War Graves in Darnall Cemetery

 

The regimental crest on the headstone of Private T. Sproson

A couple of days after my walk from Tinsley to Brightside, in the industrial east end of Sheffield, I took advantage of another fine April day to undertake a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge in Darnall, which I had first visited 4 years earlier when exploring the Sheffield Board Schools and then when photographing the chapels and war memorial in Tinsley Park Cemetery. 

 

The Listed buildings in Darnall Ward

Of the 53 listed buildings in Darnall Ward, 47 of these had already been photographed – all but 3 by myself – and the last 6 were all structures relating to the steel industry that have very little interest to this Language of Stone Blog. I therefore compiled a list of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) headstones at Darnall Cemetery to start off my day. 

 

The CWGC headstones in Darnall Cemetery

 

Although one of the smaller cemeteries in Sheffield, with an area of approximately 2.2 hectares, it is not always easy to find the headstones - as I had discovered at St. Lawrence’s churchyard in Tinsley earlier in the week - and I managed to find a plot map that would help me to locate the 13 CWGC headstones that are recorded in this cemetery. 

 

The plot map of Darnall Cemetery

The only regiment on my list that I had not yet encountered was the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, to which Private A. Smith was attached, but its crest is a simple maple leaf - as I had previously seen at St. Mary’s churchyard in Bolsterstone, on the headstone of Private P. Woodhead of the Canadian Infantry. 

 

The headstone of Private A. Smith

 

Looking closely at the Portland stone, the surface has weathered significantly and many of the details of the crest have lost their sharp profiles and parts of the inscription are now becoming illegible, which is probably attributable to the sulphurous atmospheric pollution that was generated by the numerous steelworks in the east end of Sheffield. 

 

A detail of the headstone of Private A. Smith

The Headstone Schedule for Private. A. Smith also includes those of Aircraftman F. Hemmings of the Royal Air Force, Private G. Roe of the Leicestershire Regiment, Corporal W. Ellis and Private T. Sproson of the Royal Army Service Corps. The headstones are all made of Portland stone, with that of the latter being a replacement, and the details of the crests and inscriptions of the others having deteriorated considerably. 

 

Various headstones made with Portland stone

 

Portland stone is also used for the headstone of Private J. Grayson of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, which has again weathered with a loss of detail and, quite surprisingly, has a covering of lichen. The CWGC take great care to clean their headstones, with this undertaken both by employees and volunteers, and I can’t recall seeing a headstone in such a condition. 

 

Lichen on the headstone of Private J. Grayson

 

I next encountered the headstones of Private J. Macrae of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and Private G. Stones of the York and Lancaster Regiment, which are clearly different to those described above. They immediately reminded me of the headstones of Private T. Sharp and Private E. Stickland in Handsworth New Cemetery, which I thought are made of Welsh slate. 

 

the headstone of Private J. Macrae

On both of the slate headstones in Darnall Cemetery, the stone had been broken to reveal very fine grained slate, but the headstone of Private G. Stones looks on my photos to be greenish in colour, with part of the broken surface having the same colouration - a characteristic usually associated with volcanic green slate.

 

The headstone of Private G. Stones

It certainly doesn’t look like the slate from the Borrowdale Volcanic Group, which I spent 6 weeks mapping as an undergraduate geologist and I tend to immediately recognise. I would have to take another look at this, but Welsh slate does often contain bands of volcanic ash – as I had seen on Neville Street in Leeds the year before. 

 

The headstone of Private L. Brown

 

The next headstone that I encountered, Private L. Brown of the York and Lancaster Regiment, is made of a granite that is not recorded on the Headstone Schedule, which also includes Gunner J.R. Willoughby of the Royal Garrison Artillery, Private T. Whiteley and Private F. Benson of the East Yorkshire Regiment and Private A. Glover of the York and Lancaster Regiment. 

 

Various headstones made of granite

Creetown, Inver and Rubislaw granites are recorded on the Headstone Schedules on a few of the headstones that I have encountered in various cemeteries in Sheffield and, corresponding with the CWGC, I have been informed that Glenaby and Vire Blanc granite from France have been used when the limited availability and cost of the Scottish granites became prohibitive; however, looking online, I have not found definitive examples of these French granites to enable me to identify them.

 

A detail of the headstone of Gunner J.R. Willoughby

 

Taking a closer look at the headstone of Gunner J.R. Willoughby, it looks like the Creetown granite that is recorded as having been used for Driver C.H. Eagers of the Royal Engineers at Crookes Cemetery and which I think has also been used in Handsworth New Cemetery. 

 

A detail of the headstone of Driver C.H. Eagers in Crookes Cemetery

As a geologist with specialist interests in building stones, I have seen many granites and have included some of those from the British Isles in the Triton Stone Library, which has since been transferred to Sheffield Hallam University.  I am not an expert in the identification of granites and I submitted a close up photo of the headstone of Private L. Brown to the British Geological Survey Asset Bank, but the results were not very helpful.

 

A detail of the granite used for the headstone of Private L. Brown