 |
| St. James' church in High Melton |
After photographing the listed buildings in High Melton and trying to further investigate the geology on the former campus of Doncaster College, only to discover that it had long since been closed and the land had been purchased by Newsholme Developments, I went to search for the access to the Grade II* Listed St. James’ church from Doncaster Road.
 |
| A notice on Doncaster Road |
Seeing a notice pinned to a tree at the north end of Church Lane, I continued down this unmade track until I came across a sign board that announced that this was part of the Church Explorers Week 2024 event – arranged by the Church Buildings Officer, Chris Ellis.
 |
| An information board for Church Explorers Week |
Historic England (HE) describes the church as “C12, C14 and C15, C19 restoration” and, when entering the churchyard and approaching from the east, even in overcast conditions I could see that the tower, with its typical C15 Perpendicular Gothic style ashlar masonry, a castellated parapet and crocketed pinnacles, is built with dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation.
 |
| St. James' church |
Getting closer to the east end, apart from the window dressings to the chancel – C19 according to HE - and south chapel, which the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture for Britain and Ireland (CRSBI) was added in the second half of the C14, the roughly squared and irregularly coursed masonry looks very different.
 |
| The east end |
From my photographs, I can’t seen any obvious break in the stonework of the east wall of the chancel and the south chapel, which makes me think that they are part of the same phase of rebuilding or extension to an earlier structure.
 | |
|
Getting closer to the east window to photograph the ornate shields that are carved in relief on a panel at its base, I noted that the limestone used for the shields is quite heavily weathered and in sheltered areas, have developed a brownish patina in places, which in my experience is typical of Jurassic oolitic limestone than Permian dolomitic limestone, which tends to develop a grey patina.
 |
| A panel with shields beneath the east window |
I had already seen Jurassic limestone used in the restored window on the north elevation of the nave at St. Helen’s church in Marr and for the C19 restoration of window dressings in several mediaeval churches built with dolomitic limestone in Doncaster. Although I always carry my bottle of hydrochloric acid and my hand lens with me, on this occasion I wasn’t able to get close enough to be able to use these.
 |
| The north elevation of the chancel |
I didn’t undertake a detailed inspection of the stonework but I did notice that a considerable proportion of the walling beneath the east window consists of distinctly reddened sandstone, which is not very durable and has suffered from cavernous weathering. This is also seen on the north side of the chancel, which has square headed Perpendicular Gothic style windows that have had several sections of their surrounds quite recently restored.
 |
| The north elevation of the nave |
Continuing to the nave, the masonry again comprises a mixture of sandstone and limestone, with the latter often taking the form of very thin courses that are not apparent in the chancel. In Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire, Peter Ryder describes the nave as being unusually tall with very thin walls and is probably of a pre-Conquest date.
 |
| Walling to the nave |
The CRSBI adds that the nave is narrower than the chancel, and is not set out on the same lines as this or the tower and suggests that it could be the survivor of a Saxon nave. HE makes no reference to the age of the nave and, following Pevsner’s original assertion, only mentions the blocked north ogee headed door as dating to the C14.
 |
| The blocked north door |
Being conscious that the X19 bus from High Melton to Doncaster runs hourly and that I still had to take a good look at the interior, I didn’t investigate the various stones as much as I would have liked to, but the soft sandstone has most probably been quarried from the Dalton Rock.
 |
| A detail of the blocked north door |
The geological memoir for Barnsley describes this Pennine Upper Coal Measures Formation sandstone, which is now described as either the Newstead Rock or an unnamed sandstone in this area, as being prominent in the locality and often stained red.
 |
| A detail of the deterioration of sandstone in the blocked door |
Without documentation, it is no more than an educated guess to try and identify the likely provenance of the building stones used in any mediaeval church, with the limited means of transport of the time making it likely that the basic walling stone is quarried in the very near vicinity. On the 1854 edition of the Ordnance Survey map, the only sandstone quarries that I can see are to the immediate south of Bath Ponds and a disused one on Ludwell Field 1.5 km to the NNW – both of which are located on the former Dalton Rock.
 |
| The 1854 OS map showing the nearest sandstone quarry to High Melton |
No comments:
Post a Comment