St. Helen’s Church in Burghwallis II

 

The east end of St. Helen's church

Continuing my brief look at the exterior of St. Helen's church in Burghwallis, the east end of the south chancel wall is built with squared and coursed blocks that are obviously very different to the west end of the south chancel wall. It has very large well formed quoins made of yellowish limestone from the Cadeby Formation, which has been used for the well squared and coursed masonry on the east end of the chancel. 

 

The east end of the chancel

 

I didn't notice this at the time, as I was just taking a few general photos while waiting for Colin the churchwarden to finish his work but, in Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire, Peter Ryder draws attention to disturbance and patterns of the masonry beneath the east window that suggests that this is actually an insertion of a window into earlier masonry. 

 

The east wall of the chancel

He goes on to explain that drawings from the 1883 restoration show that the nave and chancel roofs were raised and their pitch steepened and, to maintain the proportions of the east end of the chancel, the window was dismantled and reset at a higher level. Looking closely at my photos, variations in the patterns and jointing of stonework can be clearly seen, which includes the used of red sandstone in the gable end. 

 

The east end of the north wall of the chancel

Moving round to the north elevation, the east end of the chancel is built with a mixture of rubble and roughly squared and coursed red sandstone and dolomitic limestone walling, which contains several large well square yellowish blocks of limestone. It also contains a small oculus window with a square surround made of dark red/purple sandstone, which has been reset with its former inner face to the exterior and Ryder describes as a pre-Conquest form. 

 

The vestry door

 

The north vestry, which Historic England (HE) describe as C19, has a doorway that is surrounded by very precisely squared limestone ashlar that mostly still retains very sharp profiles an except for a few large blocks to the jambs, which show advanced deteriotation and some of which have been recently replaced.

 

The vestry

In contrast, the east wall of the vestry is built with a mixture of yellowish limestone blocks with a good proportion of red sandstone blocks, which are quite well squared and coursed but are highly weathered and they would not look out of place in the eastern extension to the chancel. 

 

The north elevation of the vestry

On the north elevation of the porch, the masonry is much more regularly squared and coursed, but there is the same mix of weathered yellowish limestone and red sandstone, with well formed quoins, and may well be the C19 reuse of old stonework. HE describes the window as dating to the C15/C16, which has been reused; however, the ripple marks, which also apparent to a lesser degree in the restored windows of the nave and chancel on the south elevation, suggest to my eye that the stone used could be Ancaster limestone, which was often used by Victorian architects for their restorations. 

 

The north elevation of the nave

The lowest section of the north elevation of the nave is built with herringbone masonry, but the stonework above consists entirely of limestone rubble walling, which contains no red sandstone and is unlike any of the walling seen in the south walls of the nave and chancel. Ryder considers this to be a rebuilt part of the wall and the blocked doorway, which is partly obscured by a buttress, may relate to this but no date is assigned to it. 

 

The west end of the north wall of the nave

 

The C19 window is identical to those on the south wall of the chancel which, according to Ryder, replaced broad simple arched windows that had no tracery and, although he makes no reference to the architects involved in the 1864 and 1883 restorations, the local historian Margaret Burns says that the earlier restoration was supervised by John Loughborough Pearson – a Gothic Revival architect that was often criciticised by SPAB (The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) for not respecting the mediaeval fabric of many churches that he worked on. 

 

The first stage of the north elevation of the tower

Continuing to the tower, I noted that this is built with thinly bedded limestone from the Brotherton Formation, which also includes a significant amount of substantial blocks of red sandstone and an oculus window identical to the one seen at the east end of the chancel. 

 

The upper stages of the west elevation of the tower

Before I had the time to take a close look at the tower, which HE describes as C13, the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture of Britain and Ireland refers to as Norman and Ryder considers to have pre-Conquest and Early English Gothic features, Colin arrived to show me around the interior.

 

The belfry stage of the tower

St. Helen’s Church in Burghwallis I

 

The south elevation of St. Helen's church

The Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Campsall, with its complex construction history and its extensive in situ and reset Romanesque sculpture, is one of the most interesting that I have visited since I first began my investigation of mediaeval churches in Treeton back in February 2016. 

