A Day Out to Brodsworth

 

Weathering of the sandstone steps at Rotherham railway station

 

On the first day of Church Explorers Week in 2024, before attending the event at St. James’ church, I had started my day by catching the X19 bus to Marr, where I examined the exterior of St. Helen’s church, photographed a few listed buildings and then walked  to High Melton, where I took more photos of listed buildings and had a quick look at its geology. 

 

Treeton to Brodsworth as the crow flies

 

The following Wednesday, the next church that I planned to visit was St. Michael and All Angels in Brodsworth, which would require me to catch the Stagecoach No. 203 bus, which I had used to visit All Saints church in Hooton Pagnell back in September 2022 – a service that runs every 2 hours and 20 minutes between Doncaster and Wombwell. 

 

The route of the Stagecoach No. 203 bus

 

On that occasion, my visit coincided with a coffee morning - held between 10 and 12 – and I firstly visited the church and then undertook a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge in the village before catching the bus to Thurnscoe, where I would photograph its listed buildings and then catch a train back to Rotherham. 

 

The Stagecoach No. 203 bus timetable

 

For this day out, with St. Michael’s church being opened in the afternoon, the timings of the buses and trains made it more practical for me to catch the No. 73 bus (now the No. 95) to Rotherham and then catch the hourly train to Doncaster. 

 

Views of burnt out buildings on Commercial Street in Rotherham

Alighting from the No. 73 bus on Commercial Street, with a few minutes to spare before my train was due, I took a few quick snaps of the demolition work that had finally started on Club Envy, which was burnt down in 2007, along with the fire damaged Muskaan Indian restaurant (2011).

 

A view of Commercial Street on the 29th of May 2024

 

These and the long since empty National Westminster (2014) and Lloyds (2006) banks have been embarrassing eyesores on the main thoroughfare from the bus and train stations to Rotherham Minster – arguably the No.1 tourist attraction in the town centre. 

 

A few views of Forge Island on the 29th of May 2024

Continuing along Bridge Street towards the railway station, I was further surprised to see a gang of workmen laying paving stones around the entrance to the Forge Island development -another very ambitious Rotherham MBC project. This has been set back numerous times and has drawn criticism from many quarters, with it often being perceived as a yet another ‘white elephant’, but considerable progress had been made since last seeing it. 

 

Applying a flamed texture to the paving at the entrance to Forge Island

 

I was particularly interested to see one of the workmen using a high powered blow torch, which I presume was to apply a flame textured surface, a finish that I had only seen at an automated ‘oven’ at the Kilkenny Limestone Ltd. factory at Holdenrath Quarry in the Republic of Ireland, when temporarily working for the Geological Survey of Ireland. 

 

The sandstone steps at Rotherham railway station

 

The type of sandstone being laid at Forge Island wasn’t familiar to me but, when noticing the condition of the sandstone used for the steps up to the entrance of the railway station, which was reopened after refurbishment in 2012, I hoped that it would prove to be more durable. 

 

The worksheet for my day out to Brodsworth

 

Eventually arriving in Brodsworth at 13:22, I had just over an hour and a half before I had to catch the bus back to Doncaster and I immediately set about finding some of the Grade II Listed buildings that had appeared on my Photo Challenge for Brodsworth. 

 

Views of Glebe Farmhouse

 

The first of these was the early C19 Glebe Farmhouse, which is built with dressed dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation, which has developed a light brown patina that I thought was quite unusual – having seen this mainly on Jurassic limestone – and it has a Welsh slate roof. 

 

The Gatehouse

The Gatehouse is a mid C18 former vicarage with C19 additions and has been rendered and painted, but it still retains a red pantile roof, which is typical of the vernacular architecture along the length of the Magnesian Limestone escarpment. 

 

The old smithy

 

Opposite the drive that leads up to St. Michael’s church, there is an isolated single storey building that is marked on the 1894 edition of the 1:25,000 scale Ordnance Survey (OS) map as a smithy, but has now been converted to residential use. 

 

Brodsworth on the 1:25,000 1894 OS map

 

The 6 inch 1854 OS map shows that it was just one of several buildings that presumably were part of the home farm to the original Brodsworth Hall, which as originally located immediately to the west of St. Michael’s church but had been demolished by the time the 1894 map was published. 

 

Brodsworth on the 6 inch 1854 OS map

 

Making my way up to the church, the gates and gatepiers to the old Brodsworth Hall were the last ‘listed building’ on my Photo Challenge that I could gain access to and I just took a couple of general photos and a detailed photo showing a swag. 

 

The entrance to the old Brodsworth Hall

St. James’ Church High Melton – Part 3

 

A view along the nave from the tower

Entering St. James’ church through the south door, after I had spoken to Chris Ellis - who works as a Church Buildings Officer at the Diocese of Sheffield and had organised Church Explorers Week - I had 40 minutes before the hourly No. 219 bus back to Doncaster was due in High Melton. 

