St. Mary's Church in Worsbrough

A detail of a Perpendicular Gothic style window

When arriving in Worsbrough Village to find St. Mary’s church closed, after a series of delays to my bus from Sheffield, I decided to just have a quick walk around the exterior to take a few record photographs and to come back another day.

A general view from the south-west

Starting with a general view taken from the south-west, my immediate impression was that this was yet another church that had been largely remodelled in the late 15th century. This was based on its transomed Perpendicular Gothic style windows to the south aisle and the bold castellated details, which can also be seen on the porch and tower.

A general view from the north-east

Walking clockwise around the church, the north aisle is of the same dimensions and has windows in the same style, as also in the south wall of the chancel. Looking closely at the ashlar masonry, although some of the yellow coloured sandstone is weathered at high level, the profiles are generally still very sharp.

Perpendicular Gothic style windows in the south aisle

According to Pevsner, the aisles were heightened in 1838 and the Historic England listing refers to the aisle being extensively remodelled during this restoration by J. P. Pritchett, therefore accounting for the relatively good condition of much of the masonry to the aisles.

The Norman window in the north chancel wall

The visible part of the exterior is the chancel, which is constructed in rubble masonry comprising generally flaggy sandstone with very high iron content, which is very similar to the general walling seen in much of the older vernacular architecture in the village. The round headed slit window in the north wall of the chancel is C12 and the east window is Decorated Gothic with reticulated tracery, which is typical of the early C14.

The east elevation of the chancel

Much of the chancel appears to be have been rebuilt, especially the quoins to the upper half and the well squared courses above the level of the apex of the arch contrast strongly with the masonry below. The parapets are of the same style as the adjoining aisles and it is therefore probable that the uppermost section was rebuilt during the restoration of 1838.

A general view from the south-east

The vestry, which is butted onto the south wall of the chancel, and the porch look to my eyes very similar in style and, with the interior of the latter being described by Pevsner as having a good Perpendicular roof, are probably of the late C15. The flat headed window, with its four centred arches to the lights, and the external door of the vestry has the characteristics of the Tudor period and, as I subsequently discovered in another visit, the door from the chancel is in a similar style.

Masonry to the vestry and chancel

The sandstone used in the mediaeval parts of the church, particularly in the Decorated Gothic tower, is very unusual and is unlike anything that I have seen before. Apart from its distinctly yellow colour, with cross bedding, it is the differential weathering of its large scale Liesegang rings which gives the sandstone used in St. Mary’s church its very distinctive character.

Liesegang rings in the sandstone masonry to the tower

The iron oxides in the rock are concentrated into nodules and dense bands that contrast strongly with the adjoining sandstone, where the natural cement seems to be depleted and is weathered at a much faster rate.

Ironstone nodules

The most extensive use of new masonry that I noticed is for the recent phase of restoration to the porch arch, using buff coloured medium grained sandstone, which contains some iron nodules but which is not really a good match to the original sandstone.

Stone replacement to the porch

Although the mediaeval stonework is in place highly weathered, replacement stone has been used sparingly, with much of it being left restored, including the dolomitic limestone headstops to the porch, or repaired with slips of stone bedded in mortar - in the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) style.

A repair using stone slips

A Trip to Worsbrough Village

A view of the landscape from Worsbrough Village

After a flurry of activity relating to my interests in the Sheffield U3A Geology Group - planning days out in Monsal Dale and Sheffield – I continued my investigation of the mediaeval churches of South Yorkshire by public transport with a trip to Worsbrough Village, a small village that lies on the outskirts of Barnsley. 

A trip from Treeton to Worsbrough Village

To take advantage of the opening of St. Mary’s church on a Wednesday morning, I got to Sheffield in plenty of time to catch the Stagecoach No.2 bus at 09:42 but, due to an incident on the M1 motorway, this turned up an hour late; however, to everyone’s surprise, the driver stopped half way through the journey and announced that he had reached the limit of his allowed driving time and that we would have to get off and wait for the next bus. 

A general view of St. Mary's church

Arriving in Worsbrough at 12:05 pm, the church was shut and there was not a sign of life in the adjacent Old School where the congregation take refreshments after the service. With the sun shining, I decided to make a quick photographic record of its exterior and then go and have a walk around the village to look at it vernacular architecture. 

 

The geology around Worsbrough Village

The geological map of the area around Worsbrough Village shows a succession of minor sandstones from the Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation, with the only named sandstone being the Kent’s Rock, which I only knew from its distinct escarpment in Rawmarsh in Rotherham, but which I had not knowingly seen as a building stone. 

Iron rich sandstone in a boundary wall

Looking at various boundary walls and general walling stone for the cottages, the sandstone is generally thinly bedded and often flaggy, with the colour varying from yellow/buff to dark brown – the latter forming a high proportion of the stonework and reflecting a very high iron content. 

