Historic Architecture in Whitwell

 

No. 44 High Street

 

On the way back to Treeton, after a recce of Creswell Crags for a Sheffield U3A Geology Group field trip in 2023, we passed through Whitwell along Mason Street and Scotland Street and I was interested to see that the limestone used in the buildings that we passed, which predate the growth of the village in brick after the opening of Whitwell Colliery in 1890, is distinctly reddened. 

 

Reddened limestone in buildings on Portland Street

 

Alighting from the No. 77 bus at The Square, during my day out to Whitwell and Steetley at the end of August in 2023, I had a quick walk up Portland Street as far as the junction with Titchfield Street and noted the same colouration of the limestone. 

 

No. 10 Titchfield Street

As I had discovered in Letwell, near the South Yorkshire/Nottinghamshire border, the red staining is probably due to leaching of iron oxides from the red marl of the Edlington Formation that directly overlies the Sprotbrough Member of the Cadeby Formation, but which has largely been eroded away at Whitwell – except around the old Belph Moor and Hodthorpe quarries. 

 

The geology and quarries around Whitwell

 

Retracing my steps along Portland Street, I walked up a snicket to Butt Hill - briefly described in my previous Language of Stone Blog post on the Geology of Whitwell - where there is one of several small outcrops of the upper Sprotbrough Member that I discovered in the village.

 

No. 10 Butt Hill

 

The limestone here is pale cream in colour - as is nearly all of the masonry at No. 10 Butt Hill – and returning to The Square to photograph the village pump and war memorial, as part of a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, I began my walk up High Street into the North West sector of Whitwell Conservation Area. 

 

The North West sector of Whitwell Conservation Area

 

No. 18 is just one of numerous C18 farmhouses and associated agricultural buildings that can be found in this part of Whitwell, where the gable ends front onto High Street. Their orientation probably relate to an earlier mediaeval pattern of burgage plots – as I had recently seen in Beeley and also in Pontefract a few years earlier. 

 

No. 18 High Street

 

Thinly bedded reddened limestone has been used for the walling here, but the adjoining boundary wall on its west side includes blocks of greyish limestone with a very coarse pisolitic texture, which contrast with other yellowish and reddened blocks in the wall. 

 

Pisolitic limestone at No. 18 High Street

 

The Conservation Area Appraisal (CAA), published in 2021, provides a comprehensive description of the individual buildings that are found in this very attractive part of Whitwell, which still largely retains its original agrarian character. As a geologist with specialist interests in building stone, I particularly appreciate the reference to the variation in the physical characteristics of the limestone and their possible quarry sources. 

 

Various C18 buildings on High Street

 

The Grade II Listed former George Inn is built in a symmetrical Neoclassical style with cream coloured dolomitic limestone ashlar, which was most likely brought in from one of the more distant quarries that were established around Whitwell, but Historic England (HE) very surprisingly describes this as being built entirely in sandstone. 

 

The former George Inn

On the opposite side of the road, the C19 No. 44 High Street is also Grade II Listed and is another example of a farmhouse with an attached barn at right angles to the road, which is again built out of reddened limestone and not sandstone. 

 

No. 44 High Street

 

Set back from the road is the old manor house, built by the Earl of Rutland after he acquired Whitwell Manor in 1632, with early C18 and early C19 alterations. The CAA strangely repeats the HE error of describing it as being built with sandstone, when seen from a distance it is clearly the same reddened limestone that has been used throughout the village. 

 

Views of the old manor house

 

Arriving at Scotland Street, I had views to High Hill across a valley formed by the Dicken Dyke, where the CAA makes reference to old quarries that apparently supplied stone for St. Lawrence’s church, but none of the exposures of limestone that I saw in the village have obvious red staining. 

 

The Cottage

 

Crossing Scotland Street, the C18 The Cottage is a very unimposing building that is partly rendered, which stands out against the surrounding buildings, with a Welsh slate roof. All of the original mullioned windows have been replaced and, looking closely at the masonry to either side of the central door, large blocks of the Rotherham Red variety of the Upper Carboniferous Mexborough Rock have been used for alterations. 

 

Rotherham Red sandstone at The Cottage

 

A little further along High Street, the Grade II Listed Old Rectory (1885) is a very imposing house designed by John Loughborough Pearson, a Gothic Revival architect who drew strong criticism from contemporaries such as William Morris and Philip Webb for his restorations, which led to the formation of SPAB (Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings). 