 

The St. James' church guide

 

Picking up the church guide, which is in the standard Heritage Inspired style used by very many of the mediaeval churches in South Yorkshire before the initiative ended, I set about taking a systematic photographic record of the principal architectural elements of the church – starting with the 2-bay south arcade, which is part of the church that was established c.1153. 

 

A view of the arcade from the south aisle

 

I took a couple of quick snaps of the south aisle, which has its masonry fully exposed but I didn’t further investigate this. Based on my observations of the patterns in the stonework of the external fabric and references to the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture for Britain and Ireland (CRSBI) and Pevsner, I think that this probably dates to the C12. 

 

A view east along the south aisle

 

The arcade has a very plain round arches with no mouldings, which normally indicates a fairly early date and the capital to the west respond is decorated with simple scallops, but I just took a single photograph and didn’t really take much notice of the details described by the CRSBI. 

 

The capital to the west respond of the arcade

 

Standing in the tower looking east down the nave, the narrow and very tall nature of the nave is a feature that led Peter Ryder to suggest that this part of the church is of a pre-Conquest date in Saxon Churches of South Yorkshire, but the chancel arch is hidden by the rood screen. 

 

A view east along the nave from the tower

 

On the north wall of the tower is a large Carrara marble wall memorial to Thomas Fountayne (d.1709) of High Melton Hall, which has a very lengthy inscription that delves into very many aspects of his life, which is fully recorded in the Parish History leaflet. 

 

The memorial to Thomas Fountayne

 

Returning to the nave to have a look at the south arcade and the wall of the nave above, there is no break in the pattern of the masonry above the arcade, except around the square headed windows, which are probably part of the C15 alterations in the Perpendicular Gothic style. 

 

A fragment of masonry next to the blocked north door

 

The wall adjacent to the blocked north door contains a fragment of masonry with a cross that is stylised with a geometrical form, which is similar to those that I had seen in the walls of the porch and may be part of a grave slab, but this is not mentioned in the church guide. 

 

A view of the masonry above the arcade

 

The font, which has been relocated from the tower to the south aisle, is not mentioned by Pevsner and Historic England (HE) describes it a tapered cylinder without a date, except for the oak cover that they suggest is probably C18; however, the church guide assigns it to the C13 but the Parish History includes it in their description of C12 features. 

 

The font

Moving down to the east end of the arcade, I had a quick look at the east respond, which the CRSBI describes in detail and states that the base and the west face of the capital have been remade, which may explain the origin of the scalloped sections of a capital that have been incorporated into the north window of the nave. 

 

The renewed west face of the capital to the east respond

 

Their description also mentions that the respond and the central pier has remains of red ochre based painted decorations, but I didn’t notice any of these and after taking a photo of the capital to the central column, where the scallop and nailhead details are obviously a lot older than those reproduced on the east respond, I made my way to the chancel.

 

The capital to the central pier

Entering the chancel, I discovered that its walls have been plastered and I was unable to confirm my observations on the exterior, where I thought that the chancel and Lady Chapel are part of the same phase of buildings. 

 

The chancel and arch to the Lady Chapel

 

The chancel arch, which is obscured from view in the nave by the rood screen, is seen to be a very plain with simple voussoirs and the imposts are squared with a simple chamfer, with no sculptural details whatsoever. 

 

The chancel arch

 

Looking back along the nave, although the masonry has been whitewashed or painted, the large very well squared ashlar blocks can be clearly made out and, despite its internal location, sections of the walling are very weathered and have lost their surface. 

 

A view west along the nave to the tower arch

Although I didn’t spend any time studying their details, there are fine wall memorials to members of the Fountayne family scattered around the church, of which Pevsner mentions only one – that of T. C. Fountayne (d.1780) – describing it as “an elegant tablet with a representation in flat relief. Portrait medallion on the pedestal of an urn. Marbles of various colours”. 

 

Various marble wall memorials

 

I finished my very brief look at the interior of St. James’ church by taking a few photos of the Lady Chapel, where much of the exposed walling is obscured by wooden panelling, seating and more large wall memorials. With several local residents milling around, I didn't look at any of the details and in the company of Ben Elliott-Hill - the verger of Sheffield Cathedral who had first informed me of Church Explorers Week - I set off back to Doncaster. 

Views of the Lady Chapel

St. James’ Church High Melton – Part 2

 

A gargoyle on the tower

Continuing my walk around the exterior of St. James’ church in High Melton, having taken note of the use of a mixture of limestone and reddened sandstone for the chancel and nave, I was very interested to see that the jambs of the Perpendicular Gothic style square headed window inserted into the nave incorporate stones with scalloped decoration

 

Reset capitals in the nave window

 

The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture for Britain and Ireland (CRSBI) considers them to be “probably contemporary with the capitals of the south arcade because their scale seems consistent, although they do not show any later features such as nailhead cutting”. 