A house dated 1915 on Worsbrough Road

The British Geological Survey memoir records that the Kent’s Rock, in places within the Barnsley region, has bands and nodules of ironstone but there are no details for Worsbrough village. Victorian maps show a few quarries within a distance of 1 km, from which the stone for the buildings would probably have been taken. 

The Old School

For the larger farm buildings and houses, larger blocks of medium grained sandstone of yellowish colour are frequent in the walls and are used for quoins and dressings. In places, very large blocks have been used for door jambs and lintels and have large scale Liesegang  rings. 

Large blocks of sandstone with Liesegang rings

At Worsbrough Hall and Worsbrough Hall Flats on the edge of the village, the sandstone used for the ashlar to a range of buildings is yellowish in colour, with some iron banding discernible beneath the dirt and natural patina but, being private property, I couldn’t get close enough to take a good look at the details.

Worsbrough Hall and Worsbrough Hall Flats

Meadowhead to Brincliffe Edge - Part 2

A detail of a house on Brincliffe Edge Road

On the first leg of the walk from Meadowhead to Brincliffe Edge, to determine its suitability for a Sheffield U3A Geology Group field trip, we discovered many points of interest that would take up most of the morning, with a lunch break at the north entrance of Graves Park at Woodseats. 

An old quarry on the Chesterfield Road

Between here and the old quarry now occupied by Homebase and Dunelm Mill, there is a built up area consisting mainly of brick built shops and we covered the distance of just over 1 km as quickly as possible. Stopping briefly, we considered the best viewing point, before walking down towards Norton Hammer, where there are some small outcrops of the Greenmoor Rock. 

Exposures of Greenmoor Rock on Chesterfield Road

Walking up the steep slope to Meersbrook Park, which I had previously thought was a potentially good place for the Group to have a midday break, we had our own late lunch while admiring the magnificent views over Sheffield, but decided that this was an unnecessary diversion. 

An unusual example of weathering at Heeley Retail Park

After visiting Heeley Retail Park, where an unusual example of weathering is exposed in an old quarry face, together with a spring line, we found a way under the railway line and discovered an interesting example of red gritty sandstone in the retaining wall. 

Reddened Millstone Grit on Little London Road

The commercial and industrial development is quite unsightly but the River Sheaf flows along the axis of a plunging syncline here – as seen by the different directions of the dip of the Greenmoor Rock along Chesterfield Road and the old quarry on Marden Road, the next stopping point. 

Marsden Road

The last leg of our journey entailed a walk up Brincliffe Edge Road, where there are many good examples of the Greenmoor Rock in boundary walls and the vernacular architecture, although the escarpment of Brincliffe Edge does not have any exposures of rock. 

Vernacular architecture at Brincliffe Edge

We finished our reconnaissance for the day by walking down Quarry Lane to Brincliffe Hill, an area where there were several large quarries produced Brincliffe Edge Rock, which was used extensively in Sheffield, for walling, paving, kerbs, road setts and monuments. 

An outcrop of Greenmoor Rock on Quarry Lane

The old quarries have been redeveloped for housing and the car park to the old Omega restaurant is no longer accessible, but glimpses of old quarry faces can still be seen. Walking down Psalter Lane to Ecclesall Road South, my colleague Paul caught the bus home at this point; however, continuing down Ecclesall Road towards Sheffield, there is a large old quarry face, which was once the site of a brickworks.

A detail of the old quarry face on Ecclesall Road

Meadowhead to Brincliffe Edge - Part 1

A section of the Greenmoor Rock at Morrisons supermarket

At the end of 2018, I unexpectedly came across an unusual outcrop of Greenmoor Rock and in the Blog post Further Surveys of the Greenmoor Rock, I postulated that it might be possible to organise a field trip for the Sheffield U3A Geology Group, based on various outcrops of this formation that I had seen in Sheffield.

Geological sites on the Greenmoor Rock

At the January meeting of the Group, an itinerary for 2019 was drafted but a field trip for October had not yet arranged so, following our reconnaissance of Monsal Dale, Paul May and I walked from Graves Park to Brincliffe Edge to see if this might be feasible.

The access to the old quarry face behind Morrisons supermarket

Parking at the Morrisons supermarket at Meadowhead, where I knew that some exposures were still visible in an old quarry face, we discovered another mesh covered rock face to the far side of the building and, when leaving the car park, noticed a large well exposed old quarry face in the delivery area at the rear.

Exposures of Greenmoor Rock to the rear of Morrisons supermarket

Being behind a high fence and a locked gate, the rock face could not be viewed from a publicly accessible area but, calling in at the customer service point and then talking to the manager, we were given permission to go and look at the quarry faces accompanied by a member of staff.

