In the spring of 2023, when starting to plan my continued investigation of the mediaeval churches of South Yorkshire, starting in Sprotbrough, I was very conscious of the fact that all of those remaining on my list to visit required a bus journey from Treeton to Sheffield and then a train to Barnsley or Doncaster, from which I would then need to catch another bus.
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The locations of Wadworth and Loversall in relation to Treeton
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With St. John's church in Wadworth and St. Katherine's church in Loversall being so close to each other, I was hoping to combine both on the same day, but I couldn't find any information about the opening hours of the latter; however, at the St. John's coffee morning, I discovered that the Romanian Orthodox Church hold services at St. Katherine's church and Revd. Canon Ian Smith made arrangements for me to visit.
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The headstone of Flight Lieutenant Andrew Smith
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Arriving at the south-west corner of the churchyard, I stopped briefly to photograph the Portland stone headstone of Flight Lieutenant Andrew Smith, which was commissioned by the Ministry of Defence, before approaching the west elevation of the four stage tower.
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A view from the south-west entrance to the churchyard
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I could immediately see the contrast between the cream/yellow to occasionally pink coursed rubble limestone to the walling of the lowest three stages and the grey ashlar masonry of the upper stage, the buttresses, dressings and, as I got much closer, large squared stones interspersed in the rubble walling. With Wadworth being built on the Brotherton Formation, the rubble walling has been presumably quarried from this, with the massive stone being obtained further afield from the Cadeby Formation.
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The west elevation of the tower
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Pevsner describes the lower part of the tower as dating to c.1300, with the upper part and the rest of the church being in the Perpendicular Gothic style, with the north windows being replaced in 1850 and the nave rebuilt by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1855.
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The south elevation
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Continuing my walk around the church in a clockwise direction, I just took a few general record photos of the nave, which is built in very well squared and coursed masonry, but I didn't get close to the stonework. The renewed windows all have Decorated Gothic tracery that have geometric elements in their design, which Scott presumably based on the original windows.
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The south elevation of the nave
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The chancel is not mentioned by Pevsner and Historic England only describes it as "Chancel: lower, partly roughcast. Two C19 windows to north have cusped intersecting tracery and carved hoodmould stops; similar 3-light east window; gable copings", without assigning a date to it.
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The north elevation of the chancel
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The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain & Ireland, however, refers to a remnant of a splay to a round headed window in the internal south wall of the chancel and the first recorded mention of the church in 1207, which suggests that the moderately well squared and coursed rubble masonry dates to the late C12.
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A view from the north-east
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Although the colour of the stonework is partly obscured by the thickly applied mortar, the buff/yellow/pink clour of the limestone is similar to that seen in the lower part of the tower and is therefore likely to have been obtained from the underlying Brotherton Formation.
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The east end
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The Wyrall Chapel was added to the south side of the chancel c.1530 and comprises large limestone ashlar blocks, with some yellow colouration that is not seen in the ashlar in the upper stage of the tower or masonry in the north wall of the nave.
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The south elevation of the Wyrall Chapel
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This contrasts stongly with the limestone that has been used for the restoration of the window heads on the south elevation, which reflects the very limited colour range of limestone now available from the Cadeby Formation.
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Heraldic crests on the Wyrall Chapel
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On the west and south side of the chapel are plaques with a roll moulding, which contain heraldic crests of the Wyrall family, but the limestone is very weathered and the mottos are now illegible and much of the detailing is no longer clearly visible.
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The south side of the C14 tomb chest
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Outside the chapel, there is an ornate Grade II* Listed C14 century tomb chest, which the church guide states is the only one of this form in the country and according to Pevsner "Its sides are decorated with tracery of all kinds, as if an early C14 mason had gone to his pattern book and copied a number of patterns".
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The north side of the C14 tomb chest
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Before entering the porch, which was added in 1861, I took a couple of photographs of the south elevation, where the clerestory and south aisle are part of the major phase of rebuilding that was undertaken by Scott in 1855.
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The south elevation
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