A Day Out to Brodsworth

 

Weathering of the sandstone steps at Rotherham railway station

 

On the first day of Church Explorers Week in 2024, before attending the event at St. James’ church, I had started my day by catching the X19 bus to Marr, where I examined the exterior of St. Helen’s church, photographed a few listed buildings and then walked  to High Melton, where I took more photos of listed buildings and had a quick look at its geology. 

 

Treeton to Brodsworth as the crow flies

 

The following Wednesday, the next church that I planned to visit was St. Michael and All Angels in Brodsworth, which would require me to catch the Stagecoach No. 203 bus, which I had used to visit All Saints church in Hooton Pagnell back in September 2022 – a service that runs every 2 hours and 20 minutes between Doncaster and Wombwell. 

 

The route of the Stagecoach No. 203 bus

 

On that occasion, my visit coincided with a coffee morning - held between 10 and 12 – and I firstly visited the church and then undertook a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge in the village before catching the bus to Thurnscoe, where I would photograph its listed buildings and then catch a train back to Rotherham. 

 

The Stagecoach No. 203 bus timetable

 

For this day out, with St. Michael’s church being opened in the afternoon, the timings of the buses and trains made it more practical for me to catch the No. 73 bus (now the No. 95) to Rotherham and then catch the hourly train to Doncaster. 

 

Views of burnt out buildings on Commercial Street in Rotherham

Alighting from the No. 73 bus on Commercial Street, with a few minutes to spare before my train was due, I took a few quick snaps of the demolition work that had finally started on Club Envy, which was burnt down in 2007, along with the fire damaged Muskaan Indian restaurant (2011).

 

A view of Commercial Street on the 29th of May 2024

 

These and the long since empty National Westminster (2014) and Lloyds (2006) banks have been embarrassing eyesores on the main thoroughfare from the bus and train stations to Rotherham Minster – arguably the No.1 tourist attraction in the town centre. 

 

A few views of Forge Island on the 29th of May 2024

Continuing along Bridge Street towards the railway station, I was further surprised to see a gang of workmen laying paving stones around the entrance to the Forge Island development -another very ambitious Rotherham MBC project. This has been set back numerous times and has drawn criticism from many quarters, with it often being perceived as a yet another ‘white elephant’, but considerable progress had been made since last seeing it. 

 

Applying a flamed texture to the paving at the entrance to Forge Island

 

I was particularly interested to see one of the workmen using a high powered blow torch, which I presume was to apply a flame textured surface, a finish that I had only seen at an automated ‘oven’ at the Kilkenny Limestone Ltd. factory at Holdenrath Quarry in the Republic of Ireland, when temporarily working for the Geological Survey of Ireland. 

 

The sandstone steps at Rotherham railway station

 

The type of sandstone being laid at Forge Island wasn’t familiar to me but, when noticing the condition of the sandstone used for the steps up to the entrance of the railway station, which was reopened after refurbishment in 2012, I hoped that it would prove to be more durable. 

 

The worksheet for my day out to Brodsworth

 

Eventually arriving in Brodsworth at 13:22, I had just over an hour and a half before I had to catch the bus back to Doncaster and I immediately set about finding some of the Grade II Listed buildings that had appeared on my Photo Challenge for Brodsworth. 

 

Views of Glebe Farmhouse

 

The first of these was the early C19 Glebe Farmhouse, which is built with dressed dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation, which has developed a light brown patina that I thought was quite unusual – having seen this mainly on Jurassic limestone – and it has a Welsh slate roof. 

 

The Gatehouse

The Gatehouse is a mid C18 former vicarage with C19 additions and has been rendered and painted, but it still retains a red pantile roof, which is typical of the vernacular architecture along the length of the Magnesian Limestone escarpment. 

 

The old smithy

 

Opposite the drive that leads up to St. Michael’s church, there is an isolated single storey building that is marked on the 1894 edition of the 1:25,000 scale Ordnance Survey (OS) map as a smithy, but has now been converted to residential use. 

 

Brodsworth on the 1:25,000 1894 OS map

 

The 6 inch 1854 OS map shows that it was just one of several buildings that presumably were part of the home farm to the original Brodsworth Hall, which as originally located immediately to the west of St. Michael’s church but had been demolished by the time the 1894 map was published. 

 

Brodsworth on the 6 inch 1854 OS map

 

Making my way up to the church, the gates and gatepiers to the old Brodsworth Hall were the last ‘listed building’ on my Photo Challenge that I could gain access to and I just took a couple of general photos and a detailed photo showing a swag. 

 

The entrance to the old Brodsworth Hall