 

The lychgate

 

Having been dropped off at the lychgate of the Grade I Listed St. Helen’s church in Burghwallis by Chris Ellis, the organiser of Church Explorers Week, I entered the churchyard and went to look for Colin the churchwarden, who was doing some gardening. 

 

Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire

 

After introducing myself, I left him to finish off the work he was doing and went to have a very quick look at the exterior of the church, which is one of seven described by Peter Ryder in Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire and is best known for its extensive herringbone masonry. 

 

The south elevation of the nave and the porch

 

Historic England (HE) dates the church as “C10-C11 and C12 with C14-C16 alterations; restored 1864 and 1883” and, standing back to take a general record photograph of its south elevation, I could clearly see distinct variations in the patterns and colours of the masonry in the tower, porch, nave and chancel – including a considerable proportion of red sandstone. 

 

A close up view of the south elevation of the nave

Moving closer, the nave and the west end of the chancel is built mainly with herringbone masonry that comprises thin bedded limestone from the Brotherton Formation, with red sandstone sporadically used in the herringbone stonework, as normally bedded courses and for quoins. 

 

The geology around Burghwallis

 

A couple of blocks of massive squared yellowish limestone from the Cadeby Formation, which outcrops a short distance away to the north-west, have been used in walling in the east end of the nave, for most of the quoins to the east end of the nave, the dressings of the 3-light Perpendicular Gothic style square headed window and as large ashlar blocks in the porch, which HE date to the late C14 or early C15. 

 

The porch

The renewed C13 lancet window is made of massive limestone that has a buff/pink colour and is quite unlike the cream coloured or yellowish dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation, but I did not examine it closely with my hand lens or test it with hydrochloric acid, which would confirm that it might be Jurassic oolitic limestone – as I have often seen used to restore the dressings of mediaeval churches built with dolomitic limestone in Doncaster. 

 

The base of the wall to the nave

 

Red sandstone has been used for the base of the wall of the nave and the plain square plinth and, although the latter is in places buried beneath the turf, it apparently continues into the west end of the chancel to a buttress that hides the joint in the masonry, which Ryder considers to certainly be pre-Conquest or overlap date to the west and of the late C14 to early C15 extension to the east. 

 

The floor plan of St. Helen's church

 

The west end of the chancel is composed of both herringbone and squared and coursed and masonry and Ryder refers to three of the red sandstone blocks as being shaped to the re-entrant angle of the east wall of the nave. 

 

The re-entrant angle of the nave and chancel

 

The central section of the chancel wall is also built with herringbone masonry, with coursed and squared stonework beneath the eaves, but the windows are in the late C13 to early C14 Decorated Gothic style and look like they have had much of the tracery replaced; however, Ryder states that a plan of the church in 1864 shows these to have been originally broad arches without tracery.

 

The central section of the south wall of the chancel

 

The extended east end of the chancel is built with well squared and coursed limestone, with an occasional use of red sandstone and very large quoins. The east window is also in the Decorated Gothic style with identical tracery, but it is shorter and it replaced a square headed window during one of the C19 restorations of the church - the first of which in 1864 was supervised by John Loughborough Pearson, according to the account by the local historian Margaret Burns.

 

The east end of the south elevation of the chancel

 

St. Mary Magdalene Campsall VI

 

The capital to the south transept arch

Continuing my walk around the interior of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, having photographed the principal architectural elements and had a good look at the Romanesque features of the arches to the transepts, I took a general photo of the east end of the nave without taking much notice of the details of the chancel arch. 

 

The chancel arch

 

Pevsner doesn’t mention this, Historic England (HE) describes it as “restored and with semicircular respond to north and keeled respond to south, 4-centred arch of 2 roll-moulded orders” and the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland (CRSBI) are quite non-committal. 

 

The CRSBI description of the chancel arch

Once inside the chancel, where the light contrast between the east window and the surrounding walls seemed to be a problem for my otherwise quite reliable Panasonic Lumix TZ100 camera, I didn’t examine any of the patterns in the masonry and just took a few record photos of a few features that caught my eye. 

 

The chancel

 

The sedilia with pointed trefoiled heads in the south wall is dated by Pevsner to c.1300, which fits in with a major phase of alterations to the chancel and the construction of the west end of the south aisle, and HE describe it as being renewed. 

