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| A view of St. Michael's church from the south-west |
Continuing my brief survey of the exterior of the Church of St Michael and All Angels, having taken note of the very advanced deterioration of the limestone used for the C19 work on the south elevation, I could quite clearly see the differences in the masonry of these and the tower when standing back to take a few general record photographs.
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| Contrasting masonry in the tower and the south aisle |
The limestone ashlar used for the 1874 restoration is very pale cream in colour, which has developed a golden brown patina that seems to be associated with the spalling of its surface, but the reasonably well coursed and squared rubble limestone used to build the tower has developed a grey patina, which is typical of the dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation.
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| The south elevation of the tower |
Looking very closely, where the patina has weathered off and some inappropriate sand and cement repairs have been undertaken, the fresh stone has a distinctly yellow colour that is usually associated with the presence of reworked sand from the Yellow Sands Formation, which is sometimes found immediately beneath the Cadeby Formation.
The Yellow Sands Formation outcrops on the escarpment to the east of Brodsworth at Watchley Crags and Bilham Quarry and 5.km to the south at Melton Park and the churches at Hooton Pagnell, Hickleton, Barnburgh and High Melton all contain yellow limestone.
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| Mediaeval churches in Doncaster containing yellow dolomitic limestone |
The only old quarry of any substance, where I have seen yellow limestone is at the Castle Hill Quarry in Hickleton, but it is quite possible that the many old quarries found around Brodsworth extracted yellow limestone in places from its lowest sections.
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| The belfy stage of the tower |
All of my usual reference sources - Historic England, Pevsner, the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland and Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire - state that the tower dates to c.1200, with the belfry stage being raised at a later date. Pevsner assigns a C13 date to the twin lancet windows, but Peter Ryder considers them to have an unusual form and that they could be C14 or even possibly C15 work.
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| A gargoyle on the tower |
I was too busy photographing the gargoyles and I didn’t notice them at the time, but my photo of the belfy stage shows that the setback between the second and belfry stages has a lozenge pattern and these are repeated on the kneeler of the south-west corner of the nave, which forms a buttress to the tower and also contains a line of raised balls – both of which Ryder believes have been reused from pre-existing masonry.
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| The west elevation of the tower |
In Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire, Peter Ryder makes full use of floor plans that identify the difference phases of construction and, as a buildings archaeologist, applies a similar methodology that I am familiar with as a geologist – the significance of unconformities in the Earth’s history.
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| The floor plan of St. Michael's church |
Since beginning my investigation of mediaeval churches at St. Helen’s church in Treeton back in February 2016, when I had hoped to further develop a professional interest in standing buildings archaeology - first acquired when undertaking a survey of the stonework of All Saints church in Pontefract - I have taken great interest in the patterns of masonry that I have seen in more than 125 mediaeval churches since.
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| Repairs to the crack in the west elevation of the tower |
Looking up the west elevation of the tower, the buttresses are made of large ashlar blocks that to my eye are obviously of a much later date and I can see distinct changes in the pattern of the stonework above them, but the aforementioned authorities make no reference to this.
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| A detail of repairs to the crack in the west elevation of the tower |
Coal mining subsidence has caused great damage to the church, which is clearly evident in the large crack in the tower and, 30 years after its effects had first become apparent, a 6 year programme of restoration was started in 1997 under the supervision of Ronald G. Sims.
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| The junction between the nave and north aisle |
Moving round to the north elevation, there was no space to step back and get a good view of the whole elevation, but I noted the junction between the C11 nave and the narrow C12 north aisle, with the large Anglo-Saxon/Norman overlap style side alternate quoins being clearly visible.
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| The round arched window in the north aisle |
Looking along the elevation, I could see the narrow C12 round headed window that Ryder considers to have been reset and placed the wrong way around, but the thick undergrowth stopped me from taking a close look at this.
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| A C19 window in the north aisle |
A little further along the north aisle is a square headed window with four mullions, which are part of the 1874 restoration, but I did not go any further along the north elevation and rely on Ryder’s illustration and comments to get a better understanding of this part of the church.
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| Impressions of the changes to St. Michael's church |
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