A Further Exploration of Handsworth

 

Bramley Hall

A couple of days after a good day out to Old Whittington, a sunny Saturday morning quite spontaneously prompted me to catch  the No. 71 bus from Treeton to Harthill, an attractive village on the border of Rotherham and North East Derbyshire. 

 

Decorative stones in the interior of All Hallows church

 

I had visited All Hallows church a few times and examined the Rotherham Red variety of the Mexborough Rock in an old quarry, which is set a short distance to the east. I had no reason to further explore Harthill and just wanted to get out of the house for a couple of hours and, although I had another look at the decorative stone used in the chancel, I can't really add anything more to my previous Language of Stone Blog posts. 

 

St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic primary school

With the fine weather continuing, my next trip on the following Monday also just required a short bus journey - this time to Handsworth, which I had explored a few times during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020. Alighting from the No. 95 bus, I proceeded to St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic primary school, where I took a few photos for the British Listed Buildings website. 

 

The rear of St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic primary school

I then popped into the churchyard of the adjacent St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic church to photograph the rear elevation of the school and here I discovered a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) headstone made of Portland stone, which commemorates Bombardier J.W. Foreman of the Royal Artillery. 

 

The headstone of Bombardier J.W. Foreman

 

Retracing my steps and crossing Handsworth Road, I had quick look around Handsworth Old Cemetery, where there is the CWGC headstone of Private J.T. Cawthorne of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. The worksheet doesn’t mention the stone used, but it looks very similar to the Creetown granite, which I had seen used for the headstone of Driver C.W. Eagers of the Royal Engineers in Crookes Cemetery. 

 

A detail of the granite used for the headstone of Private J.T. Cawthorne

 

I took a few general photos of substantial later Victorian memorials, where various granites have been used, including pink Peterhead granite, which is easily recognisable. The grey granites are probably from Aberdeen, but I didn’t examine them closely and the red granites used for the simple headstones looks quite different to the Peterhead granite, but my photos don’t show their dates and I can't determine their mineralogy and texture from them. 

 

Granite memorials in Handsworth Old Cemetery

 

Making my way down the public footpath past the allotments and on to Bramley Hall Road, where Bramley Hall, dated by Historic England (HE) to the early C18 with rear addition (c.1875) and mid C20 alterations, is surrounded by an estate of inter-war semi-detached houses. 

 

Views of Bramley Hall

Returning to Handsworth Road via Bramley Lane, I took a couple of photos of the Jeffcock Memorial Water Trough and Drinking Fountain (1900), which are made with pink Peterhead granite and grey granite from the Cornubian Batholith respectively. 

 

The Jeffcock Memorial Water Trough and Drinking Fountain

I stopped again at the entrance to St. Mary’s churchyard, where the Portland stone war memorial is set into the churchyard wall that is made of sandstone which, like that used for Bramley Hall, was probably obtained from a sandstone in the Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation.

 

Handsworth war memorial

I had first visited St. Mary's church a couple of times in 2016, when my days out were mainly spent investigating the mediaeval churches of South Yorkshire and noted that the rebuilt chancel arch (c.1870) has alternate voussoirs made of Rotherham Red sandstone. On this occasion, while having a quick look at the east end, I could see that it has also been used for the renewal of the tracery and window surround to the north window of St. Katherine’s chapel. 

 

The north window of St. Katherine's chapel

At the east end of the chancel, set within a round cornered enclosure with an ashlar plinth and wrought iron railing, contains 4 chest tombs of various styles, dated by HE as 1658, mid C19 and 1889. One of the C19 tombs is made of a red sandstone that again looks like Rotherham Red sandstone which, in my experience, is not used for monuments.

 

Chest tombs at the east end of the chancel

Earlier in the year at the Sheffield Heritage Fair, I met various representatives of the Handsworth Museum and Historical Society, based in the stable block to the former Handsworth vicarage, which I never knew existed, and after taking a photo of the old vicarage, which now holds weddings and events, went to look at the museum. 

 

The former Handsworth vicarage

 

Having been offered a cup of tea, I got talking to the various members of the society who were in attendance, I was surprised to see Chris Ellis of the Diocese of Sheffield turn up, who I had met several times during the Church Explorers Week event that he had organised the previous year. 

 

Sunny Meadows Nursery

From here, I set off down Handsworth Road on my way to Handsworth New Cemetery and was again very curious to see that Rotherham Red sandstone is used for the quoins and dressings to the Sunny Meadows Nursery, which has walling built with the ‘ginger nut’ hued sandstone that is used for most of the historic architecture in Handsworth.

 

Rotherham Red sandstone dressings at Sunny Meadows Nursery