St. Michael's Church in Brodsworth I

 

The Church of St. Michael and All Angels

Continuing my day out to Brodsworth, having spent 15 minutes finding and photographing the Grade II Listed Glebe Farmhouse, the Gatehouse and the gates and gatepiers to the now demolished old Brodsworth Hall, I arrived at St. Michael and All Angels’ churchyard. 

 

The Church of St. Michael and All Angels in 2007

I had only seen the church from a distance back in 2007, when I was looking at the old quarry in the gardens of Brodsworth Hall as part of the resurvey of RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) for the Doncaster Geodiversity Assessment – a site visit that led to the publication of an article in 2007 for the Australian stone trade magazine Discovering Stone. 

 

An article for Discovering Stone

When starting my investigation of the mediaeval churches of South Yorkshire, nearly 10 years later, I was interested to see that St. Michael’s church is one of the seven churches described by the buildings archaeologist Peter Ryder, in his book Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire – a book that I had bought back in the mid 1980’s but had never previously put to use. 

 

Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire

Approaching the east end, from the Historic England (HE) description of “C11 nave, additions of c1200, C15 and C19, restoration 1874”, I can assign the vestry at the north-east corner to the C15, with its old square headed 5-light mullioned window and its butted joint with the chancel. 

 

The east end

 

Pevsner refers to the single stepped lancet windows in the east wall of the chancel, which appears to have more irregularly squared and coursed rubble masonry, as C13 and HE and other sources state that the south wall of the chancel was rebuilt and the south chapel, south aisle and the porch were added as part of the restoration of 1874. 

 

The south chapel and chancel

  

As with the stonework that I had seen at Glebe House, I was very surprised to see that much of the C19 masonry of the chancel and the south chapel has developed a golden brown patina, which is so different to the usual grey patina that forms on dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation. 

 

The south elevation

 

Standing at a distance, to take a general photo of the south elevation of the church, the colour variation of the chancel and south chapel contrasts greatly with the south aisle and porch, but these have all presumably used the same source of stone. 

 

The south wall of the chancel

Looking closely at the masonry to the south wall of the chancel, this golden brown patina seems to coincide with the development of a thick skin on the surface of the stone, probably due to the migration of soluble salts to form a dense layer, which has subsequently spalled. 

 

A detail of the south wall of the chancel

This not only affects the moulded masonry of the tracery and surrounds to the window, most of which have been recently restored, but the surface of the ashlar walling has largely been lost and some of the low level stones have been refaced. 

 

Silty sandstone used for the plinth

 

The plinth is surprisingly built using a grey Coal Measures silty sandstone of unknown provenance, which is laid on its natural bed for the chamfered top course and appears to be face bedded on the course below – both of which are heavily weathered and have spalled. 

 

Restored masonry in the walling of the south aisle

Although the greater part of the masonry to the south aisle and porch doesn’t show the same golden brown patina, a close look reveals that the condition of the limestone ashlar is equally poor and that much of this has been refaced. 

 

Weathered and restored masonry on the porch

 

Continuing to the west end of the south aisle, the pattern of weathering continues and the entire window has been restored along with the masonry at the junction with the nave, as well as isolated blocks of stone that appear distinctly grey in colour. These struck me as being very odd, but I didn’t have the time to examine these closely with my hand lens or test it with hydrochloric acid. 

 

The west end of the south aisle

When the current hall was built (1861-1863) by Charles Sabine Augustus Thellusson, who eventually inherited the Brodsworth Estate after the notorious Thellusson Will case – thought to have inspired the fictional Jarndyce v Jarndyce case in Bleak House by Charles Dickens - stone was reused from the demolished house and also new stone quarried from the estate. 

 

The distribution quarries around Brodsworth on the 1854 OS map

 

Looking at the 1854 edition of the 6 inch scale Ordnance Survey (OS) map, there are many disused quarries of varying sizes in the immediate area and, at the south-east corner of Brodsworth Park, the Brodsworth Freestone Quarry is marked as active and having a limekiln. 

 

The 1892 OS map showing Brodsworth Hall and its gardens

The eastern part of the gardens at Brodsworth Hall comprises a landscaped quarry, with an old face forming the boundary of The Grove on is western edge. This is first shown on the 1892 1:25,000 scale OS map and I presume that this supplied stone for the house but the HE description of the house states that all of the gardens were completed by 1870. The poor quality stone used for the 1874 work to St. Michael’s church must have therefore come from elsewhere, but I have not found any records of this.

 

The old quarry face on the western edge of The Grove