 

The Old Rectory

 

HE again incorrectly describe the stones used here and also for the Grade II* late C16/early C17 Whitwell Hall - the last building for my Photo Challenge - as having sandstone walling and dressings. I could only get a glimpse of Whitwell Hall from the churchyard, but my photos are sufficiently high resolution to determine the materials used for its fabric and I can see that  stone slates and plain tiles have been used for the roofs.

 

A view of Whitwell Hall from St. Lawrence's churchyard

When undertaking online research to write this post, I was interested to see that the Stone Roofing Association website states that Whitwell is the only place known to use Magnesian Limestone stone slates, with the CAA mentioning that Whitwell Hall provides an example of these. 

 

Nos. 12 and 14 Hangar Hill

After having a good look at St. Lawrence's church and looking for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones in the churchyard, which I shall describe later, I made my way back to The Square. Continuing along Hangar Hill, several C18 buildings make a positive contribution to the townscape, with the frontage of No. 24 and its Gothic arched windows being very unusual.

 

No. 24 Hangar Hill

Geology in Whitwell

 

A view along Scotland Street to High Hill

 

When planning my day out to Steetley and Whitwell in August 2023, whichever way I approached from Treeton, I realised that I couldn’t avoid at least 5 journeys using public transport, a walk of nearly 10 km and, if the buses weren't reliable, extended waiting times. 

 

The topography on the route between Treeton and Whitwell

Much of the travel time between Treeton and Chesterfield, using the X54 and X17 buses on this familiar route, was occupied by reading a book but, once on the No. 77, I spent the next hour looking at the surrounding landscape - noting the scarp and vale topography formed by the Coal Measures strata, before ascending the Magnesian Limestone escarpment. 

 

The geology on the route from Treeton to Whitwell

 

On previous days out to Barlborough and to Staveley and Brimington, I caught this bus back to Chesterfield and, seeing this topography again when travelling in the opposite direction, I was equally impressed and once back on the Magnesian Limestone, the gentle rolling landscape on the approach to Whitwell was very familiar. 

 

The topography of Whitwell

 

When undertaking a recce of Creswell Crags, for a Sheffield U3A Geology Group field trip the year before, on the way back to Sheffield we drove through what I now know to be Whitwell. I had never been here before, but I was immediately struck by the reddened limestone of the Cadeby Formation in the historic buildings and the variable topography of the village, which I again noticed as the bus descended from Bakestone Moor to Portland Street. 

 

An overgrown rock face on Portland Street

 

Alighting at the Square bus stop, I had a quick look at the red brick built old school (1897) and was interested to see a partially overgrown rock face in the garden of the house on the opposite side of the road. It is a massive buff coloured limestone from the upper Sprotbrough Member of the Cadeby Formation, but I couldn’t get close enough to take a good look. 

 

The Cadeby Formation in the Sheffield district

 

The Whitwell Conservation Area Appraisal (CAA) mentions that there were several small quarries in the village, particularly around High Hill - which the Whitwell Local History Group website cites as the location of the quarry that supplied stone for St. Lawrence’s church – but old Ordnance Survey maps that I have seen do not show quarries here or on Portland Street.

 

A limestone outcrop in a retaining wall

A little further up Portland Street, a retaining wall incorporates the underlying bedrock into its foundations in a couple of places. I didn’t cross the road to examine these closely, but from my photos I can see that massive, open textured pisolitic limestone overlies much finer grained beds. 

 

Entering a snicket from Portland Street

 

Noting various historic buildings on the opposite side of the road that are built in distinctly pink dolomitic limestone, I retraced my steps to a snicket – where again very coarse grained limestone underpins walls that are built with stone of the same colour and texture. 

 

A snicket from Butt Hill to Portland Street

 

Arriving at Butt Hill, I walked along the road for a short distance before encountering another snicket, which has more outcrops of limestone at the base of the boundary walls. As with the small outcrop in the retaining wall on Portland Street, it comprises massive, pisolitic limestone with an open texture, which is underlain by finer grained cross-bedded limestone. 

 

Thinly bedded limestone overlain by massive limestone

 

I didn’t have my Estwing hammer with me, but I was able to obtain a small sample of buff coloured dolomitic limestone, which is finely granular and has marked graded bedding where individual beds are highlighted by differential weathering. 

 

Finely granular limestone with graded bedding

 

Returning to The Square, I then headed up High Street, which the CAA describes as the oldest part of the village and contains secular buildings dating back to the C17. At No. 20, I stopped to photograph another outcrop of limestone that forms the foundation of its roadside wall, which has distinctly pink colouration. 

