The Building Stones of Clifton - Part 3

A blocked doorway on Church Lane

Retuning to the west end of Church Lane, to continue my investigation of the building stones of Clifton, the sandstone used for the surround to the blocked doorway of an agricultural building that has been converted into residential use, as part of the adjoining cottage. 

 

The Clifton tithe map (1838-1840)

The Clifton tithe map (1838-1840) on the Braithwell, Micklebring and Clifton History and Heritage website, plot 55 is described as “Homestead, Orchard” and also Nos. 54 and 55 as “two Cottages on the same plot. Freehold”.

 

A blocked doorway on Church Lane

The lintel, jambs and associated masonry to this entrance are made of a massive grey sandstone, which in parts has deep red colouration that I had seen in boundary walls and the walling to houses and farm buildings on Common Lane. 

 

A detail of the blocked doorway on Church Lane

The doorway has been blocked up with this deep red sandstone and, looking closer, the lower part of the infill masonry includes a large block of dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation similar to the walling, and a large block of pink pisolitic and shelly limestone.

 

A detail of a block of pink pisolitic and shelly limestone

 

Continuing along Church Lane, I had a quick walk around the exterior of Clifton Mission (1895), which, except for a few blocks of red/brown sandstone in the porch, is built with a very finely laminated sandstone that has a dull lilac colour. 

 

Views of the Clifton Mission

 

A high proportion of the masonry has differentially weathered and, in many places, this has developed deep cavernous decay. I had encountered many examples of this kind of weathering in massive unnamed Pennine Coal Measures Formation sandstones in South Yorkshire, but I had not seen a texture like this before. 

 

Differential weathering and cavernous decay at Clifton Mission

In many places, pieces of the rock-faced sandstone have become detached from the surface and I collected a few specimens and, using my hand lens, I can see that it is very fine grained and has specks of white muscovite mica visible on the bedding planes. 

 

Fragments of sandstone from Clifton Mission

 

Earlier in the month, a member of CRAG (Conisbrough Research and Archaeology Group) told me about the use of red sandstone in Clifton and, during subsequent correspondence, I was later told that there was documentation that recorded the use of Rotherham Red sandstone from Ulley and this is mentioned in the entry for Clifton Mission on A Church Near You website. 

 

Rotherham Red/Lilac Blue sandstone in the BRE report

The stone quarried at Ulley is described in the BRE report, The building sandstones of the British Isles, as Rotherham Red/Lilac Blue, with the latter presumably reflecting the reduced state of the iron in a freshly obtained block of stone. 

 

Rotherham Red/Lilac Blue sandstone used in Clifton Park

 

I have seen Rotherham Red sandstone in very many historic buildings and I know that it has considerable colour variation, but I have only seen the Lilac Blue variety where used in the play area during the regeneration of Clifton Park in 2008. 

 

Boundary walls to the former orchard on Back Lane

 

Leaving Clifton Mission, I continued along Church Lane to Back Lane, which runs parallel to Common Lane and forms part of the mediaeval street plan, as I had seen at Hooton Pagnell and Palterton. A high wall at right angles to the road appears to be part of buildings marked on old OS maps that, along with the wall heightened with brick, are boundary walls to a plot that is listed on the 1838-1840 tithe map as an orchard. 

 

A boundary wall to the former orchard

 

Some of the dolomitic limestone used for the wall on Back Lane is thinly bedded and very fine grained, with an appearance that is more like the Brotherton Formation than the pisolitic, oolitic and shelly varieties of the Cadeby Formation that I had seen on my walk around the village. 

 

Red sandstone in the boundary wall on Back Lane

 

Although the Brotherton Formation does outcrop beyond Old Edlington, I can’t see that this would be brought to Clifton when there were a few quarries on the Cadeby Formation in the area. As with most of the walls in the village, these incorporate a few blocks of red sandstone, some of which are quite bright red in colour. 

 

A detail of the red sandstone used in the boundary wall on Back Lane

 

I broke of a small piece with my fingers and, when later examining this and a few fragments of the blocked doorway on Church Lane with my hand lens, I could see that it is medium grained and that the quartz grains are both clear and have a coating of iron oxide.

 

Samples of red sandstone from Back Lane and Church Lane