Main Street in Winster - Part 1

 

The gate piers to Winster Hall

Leaving the Church of St. John the Baptist, I took a couple of photos of Briar Cottage and its outbuilding on Elton Road, which provide further examples of Carboniferous Limestone – both dolomitised and unaltered - and reddened gritstone from the Corbar Grit.

 

Briar Cottage

 

Crossing over to Main Street, the next building on my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge was the early C18 3-bay house next to Holmelea, which is set on a plot that abuts Holmelea and is bounded by Main Street and the yard on the other sides. A contrast in the colour of the gritstone masonry below the chimney stack and the adjacent walling suggests that there has been sulphate damage from the flue, which has necessitated the replacement of the stone.

 

The house to the east of Holmelea

 

At the end of the yard is Heathcote House and Cottage, dated to the C17 with C19 alterations. The front elevation is built with tooled squared and coursed blocks of buff/red gritstone, with the mullions to all the windows retained – including the gabled dormers – but limestone rubble is used for the west elevation and presumably the others that I couldn't see. 

 

Heathcote House

 

Looking east along Main Street, I could see that a combination of 3-storey townhouses and substantial cottages, dating from the early to late C18, are densely packed alongside the road, with their frontage not even separated from the street by railings and a small garden.

 

A view east along Main Street

 

I can’t recall seeing such a range of houses anywhere in my travels in Derbyshire and, presumably, owners/managers of the lead mines that drove the rapid growth of Winster occupied some of these, along with merchants who provided associated commercial services.

 

Stoneheath and the adjoining house

Stoneheath and the adjoining house date to the late C18 and the by now familiar reddened gritstone is used for the ashar and projecting quoins, with Welsh slate for the roof. Next door to this is The Old House, a 3-bay house with its central doorway having a semi-circular hood above and, as at Stoneheath, sashes have superseded mullioned windows. 

 

The Old House

A little further down Main Street is the detached Virginia House, which is Grade II listed for group value, although its architectural features – a plain 3-bay and 3-storey elevation with sash windows – are very similar to The Old House, except that it lacks a hooded doorway and limestone rubble is used for the walling. 

 

Virginia House

 

Retracing my steps down Main Street to photograph the listed buildings on the south side of the road, the early C18 Smithy House is mainly built with very large blocks of reddened gritstone and a few buff coloured blocks are used for the upper storey. The asymmetrical layout of its mullioned windows, the position of the chimney stacks and its two doorways seem to indicate that this was originally two houses, but the Historic England (HE) description doesn't mention this. 

 

Smithy House

 

Moving on to the next building on my Photo Challenge, the late C18 "Pair of Houses Opposite Winster House" are built with dolomitic limestone rubble walling, with gritstone quoins and dressings and plain tiles used for the roof. 

 

The pair of houses opposite Winster House

 

A little further along the road is the mid C18 Carillon, originally a pair of cottages built with a mixture of dolomitic limestone and reddened gritstone used for the walling, with massive blocks of gritstone used for the quoins and lintels to the doorways, but the roughcast render mentioned in the description has since been removed. 

Carillon

Stopping to photograph the K6 telephone kiosk, I then crossed over the road to get a better view of the C18 Lodge, formerly listed as the Crown Inn and having its name changed again to Old Crown House, is another building where the roughcast render has been removed to reveal a mixture of limestone and gritstone walling. 

 

The Lodge

 

Crossing back over the road to photograph the Grade II* listed early C17 Neoclassical style Winster Hall and its separately Grade II listed gate piers and boundary wall, this small country house strongly contrasts with all of the other houses on Main Street - not least because it is set back from the road and is surrounded by a garden. Built with gritstone ashlar, square in plan and with 5 bays, the central section is dominated by a doorway with Doric half columns beneath a moulded pediment and giant pilasters that rise to a balustrated parapet.

 

Winster Hall

 

St. John the Baptist's Church in Winster

 

The south elevation of the Church of St. John the Baptist

Continuing my exploration of Winster, having photographed several listed buildings on West Bank and Woolley's Yard, the next building on my Photo Challenge for Winster was the Church of John the Baptist's church on Elton Road. 

