The S.A.D.A.C.C.A. Social Centre

 

A datestone corbel

As a geologist, with specialist interests in historic architecture and the building stones used in their construction, I didn’t expect to find much of interest to write about in this Language of Stone Blog, when I set out to photograph a few listed Victorian brick built buildings in the industrial area to the east of Sheffield city centre – a stable and a sick bay for horses, a canalside warehouse, a crucible steel works and a sawmill on the River Don.

The area around the canal basin on the 1855 Ordnance Survey map

 

However, having seen various bridges and walls, I acquired a better understanding of what I assume to be sandstone from the Parkgate Rock and perhaps the Silkstone Rock and have learned a bit more about Sheffield’s railway history – especially when looking at old Ordnance Survey maps of the east end of Sheffield. 

 

The area around the canal basin on the 1894 Ordnance Survey map

At the Wicker Arches, I encountered another Upper Carboniferous sandstone that I could not readily identify, along with what I still believe to be Chatsworth Grit in Wicker Arch itself and after taking a quick snap of the old National Westminster Bank, I headed up The Wicker to the S.A.D.A.C.C.A. Community Centre and Social Club building – a thriving hub for the Afro-Caribbean community in Sheffield. 

 

A detail of the former National Westminster Bank

The Classical style house was originally built in 1853 for John Shortridge, a contractor for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, who completed 12 km of the track through Longdendale and later built the Wicker Arches, after moving to Sheffield and forming Miller Blackie and Shortridge – and then went on to form the steel and file making firm of Shortridge, Howell and Co. with its offices at No. 48 The Wicker. 

 

A general view

 

The Historic England listing doesn’t even mention its fine architectural sculpture, which had caught my attention when seeing it very many times from the top deck of the X78 bus. In my experience, this is quite typical of their descriptions, which tend to be very austere and pay very little attention to the interesting details. 

 

A keystone with a hammer and a cog

In Sheffield, the work of Frank Tory and his twin sons, Alfred and William, is very well known in architectural and local history circles, but they are very rarely mentioned. In my travels around the city, I have encountered numerous excellent examples of headstops, grotesques and gargoyles at various Victorian churches and cemetery chapels, as well as on buildings in the city centre, and the sculptors deserve recognition. 

 

The J. Shortridge corbel

At ground floor level, there are four ornately carved corbels, with two carved with fish and the sheaf of arrows from the Sheffield crest and the others bearing a date and the name of J. Shortridge, which have a pair of elephants carved on them.

 

A corbel with fish and a sheaf of arrows

 

Each of the ground floor arches has an ornamented keystone, with a hammer with a cog in the centre, with two bearded heads flanking it. Looking closely at the latter, they both have strange ram’s horn like detailing around the top of the head, which seems quite unusual. 

 

Keystones on the ground floor arches

 

On the rusticated first floor, there are further ornamented keystones to the 3 round-arched recesses with voussoirs, which each containing a Venetian window. The sculpted heads to the keystones remind me of the various heads of sea gods that I have seen in many places. I have to say that I was too busy taking photos to take much notice of the sandstone used in its construction, which from these looks like it could be a medium grained gritstone from Derbyshire. 

 

Ornamented keystones on the first floor

A plaque commemorates Samuel Osborn (1826-1891), one of the city's greatest industrialists and the Master Cutler in 1873 and the Lord Mayor in 1890. Samuel Osborn and Company Ltd. purchased the Clyde Works from Shortridge, Howell and Co. in 1868. It was here that the production of R.F. Mushet's self-hardening steel was perfected, which became a Sheffield speciality and made the name Samuel Osborn synonymous with the highest quality tool steel.

 

A plaque commemorating Samuel Osborn

 

The Wicker Arches in Sheffield

 

Wicker Arch

At the end of Sussex Street, having looked at the various bridges and walls relating to the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal and the railways in the industrial east end of Sheffield, I got my first glimpse of the Wicker Arches - a 600 m long railway viaduct across the Don Valley, which was built in 1848 to extend the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MSLR). 

 

The Wicker Arches at Sussex Street

 

The engineer was Sir John Fowler, who designed the Forth Bridge, with the detailed architectural work on the central Wicker Arch and adjoining buildings delegated to Weightman, Hadfield and Goldie – an established practice that were responsible for some of the finest buildings in Sheffield. 

 

The interior of an arch

 

The massive sandstone used here is very blackened, sometimes obscured by moss and algae and, particularly in the interior of the arches, covered in lime that has washed down from the Staffordshire blue brickwork that forms their roofs. 

