A Further Exploration of Fulwood

 

The west end of Christ Church

The recce of Burbage Valley with Trish and John took just over 2½ hours to complete and, arriving back in Sheffield, instead of being dropped off at St. John’s church in Ranmoor where they had collected me in the morning, I decided to have a quick look around the churchyard of Christ Church – best known for the C20 alterations by George Gaze Pace and Ronald Sims. 

 

The north elevation 

 

When walking from Ranmoor to Ecclesall Road, via Fulwood, the Porter Valley and Endcliffe Park, in September 2022, I took a few general photos of the exterior, but building work was being undertaken at the time and there was limited access to parts of the churchyard. 

 

A memorial to Arthur Deakin and family

 

The first monument that caught my eye commemorates Arthur Deakin, Vera Ann Slater and Dorothy Weston – with none of these listed on the Find a Grave website - is made of Ross of Mull granite, with its distinctive dark red orthoclase feldspar and subsidiary green hornblende. 

 

Ross of Mull granite

I next encountered the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) headstone of 2nd Lieutenant G.F.C. Chatt of the Royal Corps of Signals, which is made of Botticino marble – a Jurassic limestone from Brescia in Italy that has only been used to replace headstones, with a CNC milling machine reproducing the original hand cut regimental crests and inscriptions. 

 

The regimental crest on the headstone of 2nd Lieutenant G.F.C. Chatt

 

The memorial to James Neill (d.1930), and several members of his family, is a simple cross made of white marble with grey veins that is probably the ‘Sicilian’ variety of Italian Carrara marble. I didn’t examine it closely, but marble like this is not very resistant to the British climate and memorials made in the C19 very often show saccharoidal weathering.

 

The memorial to James Neill and family

 

With the decision to have a look around the churchyard being spontaneous, I wandered randomly until I came across the headstone of Stoker 1st Class L. Green, who served on H.M.S. Vincent – a dreadnought battleship that participated in the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

 

The headstone of Stoker 1st Class L. Green

I didn’t have any interest in the Royal Navy crest, which I had seen very many times before, but immediately thought that it was another example of Botticino marble. Looking at the original worksheet, the stone used was Woodkirk Blue, but the worksheet for the replacement headstone quite surprisingly states that it is made from Portland stone.

 

The tomb of William Bissett

 

The table tomb of William Bissett (d.1888), a prominent builder who had built several prominent buildings in Sheffield and rebuilt St. John’s church in Ranmoor, is made of a yellowish sandstone with a very weathered marble breccia used for the colonnettes and pink granite – probably the Peterhead variety from the Aberdeenshire coast – for one of the inscribed panels.

 

A memorial made of Shap granite

 

The next memorial that caught my eye was a tapering square column with an entablature and topped with an urn. I didn’t see the inscription, but it looks later Victorian and it is made with Shap granite from Cumbria, which has large phenocrysts of dark pink orthoclase feldspar.

 

Phenocrysts of orthoclase feldspar

The headstone of Serjeant A.G. Pinder of the York and Lancaster Regiment is made of Portland stone, which has been weathered to the extent that shell fragments stand proud; however, the details of the headstone appear on the same worksheet as Stoker L. Green, where Woodkirk Blue sandstone has been specified.

 

The headstone of Serjeant A.G. Pinder

Like many large churchyards, in addition to the numerous headstones made from the Greenmoor Rock from the quarries around Brincliffe Edge, there are many substantial Victorian and Edwardian memorials that are made with a variety of granites. Although I spent only spent 10 minutes, before walking past the war memorial to the bus stop on Fulwood Road, I thought that an introduction to geology could be undertaken here.

Fulwood war memorial