 

The sedilia on the south side of the chancel

 

Set into the floor are ledger stones commemorating John Cooke Yarborough (d.1836), his son Edward (d.1812) and Emily Sarah (d.1841), the wife of George Cooke Yarborough, who all lived at the now demolished Campsmount. They are made of of a dark grey stone, which may be Carboniferous Limestone that has largely lost its original polished surface, a stone that I have seen used in several other ledgers, although I didn’t closely inspect it. 

 

Stone ledgers commemorating members of the Yarborough family

 

On the north wall of the chancel is a large white Carrara marble wall monument to Thomas Yarborough (d.1772) and his family, which was carved by the renowned sculptor John Flaxman in 1803 and is described by Pevsner as “Grecian relief of the family present at the death of a geron”. 

 

The Yarborough family wall memorial

Immediately to the west of this is a C12 window that has shafts with scalloped capitals, which I seen from the exterior and just took a single record photo, which I had to adjust in Photoshop and again highlighted the technical deficiency of my camera compared to my previous Canon Powershot G16 and G7XII cameras, when taking photographs of windows in a church interior. 

 

The C12 window in the chancel

 

Moving back to the north aisle, a dolomitic limestone mediaeval grave slab is set into the tiled floor, which HE describes as being inscribed with a sword to right of a cross on a calvary base, but this is not mentioned by Pevsner or the church guide. 

 

The grave slab in the north aisle

A little further to the west along the north aisle, a pointed arched niche is set into the wall and in this is laid a large thick, moulded yellow dolomitic limestone slab, which is weathered to the extent that no details can be made out and no mention is made of this. 

 

A large moulded slab occupying a niche in the north aisle

 

Returning to the crossing, preparations were being made for the Summer Serenade in the evening, featuring the Hatfield and Askern Colliery Band, I didn’t spend any more time to look at any of the features mentioned in the Lady Chapel, except the C15 font, and continued to the south aisle. 

 

The font in the Lady Chapel

 

In the wall of the aisle, which is built with distinctly yellow limestone from the Cadeby Formation, I noted numerous reset fragments of C12 masonry – 29 according to the CRSBI - which Pevsner suggests are derived from the arch from the south aisle arch. 

 

Views of reset stones in the south aisle wall

 

The CRSBI go on to say that they believe that the range of patterns, which includes those of arches with two orders, indicate that they may be from other arches in more prominent positions and therefore more highly decorated. Furthermore, they suggest that the fragments, which were once scattered in the churchyard, were placed in the wall during the restoration of the 1870’s. 

 

A capital fixed to the west end of the nave

 

At the west end of the nave, a scalloped capital is fixed by a bracket on the wall and this was selected for an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London. It was originally found in the priest's chamber, which occupies the second floor of the C.1300 addition to the west end of the south aisle. The CRSBI describes the decoration in some detail and states that George Zarnecki had assigned a date of c.1089 to this. 

 

The tower arch

 

After photographing the tall round C12 tower arch, which has no decoration and plain imposts, I noticed the beakheads on the sill of the west window of the north aisle, which were originally part of a corbel table that was dismantled during the rebuilding of the Norman church.

 

Beakheads in the north aisle

 

On the window sill of the west window of the south aisle, there are more examples of salvaged loose sculpture and these may be some of those that the CRSBI found piled up in the fireplace in the priest’s chamber and lying in the north transept, when they undertook their survey in 2005. 

 

Salvaged sculpted masonry in the south aisle

 

Having by now visited well over 100 mediaeval churches in South Yorkshire and the surrounding counties, where Romanesque sculptural details such as these are often the architectural highlight, it would be nice to see these in a well designed showcase or even as a temporary exhibition at DANUM, where a C12 window head from St. Wilfrid’s church in Hickleton is on permanent display. 

 

A view of the baptistry and C14 font from the tower

 

In the baptistry at the west end of the south aisle, there is another font that dates to the C14, but the highlight is the vaulted ceiling (c.1300) above which is the priest’s chamber, but I don’t think that this was accessible at the time.

 

The vaulted ceiling in the baptistry

 

Having had a quick walk around the church, I then had a good chat with members of BarnSCAN, the local history group and the churchwarden who, when I said that I had been wanting to visit St. Helen’s church in Burghwallis for some time, said that their churchwarden would be doing some work in the churchyard and he would open up the church for me. 

