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| An information board on Union Road |
A day out in the Peak District National Park is always a pleasure, with my trip to Edensor, Chatsworth Park and Beeley being particularly enjoyable, and it has served the Sheffield U3A Geology Group very well since it was formed back in 2007.
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| A Geological Trail by Peter Kennett |
The Wednesday before, I was unable to attend a field trip that had been arranged to the Manifold Valley, but my next outing a week later was to prepare a short walk to supplement a visit to the Sheffield General Cemetery (SGC), which had been proposed for the November field trip.
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| The Stone Spiral |
I have to say that I wasn’t keen on this idea, because I had been to the SGC a few times, to follow the Geological Trail (2001) by Peter Kennett - who had consulted me when preparing the Building Stones of Sheffield (1999) – and to see the Stone Spiral (2004) and I knew that it would take no more than 2 hours for our group to complete this, especially since the different stones in the Stone Spiral were now barely discernible.
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| The Building Stones of Sheffield |
On this occasion, however, my friend Catherine, who I had helped with the Bolsterstone Graveyard Project had volunteered to lead a walk – at a time when the COVID-19 Pandemic and poor health had led to a sharp decline in the number of group members who were able or willing to organise and lead our field trips.
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| The former north lodge to Kenwood House |
A typical field trip starts at 10:30 am and finishes by 3:30 pm and my idea was for Catherine, with my help, to show the group around SGC in the morning and spend the afternoon walking from the Kenwood Hall Hotel to Ecclesall Road – to look at a wide variety of historic architecture and finish with some exposures of the Greenmoor Rock.
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| The former stable block to Kenwood House |
After completing a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge in and around Nether Edge, I shared my Language of Stone Blog posts with the Nether Edge History Group Facebook page. I received some very interesting comments on these, including a proposal for me to give a talk or lead a walk for the group and an invitation to visit the stable block to Kenwood House, which the owner was restoring and converting to residential use.
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| Views of the former stable block to Kenwood House |
Janet kindly showed me around the exterior of the old stable block, explaining that the limestone used for the restoration – and apparently to build the house and Grade II Listed north lodge too - came from the Once-a-Week Quarry near Sheldon in Derbyshire, which is the last remaining supplier of ‘Derbyshire fossil marble’.
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| Crinoidal limestone at Kenwood Hall Hotel |
On my previous visit to Kenwood Hall Hotel, which I had first encountered after visiting the nearby Psalter Lane Methodist Church during the 20I8 Heritage Open Days festival, I took a good set of photos of the house and garden These were subsequently lost after a failure of my external hard drive and, having asked at the hotel reception for permission to take some more, while I had another look at the crinoidal limestone, I set off towards the old centre of Nether Edge.
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| Kenwood Park on the 1894 Ordnance Survey map |
Kenwood House (1844) was designed by William Flockton for the cutlery manufacturer George Wostenholm, who developed the surrounding area as an upmarket residential area, which is an early example of town planning, based on Boston in the USA.
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| Views of Kenwood Road and Cherry Tree Road |
Along Kenwood Road, several large architect designed houses were built as part of this development. Within 1 km, several large quarries worked the Greenmoor Rock for general building stone and this stone has been used for most of the garden walls and for some of the houses, with Derbyshire gritstone dressings, but from the roadside it looks that some of the sandstone may have come from other rock formations in Sheffield – Chatsworth Grit for gatepiers and coping stones and Crawshaw Sandstone for walls.
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| Kenwood Lodge |
Continuing past Kenwood Lodge, I quickly walked along Cherry Tree Road and Union Road until I reached the junction with Osborne Road, where most of the late C19 terraced houses were built in fine grained muddy grey sandstone, with some iron staining, which is obviously Greenmoor Rock.
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| Late C19 terraced houses built with Greenmoor Rock |
Crossing Osborne Road, the former United Free Methodist Chapel is built with Greenmoor Rock walling, with Chatsworth Grit for the elaborate door surrounds, pediment, cornice and for the other dressings. On this part of Union Road, there are a few interesting buildings where different sandstones have been used, including the Grade II former workhouse and its lodges.
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| The former United Free Methodist Chapel |
Arriving at Lyndhurst Road, the wide road junction here needs care when crossing, especially with a group that are not as quick at avoiding cars as they used to be, and from here Union Road ascends the dip slope of the Greenmoor Rock until it reaches Brincliffe Edge Road. I stopped briefly at the former Wesleyan Methodist Church, now the King's Centre, to have a look at the yellowish sandstone used for the dressings, which I think may be Grenoside Sandstone.
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| The former Wesleyan Methodist Church |
Just before the top of Union Road, a pair of early C20 semi-detached houses caught my eye, with polygonal rubble walling that I have only seen on a few occasions in South Yorkshire, including where used for churches in Grenoside and Whiston.
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| Semi-detached houses with polygonal rubble walling on Union Road |
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