St. Mary Magdalene Campsall III

 

A detail of the lancet window in the chancel wall

Finding the south door of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Campsall locked, I continued my anti-clockwise walk around its exterior and immediately stopped to take a few photos of what is described by the church guide as the base and part of the shaft of the ancient churchyard cross. 

 

The supposed cross base and shaft outside the porch

 

I have seen various structures like this in churchyards, most of which are Grade II Listed and some are Scheduled Monuments, but the column does not like any of these – especially with its trefoils and its moulded top – and, although the stepped base may be from a cross, it could be part of a sundial and the copper stain on one face may be from a now missing bronze or brass gnomon. 

 

The late mediaeval cross base described by Historic England

 

A little bit further to the east, to the south of the chancel, there is another stone structure that Historic England (HE) describes as a late mediaeval cross base and is in the form of a square rising into an octagon with rounded chamfer stops, which has similarities to the cross base that I had seen earlier in the garden of Hill House. 

 

The south wall of the south transept and adjoining chancel

My view of the south aisle and the clerestory was obscured by a tree and, standing back to photograph the east end of the church, I could see a difference in the colour of the stonework of the south transept, which HE describes as “chamfered plinth, moulded band and offset beneath tall 3-light window with C19 reticulated tracery; shallow gable with cross”, and the chancel. 

 

A view of the south transept

 

Pevsner, having commented on the Decorated Gothic style C14 south door and its fleurons, describes as “equally typical the S transept S window, a replacement, with reticulated tracery” and presumably considers its walling to be also from the C14, although in my experience he tends not to say much about the fabric of the churches that he has visited. 

 

Another view of the south transept

 

From the two storied west end of the south aisle, details of the plinth and its mouldings seem to have continuity and, except perhaps for the masonry of the above the level of the tracery on the south window - which to my eye seems to be much better squared and has a slightly greater depth of the courses, there aren’t any obvious breaks in the masonry that I can see. 

 

The south elevation of the chancel

 

When describing the enlargement of the early Norman cruciform church with ashlar masonry, Pevsner includes the chancel along with the tower and north aisle and, in respect of the chancel, goes on to say “In the chancel lancet windows of one light and of two (with Y-tracery) were inserted”, with a footnote stating “The E window is of course C19”. 

 

The west window in the south elevation of the chancel

 

The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture for Britain and Ireland (CRSBI), however, considers that the south wall of the chancel has actually been rebuilt. Looking at the surrounds of the windows, which are Early English Gothic in style, they blend in with the adjoining masonry of the walling and do not look like they have been inserted into C12 masonry walling. 

 

The lancet window in the south elevation of the chancel

I have seen dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation used for ashlar at Selby Abbey and Worksop Priory, which are ecclesiastical buildings of great importance, but not in a C12 parish church and this makes me think that it must have possessed a high status. 

 

Headstops on the lancet window

 

A photogrammetric survey of the stonework is probably needed to get a better understanding of the age of the various phases of construction with ashlar, which by all accounts range from the C12 to the C15, but the restoration of the windows is quite obvious – especially in the hood moulds and the attached headstops. 

 

The headstops on the west window of the chancel

The headstops have been sculpted in a style that I have seen on very many Victorian churches, but are never mentioned by Pevsner, HE or any other of the sources that I refer to when researching my Language of Stone Blog posts. 

 

The headstops on the central window of the chanccel

 

When looking at the west door, I had been quite surprised to see that it had accumulated such a large amount of dirt and this is even more evident on the headstops to the chancel windows. Although I might expect to see this on the buildings that are downwind of the industrial pollution that was once produced by the steelworks in the Lower Don Valley, Campsall is located in a remote rural area 25 km to the north-northeast of this. 

 

The priest's door

 

Another very interesting C13 feature of the chancel is the priest’s door, where HE describe its hood mould as containing anthemion motifs and the CRSBI go further to say that it “uses two short lengths with a Romanesque pattern at the bottom of its label, reproduced in the four large slabs of later work above”.

A detail of the label to the priest's door