A Day Out to Old Whittington - Part 2

 

The Revolution House

Entering the Conservation Area, having walked up from the bus stop on Sheffield Road, I continued my day out to Old Whittington by finding the first building on my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge – the late C18/early C19 red brick built No. 87 High Street. 

 

No. 87 High Street

 

Next to No. 87 is a high garden wall built with sandstone that is both plane and cross-bedded, with a colour varying from grey/light brown with Liesegang rings to orange, which reflects a very high iron content that is a characteristic of the unnamed sandstones of the Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation (PLCMF). 

 

A garden wall on High Street

These occur to the north of Old Whittington, but the only quarries marked on the old Ordnance Survey maps appear on the Deep Hard Rock, which outcrops to the west and south-west of the village. Boundary walls are typically built with the nearest available stone and small quarries are very often not marked, but the provenance of such sandstones are not easily determined without documentary evidence. 

 

A closer look at the garden wall on High Street

The lower few course of the boundary wall are built with blocks that are larger than those seen in the courses above and are in much better condition, with the thinner blocks often being scoured and deeply weathered, which suggests a higher content of silt. 

 

Long Cottage

A little further along High Street is Long Cottage, which Historic England (HE) describe as C18 or earlier, where the well squared and broached walling stone is very similar to the stone used in the lower courses of the boundary wall. 

 

Old Whittington war memorial

Old Whittington war memorial (1921), by the local sculptor Joseph Syddall, was the next ‘listed building’ on my Photo Challenge, which is described by HE as “Post 1918. Memorial to the dead of both World Wars. Square stone shaft with wreath rises from vermiculated plinth on stepped base. Surmounted by cap and finial with plain stone cross on each face”.

 

A detail of the gritstone used for Old Whittington war memorial

 

I didn’t examine the stone with my hand lens but my photos of the stone, with my thumbnail used as a scale, enable me to make a comparison with my Wentworth Scale, which shows that it is medium to coarse grained. As with the Whittington Moor war memorial, it is very probable that Stancliffe Darley Dale stone from the Corbar Grit (Ashover Grit) is used. 

 

My Wentworth Scale

The next building on my list was the Grade II* listed Revolution House, which HE date as probably C17, with Pevsner stating that it is “allegedly C16 but much restored”. It is built with locally quarried iron stained sandstone, with a thatched roof – a very unusual roofing material in Derbyshire, with the only other example that I recall being in Baslow.

 

The Revolution House

Formerly the Cock and Pynot inn, which was originally a much larger building, it is the place were the plot was hatched in 1688 to depose James II, with William of Orange and his wife Mary being invited to take the English throne - known as the Glorious Revolution. 

 

A plaque on the Revolution House

 

It was opened as a museum in 1938, but it has been closed since 1st April due to budget cuts by Chesterfield Borough Council, who have stated that they have been seeking a suitable community partner to keep it open. According to a local resident that I spoke to, there has been no shortage of volunteers who have come forward and local residents are exasperated by the attitude of the council in respect of this important asset.

 

Various buildings on Church Street North

 

On Church Street North, which was part of the mediaeval route through the village, several stone buildings which were built before the 1883 Ordnance Survey map was published, are not listed but contribute significantly to the character of the Conservation Area. These include Nos. 1-7, the Cock and Magpie Inn (1790) and Clematis Cottage. 

 

Views of the Old Mansion House

 

The Old Mansion House is dated to the C17 or earlier by HE, with C18 and C19 additions, but the garden wall and large shrubs and a tree obscure the view from the road and I could only get partial views of the C19 east elevation from different angles. 

 

Crozzle on the garden wall of No. 6 Church Street North

 

The south section of the garden wall of No. 6 Church Street North is topped with crozzle, a type of slag, which is a familiar sight in Sheffield and other steel producing areas, where steel was once produced by the carburisation of wrought iron using the cementation process. 

 

The Sheepbridge Iron and Coal Works

The nearby Sheepbridge Coal and Iron Works, as shown on the C19 Ordnance Survey maps, may have been the source of the crozzle, but this is just speculation and I moved on to an L-shaped terrace of houses that comprises Nos. 8-14 and 16-18 Church Street North.

 

Nos. 8-14 Church Street North

 

These are described in the Old Whittington Conservation Area Appraisal as "Although much altered, this terrace is of significant importance, being an example of an extended terrace of the 19th century workers cottage". The boundary wall and vegetation obscures the view of these and I just took a few general record photos, noteding the further use of locally quarried iron stained PLCMF sandstone and stone slate for the roof.

 

Nos. 16-18 Church Street North

On the opposite side of the road is the imposing Seventh Day Adventist Church (1894), which is not a listed building. Built in the Gothic style, it replaced an earlier Wesleyan Methodist Chapel on High Street (1828), which has been converted into Chapel Cottage.

 

The Seventh Day Adventist Church