 |
| A view of the east end of St. Lawrence's church |
Starting at the tower and finishing at the chancel, it took just over 10 minutes to take a set of general record photographs of the south elevation of St. Lawrence’s church in Whitwell, which has a very interesting construction history, but none of my usual reference sources pay much attention to this and it would therefore appreciate seeing a standing building archaeologist’s report on it.
 |
| The east end of the chancel |
Looking at the east elevation of the chancel, the church guide states that the window was restored in 1887, presumably as part of the major restoration by John Loughborough Pearson and that the roof was raised in 1950. From a distance, the masonry to the gable certainly looks to be very precisely cut and is much less weathered than the C14 walling beneath it.
 |
| A view from Old Hall Lane |
I briefly left the churchyard to take a photo from Old Hall Lane, where the view along the north elevation is dominated by various additions to the main body of the church, which Historic England briefly describe as vestries and a north chapel, without providing a date to them.
 |
| An extract from the church guide |
As seen from a distance, the lean to vestry is probably contemporaneous with the extended chancel (c.1300-1350) but, noting the entry in the church guide by Jack Edson (2002) - describing the ‘Dedication of New Vestry and Mason Chapel’ in 1907 - the rock-faced north chapel and the flat roofed vestry are probably Edwardian.
 |
| A view of the south elevation |
Once I taken a couple of general photos from a distance, I returned to the chancel and was very interested to see that 8 corbels were projecting from a section of rendered walling, at a level about 1 metre below the current eaves of the chancel roof.
 |
| The corbel table on the south elevation of the chancel |
This explains the odd feature of the masonry on the south side of the chancel, where there is a distinct change in the pattern of the walling above the apex of the east window. It would seem that no attempt was made to retain the corbel table on the north side, when the roof was raised.
 |
| A detail of the masonry on the south elevation of the chancel |
The Whitwell Local History Group mentions that render on the south elevation of the chancel was removed in 1966, to reveal a blocked up round headed C12 window. This also revealed a course of stonework at the level of the original corbel table, where it seems that the individual corbels were removed and a very red stone was mainly used to fill the voids that were left.
 |
| A detail or corbels on the south elevation of the chancel |
As with the corbel table seen on the south elevation of the nave, the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture for Britain and Ireland (CRSBI) provides a description of the sculpted corbels, without mentioning most of the corbels that are square with a rounded lower part.
 |
| The north aisle and clerestory |
Continuing west along the north elevation, there is a strong contrast between the original C12 rubble masonry of the clerestory and the roughly squared and coursed stonework of the north aisle, which was part of the major phase of building that took place between 1300 and 1350.
 |
| A detail of the corbel table |
I just took a set of general record photos of the corbel table, constructed in dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation with various colours, where many of the sculpted corbels are very weathered and which are best described by the CRSBI.
 |
| The west end of the north aisle |
Reaching the west end of the north aisle, the junction between the C12 and C14 masonry can be seen and shows the extent of the nave and, carrying on to the tower, I stopped to have a look at the buttresses, which were added during a restoration of the tower in 1931 - presumably as a precaution against subsidence from coal mining in the area..
 |
| The north buttress to the tower |
Surprisingly, these are not built in dolomitic limestone, but with very coarse grained Upper Carboniferous Millstone Grit of unknown provenance, but it is quite probable that it came from one of the quarries along the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire.
 |
| A detail of the north buttress to the tower |
No comments:
Post a Comment