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| Carved corbels on St. Peter's church |
Following on from my day out to Leeds on the 11th of October 2024, where another British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge provided me with an insight into the late C19 and early C20 architects that used brick and terracotta, instead of sandstone, I returned to St. Peter’s church in Old Edlington – the first to be vested with the Churches Conservation Trust back in 1971, when it was then called the Redundant Churches Fund.
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| St. Peter's church |
When I first visited in July 2023, I had a good at its interior but it was a rainy day and, while standing under an umbrella, I was only able to take quick snaps of the exterior before catching the hourly bus to New Edlington, where I photographed its war memorial.
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| Reddened sandstone at the base of the tower |
Taking advantage of a sunny autumn day, I was keen to get out of the house and have another look the red/brown sandstone blocks in the original fabric of this C12 church, which had aroused my curiosity when I first saw it.
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| A detail of the reddened sandstone |
Back in 2016, I discovered that an outcrop of a dull red/brown sandstone on Holmes Lane in Hooton Roberts was mapped by the British Geological Survey as an unnamed sandstone from the Pennine Upper Coal Measures Formation (PUCMF), which I assumed was the Rotherham Red variety of the Mexborough Rock – especially since very many historic buildings in the village are constructed of this stone.
My more recent explorations of Wickersley, Thurcroft, Brampton-en-le-Morthen and Morthen had shown me that the soil in these places are reddened, where I found the occasional lump of bright red sandstone. Earlier in the year, I had also discovered that red sandstone has been used for St. Helen’s church in Burghwallis, which is set on the Permian Brotherton Formation.
In a few places, I have seen PUCMF sandstone immediately beneath the Permian Cadeby Formation that has some patchy red colouration, but none of these have the uniform reddening seen in the Rotherham Red sandstone.
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| Quarries marked on the 1854 Ordnance Survey map |
The geological map shows that an unnamed PUCMF sandstone outcrops to the north of the church but, except for a sand pit on Clifton Common, the 1854 Ordnance Survey map shows only limestone quarries in the vicinity.
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| Reddened sandstone at the base of the tower |
Looking for a discreet place at the base of the tower, where the sandstone had deteriorated to the extent that I might be able to dislodge a small piece, I obtained a couple of small samples with my stainless steel knife, which had disintegrated considerably by the time I got home.
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| A sample of sandstone from St. Peter's church |
Using my Wentworth scale, I concluded that the sandstone is medium grained and, when viewing it with a hand lens, it appears less well cemented and finer grained than various specimens of Rotherham Red sandstone in my rock collection.
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| Comparison of the sample with my Whitworth scale |
Furthermore, its colour and texture was more like the samples of sandstone that I removed from St. Helen’s church in Burghwallis and obtained from the outcrops in Hooton Roberts, which seems to suggest that it is more likely to be an PUCMF sandstone and not Rotherham Red from the Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation.
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| The corbel table on the south side of the nave of St. Peter's church |
Having obtained a sample of red sandstone, I then had another look at the corbel table along the south side of the nave and chancel, which are carved with a variety of human heads and beasts – as I had seen in 2023 at St. Lawrence’s church in Whitwell and All Saints chapel in Steetley.
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With 20 minutes before my bus back to Rotherham arrived, I wandered down Rectory Gardens where I hoped that there might be access to Edlington Plantation, where a LIDAR map shows the position of old quarries.
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| Old quarries in Edlington Plantation as seen on a LIDAR map |
Seeing that there was no public access to the plantation, I just took a couple of photographs of the Magnesian Limestone escarpment above the River Don at Cadeby Rattles in the distance, before returning to Edlington Lane.
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| A view of Cadeby Rattles in the distance |
On my way I stopped to take a few photographs of the boundary walls along Rectory Gardens, which I would expect to have been built with stone from the most easily accessible rock exposure or quarry. Apart from a couple of slightly reddened blocks, which are dissimilar to the sandstone seen in the church, these are built with cream to yellowish limestone from the Cadeby Formation.
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| A boundary wall on Rectory Gardens |
I then walked down Edlington Lane to investigate the RAF Memorial, which is marked on Google Map, only to find a plaque to say that a Lancaster bomber did not actually crash at Cockhill in Old Edlington and that the memorial was moved to Moor Monckton near York.
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| The war memorial on Edlington Lane |
A small war memorial is located at this site, but it just comprises a slab of dolomitic limestone with an attached plaque that replaces the RAF Memorial plaque, which commemorates four victims of WWI. After photographing this, I walked back to the bus stop, from where I photographed the rendered Manor Farm House (c.1800) for the British Listed Buildings website.
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| Manor Farm House |
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