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| The Historic England map of the Listed Buildings in Morley |
My day out to the Peak District in May 2024, to explore the geology and archaeology of Rowtor Rocks and Stanton Moor and to photograph the listed buildings in Stanton in Peak, proved very productive, although a total of 7 separate bus journeys getting from Treeton and back, which required a great deal of planning, took up most of the day.
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| Treeton to Morley as the crow flies |
Just over a week later, I set off to Morley in West Yorkshire, which this time would require two bus journeys and a train journey each way. I had caught the train to Leeds and then travelled by bus from a stop in the city centre to my final destination many times and, on this occasion, I discovered from the West Yorkshire Metro website that I needed to catch the No. 51/52 bus on the Morley Line from Corn Exchange D on Vicar Lane.
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| Information on routes and the bus stops in Leeds city centre |
I have been quite dismayed, however, by the fact that West Yorkshire Metro don’t provide a route map on their bus timetables, which makes it very difficult for a stranger in town to plan a day out without consulting Google Map or undertaking extensive research on the internet – a task that I can do easily on my PC but not on my mobile phone.
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| Stopping points on the No. 51/52 bus route |
It also doesn’t help that the current timetable erroneously marks the stopping points, with the starting point for Leeds to Morley routes actually starting in Morley and vice-versa – a fundamental error that I have discovered in other timetables, when planning further days out to Leeds – and that very few timing points are listed.
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| Timed stopping points on the No. 51/52 bus route |
After visiting Dewsbury a couple of years earlier, when undertaking research on Dewsbury Town Hall (1886-1889) for my Language of Stone Blog, I discovered that the Historic England description cites gritstone from Holmfirth as being used in its construction, whereas an article written by a someone from the area said that an unspecified local stone had been used.
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| Dewsbury Town Hall |
I presume that this was a reference to the Thornhill Rock from the Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation, which had developed a good reputation as a building stone and was extensively quarried at Morley. I also discovered that the architects, Holtom and Fox had also been responsible for Morley Town Hall (1892-95) which, according to the Building Research Establishment publication “The building sandstones of the British Isles” and the Calder Masonry website, is built using Woodkirk Brown stone from the Britannia Quarry.
The main reason for my visit to Morley was to see Morley Town Hall and have a walk around the town to look at its listed buildings as part of a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, which I assumed would reveal further examples of locally quarried Thornhill Rock.
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| A technical information sheet for Woodkirk stone |
I had only seen this fine grained sandstone in the paving and steps at Quarry House in Leeds, when writing an article for the now online Natural Stone Specialist magazine, following which Pawson Brothers paid for one of my photos for their technical information sheet. Also, along with Howley Park stone from the Thornhill Rock, a sample of Woodkirk stone was included in the Triton Stone Library in London, which has since been redisplayed in a slightly modified form in the Redmires Building at Sheffield Hallam University.
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| The Triton Stone Library in the Redmires Building |
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