 

The east entrance to the churchyard 

 

With only 72 minutes before I planned to catch the No. 172 bus to Darley Dale, where I would link with the Transpeak service to Bakewell, and 25 buildings still to photograph, I quickly walked along the public footpath to the east entrance to the churchyard, which has gate piers with stepped pyrimidal caps. I didn't expect the church to be open, but many people were going in and out and I assumed that it had been opened especially for the Winster Secret Gardens event. 

 

The south elevation and the churchyard

 

The earliest chapel on this site is thought to have been built c.1100 and was one of five chapels given to the Abbey of Leicester during the reign of Henry II, but this was rebuilt in 1721 and nothing of the original building remains. 

 

A view from the south-east

 

Pevsner describes the church as being rebuilt 1840-42 to a design by Matthew Habershon, with only the tower being retained in an offset position to the south-west corner, with further alterations by A. Roland Barker in 1883. In respect of the latter phase of rebuilding, the church website describes that the earlier church had been poorly built and had become unsafe. 

 

The south aisle

Due to time constraints, I didn’t spend any time looking at the details of the stonework, which is yet another use of reddened gritstone from the Corbar Grit (formerly named the Ashover Grit) and I only took a few general record photographs of the church. 

 

A view from the south-west

 

While completing a circuit of the church, I did stop to photograph a few of the headstones made of Hopton Wood limestone, Peterhead granite and purple slate – which I thought was Welsh slate but could possibly be Swithland slate from Charnwood Forest – caught by eye, but I didn’t notice any of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones. 

 

Various headstones in the churchyard

 

Entering the church, the most notable feature is the double aisle, which has a single arcade with tall slim quatrefoil columns runnng down the middle - a feature that I had only seen before at the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Leeds (1634). 

 

A view of the arcade and chancel arches

Pevsner describes this aspect of the 1883 alterations by Roland Barker as quite remarkable, with the diagonal arches that replace the traditional single chancel arch being "a surprising and successful effect", but a quick Google search didn't throw up any more information about him. 

 

A detail of an ornately carved capital on the arcade

I only spent 6 minutes taking general photographs of the interior, which included views from the gallery, but I didn't notice the font. This has an unusual design and is considered to be of Norman origin, but later reworked during the Tudor period. 

 

A small outcrop of dolomitised limestone

 

Leaving the churchyard and heading back to West Bank, I was interested to see that the boundary wall to the adjacent Dower House is built on a small outcrop of Carboniferous Limestone. Getting closer, its very porous texture with large voids immediately identified it as dolomitised limestone, with its rounded form reflecting its susceptibility to weathering compared to that seen in unaltered limestone from the Eyam Limestone Formation.

 

A detail of the outcrop of dolomitised limestone

West Bank and Woolley’s Yard in Winster

 

Boundary walls on the public footpath to Wooley's Yard

Arriving at West Bank along the path from East Bank, where I obtained a good appreciation of the physical characteristics of the underlying dolomitised Carboniferous Limestone, the first building on my list to photograph was the Grade II listed early C19 Harness Room Squire Whites, originally a house and stable but with the latter since converted to residential use. 

 

Views of Harness Room Squire Whites

 

Gritstone ashlar with some reddening, from the Ashover Grit, is used throughout, with some of the original stone slates to the roof of the house being replaced with concrete tiles. These have been occasionally used on other properties as an alternative to Welsh slate, but would probably not satisfy the current requirements for materials used in the Peak District National Park. 

 

Views of Rose Cottage

Rose Cottage, which is Grade II listed for its group value, is described by Historic England (HE) as “Mid-C18 incorporating parts of an earlier house. Coursed rubble with gritstone dressings, quoins, coped gables with moulded kneelers, east gable ashlar ridge stack, concrete tiles”. 

 

The dovecote at Rose Cottage

The mixture of limestone and gritstone for the walling is not mentioned and, very surprisingly, there is no reference to the much later west extension or the rebuilding of the north elevation, which has snecked masonry with an unusual partially rock-faced finish and incorporates a dovecote. 