 

A limestone outcrop at No. 20 High Street

Continuing to St. Lawrence’s church, I was enlightened by the view down Scotland Street, where the dry valley between High Street and High Hills is very obvious and, using the zoom lens on my Panasonic Lumix TZ100 camera, I could make out rock faces in the back gardens. 

 

A view of rock exposures in back gardens at High Hill

 

Looking at the British Geological Survey map, a deposit of head marks the line of this valley, which was presumably formed at the same time as Hollinhill Grips and Markland Grips - part of a drainage system on the dip slope of the Magnesian Limestone that converges to form the single water course that flows through Creswell Crags. 

 

The geology around Markland Grips

 

After having a good look around the church and photographing various listed buildings in the vicinity, which I will describe later, I made my way back to The Square and headed up Hangar Hill, where I encountered another outcrop of dolomitic limestone that forms part of a retaining wall. 

 

An outcrop of dolomitic limestone on Hangar Hill

 

The sample I collected is composed of both fine and coarse grained beds, with an open texture and a considerable proportion of white and pink crystalline growths that I assumed were calcite; however, examining this more closely whilst writing this Language of Stone Blog post, I thought that it is unusually heavy and it is possible that this is due to the presence of barytes, which the geological memoir records as being found in the area.

 

A sample of dolomitic limestone from Hangar Hill

Planning a Trip to Whitwell and Steetley

 

A walk from Whitwell to Shireoaks

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, as the various restrictions on travel were loosened, I explored the areas around the Chesterfield Canal that I could access from the Sheffield to Lincoln railway line - stopping at Shireoaks a couple of times - and during my online research, I became aware of St. Lawrence's church in Whitwell and All Saints chapel in Steetley, which Pevsner describes as “by far the richest example of Norman architecture in Derbyshire”. 

 

A Google Map view with the locations of Treeton, Whitwell and Steetley

 

For my last day out in August 2023, having been to Coal Aston, Dronfield and Beeley earlier in the month, following on from my recce of Nether Edge, Brincliffe Edge and Ecclesall Road, I decided to make the effort to go and see them. 

 

A map showing the route by the buses from Treeton to Whitwell

Steetley is only 14 km away from Treeton as the crow flies and only takes 25 minutes to get there by car, but it is very remote and the nearest accessible places from Treeton by public transport are Shireoaks and Whitwell – both of which are approximately 3.5 km away from All Saints chapel.

 

The Ordnance Survey map showing routes from Whitwell to Steetley

Not since my days out to Hooton Pagnell and Ault Hucknall, did I have to put so much thought into the planning of my journey. From Treeton to Whitwell, the three separate bus journeys would take 154 minutes, plus waiting times in Sheffield and Chesterfield, over a distance of nearly 60 km. 

 

The Ordnance Survey map showing routes from Steetley to Shireoaks

 

From Whitwell, I would then have to walk to All Saints chapel across fields and alongside the very busy A619 road, where the footpaths are virtually non existent, before continuing across more fields to Shireoaks Hall and then up Shireoaks Row to the railway station – from where I would go all the way to Sheffield and then catch one of two possible buses back to Treeton. 

An alternative route from Whitwell to Steetley and Hodthorpe

As usual, I had prepared a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, identifying 7 buildings in Whitwell, 4 in Steetley and 2 more to the north-east of the village of Hodthorpe, through which the No. 77 bus passed and provided an alternative route to the one above if needed.

Results of the Photo Challenge for Whitwell and Steetley

Brincliffe Edge and Ecclesall Road

 

An outcrop of Greenmoor Rock at Quarry Lane

Arriving at Brincliffe Edge Road, having walked from Kenwood Hall Hotel on my recce for a planned field trip with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group, I briefly stopped to photograph the Grade II Listed late Georgian Woodside House.

 

Woodside House

 

Continuing past various Victorian houses that are built with Greenmoor Rock, Brincliffe Edge Close is a C20 housing development that occupies one of two quarries that the 1924 Ordnance Survey (OS) map marks in the grounds of Brinckliffe Tower (1852) – in the year before it was given by Dr. Robert Styring to the people of Sheffield, which opened as Chelsea Park in 1933.

 

A 1924 Ordnance Survey map of Brincliffe Edge

Entering Chelsea Park, I wasn’t aware at the time that the remaining old quarry has been planted with trees and I continued along the path to the house, now called Brincliffe Towers, which has been disused for several years and is in a state of disrepair.

