St. Mary Magdalene Campsall V

 

The arch from the north transept to the north aisle

I spent just over 30 minutes having a look at the external fabric of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Doncaster, but it was enough time to appreciate Sir Nicholas Pevsner’s view that it is a “complex building with a fascinating history” and it would be interesting to see what a photogrammetric survey would make of it. 

 

The Diocese of Sheffield directory

 

Along with St. Helen’s church in Burghwallis, I had been hoping to visit this church for a few years since discovering in the Diocese of Sheffield directory that Revd. Richard Walton, the husband of Revd. Ann Walton who had opened St. Laurence’s church in Adwick-le-Street for me at very short notice, was the incumbent. 

 

A Church Explorers Week noticeboard

 

These are located in a part of Doncaster that is not easy to get to by public transport from Treeton and, when I finally made the decision to go and see them, I discovered that he had retired and the new vicar made no effort to facilitate a visit – making an excuse that nobody was available to open the church for me – and I was therefore very pleased to discover that Chris Ellis had included this on the itinerary for Church Explorers Week 2024. 

 

A view east along the nave 

 

Entering by the priest’s door in the chancel, after introducing myself and purchasing a church guide, which is one of the standard publications produced by the now defunct Heritage Inspired initiative, I proceeded to undertake a systematic photographic record of the principal architectural elements of the church – starting with a view east along the nave. 

 

The south arcade and clerestory

 

Pevsner describes the arcades as Perpendicular Gothic (c.1350-1520), which Historic England (HE) further elaborates as being of the early part of this period, with thin piers with four straight sides and big wave-mouldings to the diagonals. Looking up at the clerestory of the south side, there is a distinct change from rubble masonry to larger well squared blocks and this dates to the addition of the clerestory in the C15. 

 

The north arcade and clerestory

 

On the north side of the nave, this change in the pattern of masonry is not so obvious, with much of the stonework to the arcade – especially the central section – comprising blocks that are more regularly squared and coursed than in the south arcade. 

 

A view of the north aisle

When looking at the exterior, I couldn’t see any obviously differences in the ashlar between the phases of the building that took place in the C12, C13, C14 and C15. Much of the west end of the nave was occupied with displays by the local history group BarnSCAN and tables for visitors to sit down for food and drink and, instead of taking a good look at the masonry of the nave, I just took a few general record photos. 

 

The east end of the south arcade and the south transept arch

 

Going down to the east end of the south arcade, I was very interested to see that there is a very abrupt change in the masonry from rubble to ashlar and the pointed arch to the south transept is taller, has chevrons and the capital to the west respond is C12, which the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture for Britain and Ireland (CRSBI) describes in detail. 

 

The arch from the nave to the south transept

 

Quite strangely, when describing the arcades, Pevsner states that the arcades are “followed by half-arches to the E to link up with the transepts. Something must have gone wrong with the calculations”, when the arches to both transepts are quite clearly complete. 

 

The arch from the nave to the north transept

 

HE record that the arches to the transepts differ, with the south arch having an a semi-circular west respond and re-carved capital, a keeled east respond with a moulded capital and a pointed arch with roll-moulding and zig-zag. The description goes on to say that the north arch has 2 semi-circular responds and dog-tooth to the soffit of a similar arch, but does not mention that the second order of the arch has a mixture of chevrons that are ‘lateral’ and ‘normal’ to the face – variations that are described in the CRSBI chevron guide. 

 

The arch from the north transept to the north aisle

Entering the north transept, where the exposed masonry on the north wall displays a lot of thinly bedded limestone from the Brotherton Formation, a window in the west wall of the transept of the early Norman cruciform church has been blocked up and cut through by an arch to the north aisle, which was added along with the chancel and the tower in the later C12. 

 

The arch from the north aisle to the north transept