 

A view of the tower from the north-east 

Moving on to the tower, Historic England refer to this as Perpendicular and is presumably part of the C15 phase of building that is included in their description, which makes reference to Pevsner’s entry in the West Yorkshire volume of Buildings of England; however, the Parish History of High Melton leaflet refers to the lower part as C14, the upper part C15 and with it being further raised in the C18 and a clock installed in 1768. 

 

A view of the tower from the north-west

At the time of my visit, which was in quite overcast conditions, when walking around the tower I didn’t notice any obvious changes in the masonry of the tower, which is essentially built with very large squared and evenly coursed ashlar blocks – a pattern that I have learned to associate with the later Perpendicular Gothic style of the C15, rather than the C14, by visiting over 125 mediaeval churches in the region. 

 

A view of the tower from the west

 

The sharp contrast between the ashlar of the tower and fabric of the nave, chancel and south aisle, which is at best well squared and coursed rubble, to my eye suggests that the tower up to at least the base of the belfry stage dates to the C15. 

 

A view of the tower from the south-west

 

Furthermore, the dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation has a marked yellow tinge that is very uniform in colour, which is shared in common with St. Wilfrid’s church in Hickleton and St. Peter’s church in Barnburgh and is a characteristic that sets them apart from most of the mediaeval churches that I have seen in Doncaster. 

 

A view of the tower from the south

 

This colour is due to the incorporation of loose sand from the Yellow Sands Formation that underlies it, which is a feature of the small exposure of the junction between these two formations that could still be seen in Melton Park when I last saw it back in 2007. 

 

The upper stages of the tower

Looking at my photos, I can see differences in the colours of the limestone used to build the belfry stage and those below, which are uniformly yellow, and the weathering appears to be less pronounced, but an investigation close up from a scaffold would be needed to confirm this. 

 

A sculptural detail on the north-west buttress

 

On the north-west corner of the tower is a very large diagonal buttress, which incorporates a spiral staircase and is decorated with what appears to be a two headed figure, but this is very weathered. At ground level, the limestone is also very weathered and has been inappropriately repaired with sand and cement. 

 

A replaced block in the north-west buttress

 

A single block has been replaced in recent times with a pale cream coloured dolomitic limestone, which is quite typical of the stone now available from the very limited number of quarries that are still extracting stone from the Cadeby Formation. This highlights the problems faced by a specialist building restoration contractor when trying to satisfy an architect's specification "to match the existing as closely as possible". 

 

An extensive repair with stone slips

The south-west buttress has had an extensive section of weathered stone repaired using stone slips, which is based on the principle of undertaking ‘honest repairs’ that was first advocated by SPAB (The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) using clay tiles. 

 

A detail of a repair with stone slips

 

Moving round to the north elevation, I was interested to see that the south aisle overlaps the tower. It is built with roughly squared and irregularly coursed rubble sandstone and limestone, which is very similar to that seen in the north elevation of the nave – considered to be of a pre-Conquest date by Peter Ryder in Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire. 

 

A view of the south aisle and porch

As with the masonry on the east side of the porch, it contains courses of very thin-bedded limestone at quite regular intervals, which sets it apart from the better squared and more regularly coursed masonry that I had seen in the chancel. 

 

A view of the south aisle and nave.

 

The Lady Chapel, which the CRSBI considers to have been built in the second half of the C14, is separated from the south aisle by a very large squat buttress, which doesn't appear to have any structural purpose and may hide the junction between these two elements of the church. 

 

A view of the south aisle and chancel

 

A clear view of the masonry to the Lady Chapel is obscured by a tree and I therefore couldn’t take a photo that would usually enable me to see differences in the pattern of masonry, which indicate separate phases of construction. 

 

Views of the south elevation

I then took a few general record photos of the south elevation, including the windows that have been inserted into the nave wall to form a clerestory. These have double ogee arches cut into a head that is made of a single piece of limestone and have very crude dressings to the jambs. 

 

A window in the north wall of the nave

Entering the porch, I was quite surprised to discover that the south door has an ogee arch with a large roll moulding, which is an architectural feature that I had not seen before and, together with north door in the nave, is dated by Pevsner to the C14. 

 

The south door

 

Set into the walls of the porch are several small fragments of masonry that are decorated with crosses and other geometrical designs that may possibly be fragments of grave slabs, which I have often seen before in the churches that I have visited, but there was no information to explain them and I proceeded to enter the church and have a quick look at its interior before I had to catch the hourly No. 219 bus back to Doncaster.

 

Reset fragments of sculpted masonry in the porch