 

Brincliffe Towers

Although fenced off and partly obscured by trees, it is still possible to see enough of the building to appreciate that the Greenmoor Rock used to build it has a very noticeable green tinge, which is due to the presence of chlorite - a mineral that I usually associate with the metamorphosed volcanic rocks that I surveyed in Borrowdale as an undergraduate geologist.

 

Sheltering from the rain in Chelsea Park

 

Before I had a chance to have a good look at it, the heavens opened and I dashed for shelter and waited until the rain subsided. After what seemed an age, the rain eventually stopped and I just took a few photos from the drive to the house, where the Greenmoor Rock is easily distinguished from the massive Derbyshire gritstone, which is used for the dressings.

 

A view of Brincliffe Towers

 

Back on Brincliffe Edge Road, I stopped briefly to photograph the rock outcrop on the corner of Quarry Lane, which had been the last stop on a previous field trip with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group – when we followed the escarpment of the Greenmoor Rock from Meadowhead.

 

An outcrop of Greenmoor Rock at Quarry Lane

 

Walking along Quarry Lane, apart from the name, there is nothing to suggest that the area from here to Psalter Lane was occupied by several substantial quarries that opened in the second half of the C19 to keep up with the expansion of the western suburbs of Sheffield, at the height of its industrial growth – as seen on the 1894 OS map.

 

The location of quarries along Brincliffe Edge on the1894 OS map

Following the snicket at the end of Quarry Lane, I carried on along Brincliffe Hill to the entrance to Chelsea Heights, a housing development that has been built on the former car park of the Omega banqueting suite. I last visited in the early part of 2018, when an old quarry face provided an excellent exposure of the Greenmoor Rock, but there isn’t much to see now from the road.

 

An old quarry face in the Greenmoor Rock at Chelsea Heights

 

Most of the exposure comprises every thinly bedded Greenmoor Rock, which would not have been suitable for any practical use and, as I had seen on a recce for the above mentioned field trip at Morrisons supermarket at Meadowhead, much of the rock is disrupted by a localised shear zone.

 

The old quarry face in the Greenmoor Rock at Chelsea Heights

Looking more closely at sections along the visible quarry face, thinly spaced joints occur both parallel to and at right angles to the quarry face. In several places, it has been reinforced with stone walling and, as I had also previously seen in the Quarry Head Lodge development, rock bolts have been used to stabilise it.

 

A detail of the shear zone in the Greenmoor Rock

 

This site has been of interest to various members of the Sheffield Area Geology Trust (SAGT) for several years and, as part of the 2022 Nether Edge Festival, I noted in SAGT News 2022 that they had led members of the public around the site.

 

The garden at Chelsea Heights

 

From this report, I learned that deep piles had been required in places, to reach bedrock through loose fill that was left after quarrying ceased and that several large blocks of Greenmoor Rock, which had been excavated during the groundworks, are scattered around the development and form various features in a small garden.

 

Details of the garden at Chelsea Heights

 

Grindstones for Sheffield's cutlery industry were produced in large numbers from quarries on Brincliffe Edge, in addition to the flags, steps, heads, sills, gravestones and general building stones and one of these has depictions of masons at work carved into it. More noticeable are the large broad chisel and a lewis, which was used to lift large stones.

 

A specimen of Greenmoor Rock from Chelsea Heights

 

Retracing my steps back to Brincliffe Hill, although I didn’t have my Estwing hammer with me, I was able to prise out a loose piece of Greenmoor Rock from the old quarry face, which is very fine grained, greenish in colour and has carbonaceous material on the bedding planes.

 

A view across the Porter Valley from Brincliffe Hill

Arriving at Psalter Lane, I had an unexpected view of Ranmoor and St. John’s church, which I was more used to seeing from the north side of the Porter Valley and, after taking a couple of photos for my records, I continued to Banner Cross and followed the escarpment down Ecclesall Road.

 

St. John's church in Ranmoor

 

I finished my walk at the old quarry face that now forms the backdrop to the Co-Op supermarket and the various shops and businesses on Marmion Road, which occupy the site of the former John Gregory brickworks.

 

A view of the Greenmoor Rock at Marmion Road

The Greenmoor Rock formation is extremely variable in the Sheffield region and here the sandstone is subordinate, with mudstone and siltstone being dominant. It is only possible to see the various rock types at a distance, but I thought that it would be a good place to bring an afternoon session of a full day field trip to an end.

 

Another view of the Greenmoor Rock at Marmion Road