 

The arch from the south aisle to the baptistry

 

It had been my intention to catch the No. 51 bus to Burghwallis and have a look at the exterior of this Anglo-Saxon church, before undertaking a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for  the village, so this was an added bonus to what had already been a great day out – especially since the organiser of Church Explorers Week, Chris Ellis, kindly offered to give me a lift.

A view west along the nave

 

St. Mary Magdalene Campsall V

 

The arch from the north transept to the north aisle

I spent just over 30 minutes having a look at the external fabric of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Doncaster, but it was enough time to appreciate Sir Nicholas Pevsner’s view that it is a “complex building with a fascinating history” and it would be interesting to see what a photogrammetric survey would make of it. 

 

The Diocese of Sheffield directory

 

Along with St. Helen’s church in Burghwallis, I had been hoping to visit this church for a few years since discovering in the Diocese of Sheffield directory that Revd. Richard Walton, the husband of Revd. Ann Walton who had opened St. Laurence’s church in Adwick-le-Street for me at very short notice, was the incumbent. 

 

A Church Explorers Week noticeboard

 

These are located in a part of Doncaster that is not easy to get to by public transport from Treeton and, when I finally made the decision to go and see them, I discovered that he had retired and the new vicar made no effort to facilitate a visit – making an excuse that nobody was available to open the church for me – and I was therefore very pleased to discover that Chris Ellis had included this on the itinerary for Church Explorers Week 2024. 

 

A view east along the nave 

 

Entering by the priest’s door in the chancel, after introducing myself and purchasing a church guide, which is one of the standard publications produced by the now defunct Heritage Inspired initiative, I proceeded to undertake a systematic photographic record of the principal architectural elements of the church – starting with a view east along the nave. 

 

The south arcade and clerestory

 

Pevsner describes the arcades as Perpendicular Gothic (c.1350-1520), which Historic England (HE) further elaborates as being of the early part of this period, with thin piers with four straight sides and big wave-mouldings to the diagonals. Looking up at the clerestory of the south side, there is a distinct change from rubble masonry to larger well squared blocks and this dates to the addition of the clerestory in the C15. 

 

The north arcade and clerestory

 

On the north side of the nave, this change in the pattern of masonry is not so obvious, with much of the stonework to the arcade – especially the central section – comprising blocks that are more regularly squared and coursed than in the south arcade. 

 

A view of the north aisle

When looking at the exterior, I couldn’t see any obviously differences in the ashlar between the phases of the building that took place in the C12, C13, C14 and C15. Much of the west end of the nave was occupied with displays by the local history group BarnSCAN and tables for visitors to sit down for food and drink and, instead of taking a good look at the masonry of the nave, I just took a few general record photos. 

 

The east end of the south arcade and the south transept arch

 

Going down to the east end of the south arcade, I was very interested to see that there is a very abrupt change in the masonry from rubble to ashlar and the pointed arch to the south transept is taller, has chevrons and the capital to the west respond is C12, which the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture for Britain and Ireland (CRSBI) describes in detail. 

 

The arch from the nave to the south transept

 

Quite strangely, when describing the arcades, Pevsner states that the arcades are “followed by half-arches to the E to link up with the transepts. Something must have gone wrong with the calculations”, when the arches to both transepts are quite clearly complete. 

 

The arch from the nave to the north transept

 

HE record that the arches to the transepts differ, with the south arch having an a semi-circular west respond and re-carved capital, a keeled east respond with a moulded capital and a pointed arch with roll-moulding and zig-zag. The description goes on to say that the north arch has 2 semi-circular responds and dog-tooth to the soffit of a similar arch, but does not mention that the second order of the arch has a mixture of chevrons that are ‘lateral’ and ‘normal’ to the face – variations that are described in the CRSBI chevron guide. 

 

The arch from the north transept to the north aisle

Entering the north transept, where the exposed masonry on the north wall displays a lot of thinly bedded limestone from the Brotherton Formation, a window in the west wall of the transept of the early Norman cruciform church has been blocked up and cut through by an arch to the north aisle, which was added along with the chancel and the tower in the later C12. 

 

The arch from the north aisle to the north transept