Reddened Greenmoor Rock at Morrisons supermarket

With sections of more than 6 metres in place, there are good exposures of massive and flaggy beds with a well developed soil horizon, evidence of folding and shearing and highly reddened beds. Explaining that this would be a one off event and that we wouldn’t be interfering with deliveries, we were asked to make a formal request to their Community Champion, which would be passed on to higher management.

The old quarry in Cobnar Wood

Crossing the main road to an entrance to Graves Park that I had not used before, we then came across an old quarry in Cobnar Wood that was once converted into an outdoor theatre, but which has long since dismantled. Here, differential weathering of the near horizontal beds highlights the stone that would have been suitable for general walling stone, paving or stone roof tiles.

The path down through Cobnar Wood

Moving on to the head of the small stream that begins just beyond the east end of Charles Ashmore Road, we then followed the progressively steepening valley down to Woodseats – taking the time along the way, to investigate a thin bed of clay that we noticed in the stream bed.

An exposure of clay in the stream bed

Continuing down to the north entrance to Graves Park, the small open space next to Woodseats Playground seemed to be a good place for the Group to have lunch – which was one of my main concerns for this potential field trip.

Graves Park

A Reconnaissance of Monsal Dale

Specimens of tufa collected during the day

When undertaking the reconnaissance of Monsal Dale for the Sheffield U3A Geology Group field trip in April 2019, Hob’s House – with its landslips and spectacular coral bands – was considered to be the most interesting site that we would see during the day. 

A large weir on the River Wye

With the objective of the Group’s trips to also provide a good walk of 4 to 5 miles, we had to try and find other points of interest that might include some industrial archaeology, which is also a feature of Monsal Dale, like many others in the Peak District. 

An exposure of tufa revealed by a fallen tree

Just downstream from the large weir on the River Wye, a tree on the river bank has partially fallen, with its roots having pulled away the subsoil to an exposure of tufa with concretionary structures, along with fine carbon rich layers. 

An exposure of alluvium in the river bank

With this unexpected discovery, which would occupy the group for a reasonable amount of time, the small floodplain just downstream on the opposite bank was considered to be a good place for a lunch stop, before investigating the river bank.

Partially cemented coarse sand overlain by silt

The river bank here has been reinforced with gabions in places, to prevent excessive erosion, and a section of the bank also exposes partially cemented coarse sand deposits that are overlain with alluvium that contains a high proportion of silt, with angular fragments of limestone. 

Riffles in the river bed

Continuing further downstream, there is virtually no exposure of limestone, although riffles in the river bed are very common, and several springs emerge from the lower slopes, which are associated with tufa that forms terrace like features. 

An exposure of tufa in the river bank

Approaching Lees Bottom near to the A6 road, the Lees Bottom Lava Member underlies the lower slopes and, although there is no outcrop of the basalt to be seen, its presence is indicated by a large expanse of boggy ground and several streams that flow over the impermeable rock. 

A stream flowing on the Lees Bottom Lava Member

The return journey to Monsal Head was undertaken via the farm at Brushfield Hough and an old lead rake known as the Putfield Hill vein where, in places, waste tips contain various specimens of calcite and barytes. There are no outcrops of limestone to be seen on this leg of the walk, but the dry stone walls contain concentrations of brachiopods and there are good views of Fin Cop, upon which there is an Iron Age hillfort. 

A view of Fin Cop

On the descent back into Monsal Dale, the slopes upstream of the viaduct are not covered in dense woods and the development of the scree slopes here can be quite clearly seen, together with exposures of Monsal Dale Limestone that are dipping to the south-east. 

An exposure of Monsal Dale Limestone and a well developed scree slope

In the well worn and eroded path, limestone bedrock and loose irregular blocks are exposed in the path and there there are several well rounded boulders of basalt, which are some distance from the nearest outcrop of volcanic rock and must therefore have been deposited here during the Quaternary Period – either by an ice sheet or by fluvioglacial processes. 

Large boulders of basalt

Our reconnaissance of Monsal Dale finished by crossing Headstone Viaduct to briefly look at the entrance of the Headstone Tunnel, where there is an extensive outcrop of Monsal Dale Limestone, and then carrying on up the steep path up to Monsal Head. 

The entrance to the eastern section of the Headstone Tunnel

Often with moderately demanding slopes and, taking the gradients into account, the walk was over 8 km, and have to admit feeling very tired at the end of the day. In an ideal world, I would have taken advantage of the Monsal Head Hotel – relaxing in the late afternoon sunshine with a pint of real ale – but unfortunately my companion for the day had to get back home.

An exploration of Monsal Dale