The Wadsley Parish Church Graveyard

 

A detail of the headstone of Private F.W. Oakden

When first visiting Wadsley during a 7 mile walk from Walkley to Hillsborough, while undertaking a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, I walked around Wadsley parish church to take a set of photographs and encountered 4 Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) headstones.

 

The headstone of Corporal T.E. Addy

 

Since first finding the CWGC headstone of Private J.W. Wornes at St. John the Baptist’s church in Dronfield back in 2019, I have made a point of looking for these in the churchyards and cemeteries that I have encountered on my travels – principally to photograph the regimental crests. 

 

At the meeting point for the Wadsley graveyard tour

After taking a quick walk around Wadsley Common on my most recent visit exploration of Wadsley, I took advantage of the free tour of Wadsley graveyard – that extends to more than 6 acres - which is led by Tony Jordan, who largely manages the vegetation in places left overgrown for wildlife and other areas where wild flowers grow. 

 

A plan of the burial plots at Wadsley graveyard

 

Having to date found 87 regimental crests and photographed more than 400 headstones at 43 churchyards and cemeteries, in preparation for this visit I managed to find a plan of the burial plots, which would make the task of finding the remaining 10 CWGC headstones much easier. 

 

The Wharncliffe War Hospital Memorial

Arriving before the meeting time of 14:00, I had a quick look around the graveyard and found the Portland stone memorial to 23 soldiers from the nearby Wharncliffe War Hospital, which had previously functioned as the South Yorkshire Asylum. 

 

A view along the nave at Wadsley parish church

 

Starting inside Wadsley parish church (1834), by Joseph Potter, Ian briefly described his role as a volunteer at the graveyard and showed us a range of plans, photographs and documents relating to its history that were on display and, before we set off on the walk, I took a couple of photos of its interior – most notable for the very tall cast iron piers used for the arcades. 

 

The headstone of Private F.W. Oakden

 

As we slowly wandered around the graveyard, I got distracted by the sight of a CWGC headstone that was on my list to photograph - Private F.W. Oakden of the Leinster Regiment. I just took a couple of photos, without examining the stone closely, but I thought that it is Stancliffe Darley Dale stone from the Ashover Grit, which developed a very good reputation as a building stone and has been used for many headstones and substantial war memorials. 

 

A worksheet by Lidster and Brammer of Worksop

 

However, he appears along with six other victims on the worksheet of the memorial masons Lidster and Brammer of Worksop, where ‘Woodkirk Blue’ is handwritten in red ink on the document – presumably indicating that this was the stone to be used for the memorials on the list. 

 

The headstone of Private L. Jessop

 

This worksheet also includes the headstone of Private L. Jessop of the Non Combatant Corps, which I photographed on my previous visit and had also identified as Darley Dale stone but, after having discovered that many of the CWGC headstones at Moorgate Cemetery in Rotherham are also made by Lidster and Brammer in Woodkirk Blue, I have since began to look at the CWGC sandstone headstones more closely. 

 

The headstone of Private F, Hague

As I later discovered with the headstone of Private F. Hague of the York and Lancaster Regiment, he appears on another original worksheet that also contains the names for other headstones found in this graveyard. The original unnamed sandstone had deteriorated to the extent that it had to be replaced in 2002, with the new worksheet stating Stancliffe Darley Dale as the stone used. 

 

A detail of the headstone of Private F. Hague

 

New replacement headstones how have their inscription and regimental crest cut by a CNC milling machine, which is extremely precise and lacks the aesthetic quality of the original hand cut work, but very often the CWGC record of these has not yet been updated to show the stone used. 

 

Private F. Salkeld and Second Lieutenant G.O. Howard

 

The twin headstone of Private F. Salkeld and Second Lieutenant G.O. Howard, of the York and Lancaster and South Staffordshire regiments respectively, appears to be an example of where the original headstone, presumably made with Woodkirk Blue according to the worksheet, has been replaced with a different type of stone. 

 

Private F. Salkeld and Second Lieutenant G.O. Howard

 

The Portland stone used here shows no sign of the shell fragments having weathered out, a very characteristic feature of the headstones that commemorate the victims of WWI, which are now 100 years old, and to a more limited extent those of WWII. 

 

A memorial to the buried inmates of the South Yorkshire Asylum

 

Although I wasn’t attentive to our guide as I should have been, while he told us about the 30 victims of the Great Sheffield Flood of 1864 - including 6 headstones that record the bursting of the reservoir – and the remains of over 2500 paupers from the South Yorkshire Asylum, buried beneath a large open area between 1872 and 1948 with no memorial.

 

The headstone of Benjamin Keeton

 

Benjamin Keeton was a well known cricket player in the area and, when he died in 1871, his widow complied with his request that his grave should mark his devotion to cricket – with stumps, a bat and a ball carved on it – but it caused some controversy, with the vicar and certain parishioners thinking it unsuitable and it was knocked down at one point. 

 

The tomb of Ann and Elizabeth Harrison

 

The most elaborate memorial that we were shown was the tomb of Ann (d.1858) and Elizabeth (d.1873) Harrison, the original benefactors of this church, who were the daughters of Thomas Harrison (1758-1818), a prominent manufacturer of saws. 

 

The grave of Dr. T. Allan Taylor

 

Another grave is that of Dr. T. Allan Taylor who developed the high nickel alloy steel needed for the production of the jet engine by Frank Whittle in the 1930s. The inscription is cut into a slab of what looks like is probably the Brancliffe Edge variety of the Greenmoor Rock, but it was the turbine blades that most caught my attention on this occasion. 

 

Various Botticino marble headstones

 

When the tour had finished, I carried on with my search for the remaining headstones on my list and was interested to see that 6 of these are Italian Botticino marble replacements, with that of Private C.S. Rhodes of the Coldstream Guards possibly being made in Portland stone – another indication that the Woodkirk Stone used here was not very durable.

 

A detail of the headstone of Private C.S. Rhodes