An Exploration of Old and New Edlington

 

A coal wagon from Yorkshire Main Colliery

My very brief visit to Old Edlington, where I spent less than an hour exploring the interior and exterior of St. Peter’s church, ended with a few photos of a couple of listed buildings that were on my list for a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge - the dovecote to the house known as Limestones and the rendered Manor Farm House on the opposite side of the road. 

 

The dovecote at Limestones

 

The next listed building for me to photograph was the Edlington War Memorial, so I caught the No. 10 bus, which is now the X2, and alighted at the Edlington Lane/Thomson Avenue stop, where I grabbed a bite to eat at ASDA before continuing north along Edlington Lane. 

 

The 1930 Ordnance Survey map of New Edlington

 

New Edlington is centred around the former Yorkshire Main Colliery, which produced coal from 1909 to 1985 when it closed down. It is dominated by brick built houses and shops alongside Denaby Lane and by the time the 1930 Ordnance Survey map was published, had grown into quite a substantial village. 

 

The Edlington Collier sculpture by Andrew Farmer

At the Yorkshire Main Community Centre, my first encounter with stone of any note was at the bronze Edlington Collier sculpture by Andrew Farmer, which is set upon a large block of dolomitic limestone from the Permian Cadeby Formation. 

 

The memorial to the miners at Yorkshire Main Colliery

 

Next to this is the Yorkshire Main Commemorative Trust Memorial Garden, the centrepiece of which is the headstock wheel, set on a brick plinth with square memorial plaques at each end. In front of the wheel, an inscribed slab commemorates the miners who lost their lives at the colliery. 

 

The memorial to Frank Arrowsmith

 

I didn’t get close enough to see what kind of stone these were made of, but I presume that they are ‘black granite’, which typically comes from India and China nowadays. The memorial to Frank Arrowsmith (d.2020), who founded the Miners Memorial Garden and Yorkshire Main Heritage Trust and served as Town Mayor, is also made of a polished black stone that, looking at my photo, looks like it could be Carboniferous Limestone.

 

Various memorials and display panels

The Edlington National Union of Mineworkers memorial to the Miners' Strike (1984-1985) provides another example of a polished black stone plaque, which is set on a block of limestone - as is the timeline that records the history of the Yorkshire Main Heritage Trust. 

 

The Primitive Methodist Chapel building

Leaving the memorial garden, the Primitive Methodist Chapel (1924) building on the corner of Main Avenue and Prince’s Crescent immediately caught my eye. It is built in dense smooth red extruded and wire cut bricks, which are typical of those made from the milled Coal Measures mudstone in northern England.

 

Stone dressings on the front elevation

 

The window dressings are made of a pale cream coloured limestone, which I did not inspect closely with a hand lens, but as I got nearer I noted that in sheltered areas – particularly on on the datestone – I could see that the limestone has developed a distinctly honey brown patina. I normally associate this with Jurassic oolitic limestone and not Permian dolomitic limestone, which tends to develop a grey patina when weathered. 

 

The datestone

 

Limestone from the Cadeby Formation was readily available from nearby quarries at Warmsworth, or slightly further away at Cadeby, but I would need to take another look at the church to determine whether Jurassic or Permian limestone has been used here. 

 

The Church of St. John the Baptist

 

Continuing up Main Avenue, I took a few photos of the brick built Church of St. John the Baptist, which has very large window sills made from a pale cream coloured limestone, but I didn’t get close to it and retraced my steps back to Edlington Lane and carried on until I found Edlington War Memorial. Again, I didn't look closely at the stone, but it looks like a medium grained gritstone such as Darley Dale or Bolton Woods.

Edlington War Memorial