A Walk Around Sprotbrough

 

The Church of St. Mary the Virgin

Since starting my investigation of the mediaeval churches of Rotherham at St. Helen’s church in Treeton, back in February 2016, I have visited well over 100 churches and a few cathedrals in South Yorkshire and the surrounding counties of Derbyshire, West Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire – all undertaken by public transport. 

 

Mediaeval churches to visit in South Yorkshire as at 10th June 2023

By June 2023, my travel to the 22 mediaeval churches still on my list to visit in South Yorkshire required a bus from Treeton to Sheffield, then a train to either Barnsley and Doncaster, before catching another bus to an outlying village and then reversing the process on the return journey. 

 

Listed buildings to photograph

 

Following on from my walk along Totley Brook to look at is geology, my next day out was the village of Sprotbrough, principally to visit the Grade I Listed Church of St. Mary the Virgin but, as has now become a matter of routine, also to photograph its historic buildings as part of the British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge. 

 

An old cross base

 

Alighting from the No. 219 bus on Melton Road, my first stop was to photograph an old resited cross base near the junction with Spring Lane, which is probably late mediaeval and comprises a block of massive dolomitic limestone from the Permian Cadeby Formation. 

 

The mounting steps on Main Street

 

Heading south down Thorpe Lane, I came to the St. Mary’s church, which I will describe later, and next stopped to photograph the Grade II Listed mounting steps, a K6 telephone box and the wrought iron gates to Home Cottage on Main Street. 

 

Views of the Old Rectory and its entrance

Turning down Boat Lane, the stuccoed Old Rectory (c.1850) was the next building on my list to photograph, along with its boundary wall and gate posts, which are made of massive limestone – as with other walls that I seen so far in the Sprotbrough Conservation Area. 

 

The village pump

To the east of No. 41 Boat Lane is the C19 village pump, which was originally sited on main Street, but was moved to this site in November 1987. The Remains of the pump shaft, with a cuboidal stone bucket platform, is set in a gabled recess with projecting side piers and the Copley arms carved on a sandstone slab. 

 

A small outcrop of well bedded dolomitic limestone

 

Near to the bottom of Boat Lane, a few small outcrops of limestone poke out of the bank on its east side, where there is no path. Even though I didn’t take my Estwing hammer with me, taking care to avoid the traffic coming up the road, I managed to obtain a sample of fine granular buff limestone with a very feint pinkish tinge. 

 

A sample of dolomic limestone from Boat Lane

 

Reaching the Don Gorge, I stopped on Sprotbrough Bridge to photograph the Grade II Listed Toll House (1849), which was built for Sir Joseph William Copley in dressed massive Carboniferous sandstone, with ashlar quoins. 

 

The Toll House

 

Heading east along this part of the Don Gorge, which I had last visited when surveying the crags and old quarries along Engine Wood for the Doncaster Geodiversity Assessment, I went in search for the Grade II Listed Sprotbrough Pump. 

 

A view east along Sprotbrough Lock from Sprotbrough Bridge

I could only see a few sections of wall of the pump house, which was built by Joseph Copley to pump water 150 feet up to Sprotbrough village - to power a fountain in the grounds of the now demolished Sprotbrough Hall, which had been inspired by the Emperor Fountain at Chatsworth. 

 

The remains of Sprotbrough Pump

 

Retracing my steps back to Sprotbrough Bridge, I continued along Nursery Lane until I reached the C17 Boat Inn, a very popular public house that occupies an old farmhouse at the centre of a range of large farm buildings, which are built with limestone walls and red pantile roofs. 

 

The Boat Inn

 

Walking back up Boat Lane to the centre of Sprotbrough, I took a diversion to the late C17 stuccoed stable block to Sprotbrough Hall, before continuing back up to Main Street, where I had a look at some of the older unlisted buildings, which are mainly rendered, before having a quick look at the Millennium Stone Cross.

 

The Millennium Stone Cross

Arriving at St. Mary’s church, I had a quick walk around the churchyard and came across a Calvary cross whose design reminded me of the crucifixes that were erected in Hickleton by the 2nd Viscount Halifax but, looking closely, I could see that it is actually a war memorial. 

 

A detail of the war memorial

 

It is made from a very coarse grained pisolitic variety of dolomitic limestone from the Permian Cadeby Formation, which I had only seen in small outcrops at Hooton Pagnell, but had never encountered before as a building material.

 

Pisolitic limestone used for the war memorial shaft