 

The Wicker Arches at the crossing of the River Don

Continuing to the end of Sussex Street, where the viaduct crosses the River Don, the stonework is relatively clean and reveals buff/yellow sandstone with moderate iron staining, which lacks the distinct grey colour that could be seen along Bernard Road earlier on my walk. 

 

A view along the Wicker Arches on Sussex Street

Although I had passed under Wicker Arch a few times, I had not looked at the other parts of the viaduct before but, a year or so earlier, an archivist colleague had contacted me to inform me that she had a found a reference, which suggested that rock excavated from the (MSLR) railway cutting and tunnel at Darnall may have been used to build parts of the viaduct. 

 

The Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation around Darnall.

Looking at the geological map, the Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation strata around Darnall, through which the railway line runs, are dominated by alternating thin sandstones and mudstones, which in my experience don’t produce the best building stone. 

 

The crossing of the River Don

 

Crossing the river via the Cobweb Bridge, which was built as part of the Five Weirs Walk, I then had a good look at the south elevation of the viaduct, where the same iron stained sandstone is seen in the rock-faced walling. 

 

A detail of the voussoirs at the River Don crossing

Zooming in to the very large voussoirs, it looks like the cross-bedded sandstone used for these is the same as that seen in the walling, which suggests that they have been made from the more massive sandstone beds in an established quarry face - probably discounting the idea that the stone has been brought from the railway excavations at Darnall. 

 

Views of the south elevation of Wicker Arch

The Sheffield Area Geology Trust website refers to the possibility of Wharncliff Rock being used for the central Wicker Arch, based on a reference in the Pevsner guide for Sheffield, but the evidence of suitable quarries around Wharncliffe Crags is far from conclusive. 

 

The western part of the Wicker Arches

After taking a few general record photographs of Wicker Arch and the part of the viaduct that continues on the west side of the Wicker, I went to take a much closer look at the gritty sandstone used for this magnificent structure. 

 

A view of the coarse grained gritstone at Wicker Arch

 

When I first saw the Wicker Arch, several years previously, I hadn’t then started to investigate the building stones of Sheffield in any depth but, having undertaken surveys of geological sites where I had seen the very coarse grained and often pebbly Chatsworth Grit, I have always thought that it has been used here. 

 

A detail of the coarse gritstone at Wicker Arch

My only experience of the Wharncliff Rock was on a field trip with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group to Wharncliffe Crags in 2019, but I didn’t collect any samples or have any time to closely examine this sandstone at my leisure – which is a good reason to visit them again. 

 

An ornate panel with a relief carving of the Sheffield crest

I finished my very brief exploration of the Wicker Arches by taking a couple of photographs of the two relief panels carved with crests, which are set above the pedestrian arches, before continuing along the Wicker to the Grade II Listed SADACCA Social Centre. 

 

A relief panel with a royal crest

Bridges and Walls in Sheffield

 

The west elevation of Cadman Road Canal Bridge

The Church of St. John the Evangelist is sited near to the south-west facing escarpment of the Parkgate Rock, which forms a very strong feature as it runs straight up to Manor Top, one of the highest places in south Sheffield.

 

The geology to the east of Sheffield city centre

Looking at the British Geological Survey 1:50,000 map, a dip of 10 degrees to the north-east is marked, which I noted when walking down Bernard Road to a lowland area underlain by geologically younger mudstones and siltstones – at which point I encountered a very impressive piece of Victorian railway engineering. 

 

The railway bridge on Bernard Road

 

At this railway bridge, a thick central core of stonework separates two carriageways and, with retaining walls to each side, supports a lattice of steel beams upon which run the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway line that led to the Sheffield Victoria station and another that connects Rotherham to the Sheffield Midland station.

 

A section of walling at the Bernard Road railway bridge

In the sunshine, the lower part of the first section of stone that I saw appeared very grey, with the less weathered upper part having dark rusty brown colouration in many places. According to Hunt's Mineral Statistics (1858), the nearby Hyde Park quarry was producing 1680 tons of Parkgate Rock per year and the area The hatched marking on the current geological map – denoting infilled land – is quite extensive and it is therefore likely that it has been used here.

 

A retaining wall on Bernard Road

During investigations of Norfolk Park, the Cholera Monument, Park Hill and the railway cuttings at Sheffield Midland railway station, I have encountered various examples of the Silkstone Rock, some of which is very muddy looking as seen in the Shrewsbury Hospital Almshouses and its contemporary lodges.