 

Views of Bank House

At Bank House, described by HE as “C17 with C18 refashioning and C19 additions. Coursed rubble gritstone with quoins”, taking advantage of the Winster Secret Gardens event, with visitors wandering around the grounds of houses that would not normally be accessible, I was able to have a look at the west and rear elevations, where coursed limestone rubble is mainly used for the walling and part of the stone slate roofing has been replaced with Welsh slate. 

The geology around Winster with working quarries on the Ashover Grit

 

The provenance of the gritstone used in Winster is not known but, from my working knowledge of the area and having obtained several samples of stone for the Triton Stone Library – now housed in the Redmires Building at Sheffield Hallam University -  I am aware that reddened gritstone often occurs in the area.

 

The stone library in the Redmires Building

The most reddened variety is quarried at Birchover, although other buff/pink varieties are obtained from outliers of the Ashover Grit (renamed as Corbar Grit) to the north of Winster and on the main outcrop to the east of the River Derwent, where it has been described as ‘Matlock stone.’ 

 

A view of the Birchover Quarry

The former Wesleyan Methodist Chapel (1837) is built entirely with red gritstone, with a Welsh slate roof, and the front elevation has tall Venetian windows and a round arched doorway. Also included in the Grade II listing are the railings and the boundary walls into which they are set – described erroneously by HE as being built with limestone. 

 

The former Wesleyan Methodist Chapel

 

A little further down on the west side of the road is the mid C18 Old Shoulder of Mutton Inn, now converted into a residence, where the frontage is again built with red gritstone with an inscription next to the former entrance, but the extension with a carriage arch to the south uses a mixture of limestone and gritstone. 

 

The Old Shoulder of Mutton Inn

 

Opposite this is West Bank Cottage, a substantial 4-bay mid C18 house that is again built in gritstone, with a very large reddened block used for the lintel above the door. Uniformly buff gritstone has been used for the window dressings, which according to HE are C20 replacements of the original mullioned and transomed windows. 

 

West Bank Cottage

Taking a diversion down the footpath to Woolley's Yard, the dry stone boundary walls provide further examples of the local dolomitised Carboniferous Limestone, which made me wonder if these may have been a biproduct of the lead mine that operated here. 

 

The path to Woolley's Yard

 

Continuing past the Grade II listed outbuilding to the north of No. 11 Woolley’s Yard, the C18 Nos. 9 and 10 is a pair of 3-storey cottages that have been converted into one residence, with red gritstone mullioned windows and massive lintels to the doorways – one of which has been blocked up to form a window. 

 

Nos. 9 and 10 Woolley's Yard

 

I didn’t look at the walling to the front elevation close up, but it is mainly built with very pale cream coloured limestone with a few courses of red gritstone and these materials, along with quite thickly bedded grey limestone, are again used for Nos. 6 to 8 Woolley’s Yard. 

 

Nos. 6 to 8 Woolley's Yard

 

Although the HE description is again not very clear, these seem to have originally comprised a terrace of three C18 terraced houses with the northernmost house having its stone slate roof replaced with Welsh slate and its dormer window altered. 

 

No. 6 Woolley's Yard

 

To this has been added a slightly smaller cottage, which is built with more thinly bedded pale cream/buff limestone that looks to be dolomitised. After taking a few general record photos, I retraced my steps back to West Bank, where I next stopped at the Burton Institute, which is marked as a hall on the 1889 Ordnance Survey map and is still the focal point of the community. 

 

The Burton Institute

 

With its late Perpendicular Gothic style first floor windows and the quatrefoil window to the right of the entrance are interesting details, it further contributes to the aesthetic quality of the Conservation Area and I am surprised that it is not even listed for its group value. The front elevation is built with buff gritstone with red gritstone for the side elevations – both of which have sections of coursed and random rubble walling incorporated into the ground floor. 

 

Ashton House

 

A little further down West Bank is a substantial early C19 house listed by HE as “House Attached South of Kirkby House and Attached Shop” but since named Ashton House, which is only listed for its group value but I thought was quite impressive, with its tall chimney stacks, projecting quoins, hoodmoulds and other architectural details.

