British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, I noted that they are built with massive limestone from the Cadeby Formation and then looked at the hotel grounds.

A crumbling garden wall

A wedding was taking place at the time of my visit, so I discretely obtained a sample of limestone from a small pile of rubble that had fallen away from a garden wall, which also displays different periods of building – firstly with thinly bedded limestone and later with more massive limestone.

A sample of limestone obtained from a garden wall

I didn’t examine any of the walling from which this sample had fallen, but it is yellowish in colour and full of small voids with brown staining. I have seen many limestone exposures that have crystal lined vughs, but I have not seen anything like this before. Looking at the sample with a hand lens, it is finely granular and tiny specks of black manganese oxide are scattered throughout the limestone, which is a feature of the dolomitic limestone from the Wetherby Member of the Cadeby Formation in the nearby Warmsworth Park.

 

The 184 Ordnance Survey map of Warmsworth

On the 1894 edition of the Ordnance Survey map, Manor Farm is seen to occupy much of the land to the west and north-west of Warmsworth Hall. These buildings have since been demolished and replaced by the hotel and its car park, but sections of old walls remain, where the limestone has various colours – including yellow and reddened blocks – and further examples of triangular vents can be seen.

 

Old walls in the hotel car park

 

Returning to High Road, I then walked down Quaker Lane to photograph the Grade II Listed former Quaker Meeting House (1706), where the render has partly fallen off to reveal thinly bedded limestone rubble walling.

 

The former Quaker Meeting House

 

On the opposite side of the road, partially obscured by a high ground is the late C18 and early C19 Warmsworth House, also Grade II Listed, which has well squared and coursed walling, large quoins and a Welsh slate roof that has replaced the original red pantiles.

 

Warmsworth House

I didn’t stop long to look at them, but in the walling to No. 2 Quaker Lane, I noticed a wide variety of unusual textures in the limestone, which included burrows, shrinkage patterns, solution features and further examples of the unusual voids as seen in the sample that I collected.

 

Details of the walling at No. 2 Quaker Lane

Reaching Low Road West, I had a quick look at some of the attractive houses that predate the publication of the 1854 Ordnance Survey map, which look like they probably date back to the C18, before making my way towards Warmsworth Park.

 

Houses on Low Road West

Although there has been some infill development to replace a few demolished buildings, the architecturally uninspiring Holiday Inn hotel and its car park is large hidden out of view and, when walking around the Conservation Area, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that so much of its character has been preserved.

 

Longbarn

Passing Longbarn, yet another converted farm building that is a stone’s throw from Warmsworth Hall, my walk had reminded me of previous visits to Palterton and Hooton Pagnell – two ancient villages set on the Magnesian Limestone escarpment, which are dominated by several farms that are in close proximity to the manor house.

 

Various historic buildings on Low Road West

Continuing along Low Road West past the old school, more farm buildings and cottages, I stopped briefly to photograph the Grade II Listed barn on Low Road West, which I had previously seen from High Road at the beginning of my walk.

The Grade II Listed barn on Low Road West

 

Passing the land to the west, which I have since learned has not been developed because of major archaeologal objections, I finished my exploration of Warmsworth old village, which only took an hour, by having another look at the old quarry faces in Warmsworth Park - a site that I have used for field trips with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group and the XP School in Doncaster.

An old quarry face in Warmsworth Park