 

The gate piers to Dower House

 

The very ornate gate piers to Dower House, at the corner of West Bank and Elton Road, are described by HE as having grotesque masks, foliage, cartouches, guttae and serpents. The house was opened for the Winster Secret Gardens and this enabled me to see the late C17 rear elevation of this large house, which is built with limestone walling and gritstone dressings.

 

Views of Dower House

From East Bank to West Bank in Winster

 

Winster Methodist Chapel

When planning my day out to undertake a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge in Winster, comprising 53 buildings, my intention was to arrive at 13:08 on the No. 172 bus and then catch the next bus at 15:28 to Darley Dale and travel back to Bakewell on the Transpeak service. 

 

The route of my exploration of Winster

Reaching Rock View on East Bank at 12:46, having managed to photograph 16 of the 18 buildings on my route and walked less than 600 m, my next task was to find the Primitive Methodist Chapel set on the steep slope of Winster Bank, which was not on my list.

 

A dry stone wall on the footpath to the Primitive Methodist Chapel

 

Eventually locating the public footpath, I immediately came across a dry stone boundary wall, which is largely composed of large irregular blocks of a porous, very pale cream coloured Carboniferous Limestone that is full of voids, with smaller roughly rectangular blocks of grey limestone used for later repairs. 

 

A section of the dry stone wall

 

When living in Bakewell and undertaking a survey of the RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) in the Peak District National Park, from the British Geological Survey memoir, I was aware that some of the Dinantian limestones were affected by secondary dolomitisation, but there wasn’t a single site on my list of places to visit where I was able to see this. Very many years later, the Sheffield U3A Geology Group organised a field trip to Harborough Rocks, but I was unable to attend and this still remains a gap in my fieldwork. 

 

A detail of dolomitised limestone in a dry stone wall

 

Wyns Tor, 50 m to the south of East Bank, is cited in the Geological Conservation Review as “the best example of a tor developed on dolomitized limestone in Britain and the site contains important information on the nature of rock weathering, periglacial processes and landscape evolution in this part of the Pennines”, but I wasn’t aware of this at the time of my visit. 

 

Dolomite tors in the south-east of the Peak District

A little further down the public footpath to the Primitive Methodist Chapel, I spotted a small outcrop at the base of the dry stone wall in which a very open texture with voids can be clearly seen, with many of the stones in the adjoining wall having a similar appearance. 

 

An outcrop of dolomitised limestone next to the public footpath

 

The chapel, which dates to 1823 and was extended in 1850, is built with limestone rubble walling and red gritstone dressings and, after a period of disuse that led to a state of disrepair, has been quite recently restored by Crooks Architecture in Hathersage. 

 

The Primitive Methodist Chapel

 

Although I didn’t have my Estwing hammer with me, I managed to obtain a few small specimens of dolomitic limestone and, examining these with a hand lens, they are very crystalline and while there is no general reaction with hydrochloric acid, calcite crystals in the rock do effervesce. 

 

Specimens of dolomitised limestone

 

Fine specks of a black mineral are scattered throughout the body of the rock and the geological memoir states that manganese – seen in the Permian Magnesian Limestone - and iron were introduced when the dolomitisation occurred. The specimens are also very heavy and this may reflect mineralisation associated with the lead rakes in the immediate vicinity. 

 

Lead rakes shown on the geological map

 

Making my way back up the path, I continued west along East Bank to another path, which led me through an area of very hummocky ground that the Derbyshire Historic Environment Record shows to be the site of the old Weston shaft - “A deep engine shaft, at a disturbed hillock, that leads to extensive pipe and vein workings” - which is part of the Upper Orchard Mine. 

 

The location of the Upper Orchard Mine

I did not have time to explore this part of Winster, where the lead mine and spoil heap extend to 1 ha in area, but a satellite view of this part of the village shows that the area is grassed over and has remained undeveloped, with both the shaft and spoil heap marked on the 1884 and 1899 Ordnance Survey maps as old lead mines. 

 

The 1899 Ordnance Survey map of Winster

Continuing along the public footpath, although I couldn’t see the lead mining area, there are fine views over Winster to the north and north-west and, after stopping to a take a couple of photographs, I made my way down to West Bank. 

 

A view from the path to West Bank