 

A retaining wall on Bernard Road

 
2760 tons of Silkstone Rock were being produced at the Claywood quarries, with one marketed as 'bluestone' and, although operated by different quarrymen, the freeholder of both this and Hyde Park quarry was the Duke of Norfolk and he may have had some influence on the sandstones that was used for the railway bridge and adjoing retaining walls.

 

The location of Hyde Park quarry on the 1855 Ordnance Survey map

 
As with the Chatsworth Grit, the Crawshaw Sandstone and the Loxley Edge Rock in the north-west part of Sheffield, it is not easy to tell the difference between the Parkgate Rock and the Silkstone Rock and the provenance of this stone is still a bit of a mystery to me.

 

The Effingham Road railway bridge

 
Continuing my walk, I stopped very briefly to take a single record photograph of the Effingham Road railway bridge, which carries the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway branch line to the Sheffield Midland railway station, which opened in 1870.

 

The west elevation of the Cadman Street Canal Bridge

 
My next stop was the Grade II Listed Cadman Street Canal Bridge (1819), off Sussex Street, which spans the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal and was probably designed by William Chapman – the canal engineer for the Sheffield Canal Company.

 

The east elevation of the Cadman Street Canal Bridge

 
Except for the brick parapet wall, it is essentially built with what looks to be like another local Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation (PLCMF) sandstone, with moderate iron staining, but I could again not assign a provenance to this sandstone.

 

The perimeter wall to the old gas works on Sussex Street

 
Returning to Sussex Street, I then encountered a very large boundary wall at the site of the recently demolished disused gasometer, which is built with yet another PLCMF sandstone that looks similar to the one used for the railway engineering works on Bernard Road.

 

The perimeter wall to the old gas works on Effingham Street

 
At Effingham Street, there is another section of the perimeter wall to the old gas works, built with similar looking PLCMF sandstone, which has a light muddy grey colour to the body of the stone, light brown on the surface and with concentrations of iron oxides/hydroxides.

 

A detail of the perimeter wall on Effingham Street

 

An Exploration of Hyde Park in Sheffield

 

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

My walk from Grenoside to Hillsborough, to investigate the Greenmoor Rock at Birley Edge, the Kilner Way Retail Park and the Upper Don Trail and to photograph historic architecture for the British Listed Buildings website on the way, took over 4 hours and involved a walk of nearly 12 km. 

 

Listed buildings in the industrial east end of Sheffield

For my next outing, I decided to spend an afternoon exploring the old industrial part of Sheffield around the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal and the River Don – a part of the city that I had never visited before – with the primary objective being to photograph its listed buildings. 

 

A mixed meal at the Reggae Kitchen

Alighting from the No. 73 bus at the City Road/St. Aidan's Road stop, I firstly walked down to the Reggae Kitchen, where I thoroughly enjoyed one of their mixed meals – on this occasion taking the time to sit down at their table. 

 

A boundary wall on City Road

Continuing down City Road past mainly brick built terraced houses to Bernard Street, I stopped briefly to look at a boundary wall, where the sandstone has a high ironstone content and which I have presumed to be from the Parkgate Rock, which was once obtained from the Hyde Park quarries on Skye Edge. 

 

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

 

Arriving at Bernard Street, I soon encountered the first building on my list to photograph, the Church of St. John the Evangelist (1838), by M.E. Hadfield, in a Gothic Revival style, with alterations c1890 by E.M. Gibbs – architects whose works I had become familiar with, when exploring other parts of Sheffield. 

The Park Hill war memorial

On the approach to the church, I stopped to take a general photograph of the unlisted polished Cornish granite Park Hill war memorial, which is in the form of a wheel cross, and the inscription on its east side, where the alkali feldspar phenocrysts - a characteristic of the Cornish and Devon granites - are clearly visible. 

 

A detail of the Park Hill war memorial

The church was not open and there is very little ornament on the exterior, but I had a close look at its west end, where the doorway has been designed in a Romanesque style, with dog tooth ornament to the arch and cushion capitals to the shafts. 

 

The west door of the Church of St. John the Evangelist

From a distance, although slightly dirty, the generally grey coloured patina of the sandstone, with some orange variations, suggested to me that this is probably another example of very coarse grained Chatsworth Grit. 

 

A view of the sandstone masonry

Looking more closely at the sandstone, it is indeed very coarse grained with a few little fingernail sized pebbles scattered in the stone, but there are no obvious distinct pebbly beds. As I had discovered at the East Lodge at Hillsborough Park a few days earlier, the very wild orange variation does also appear in the Loxley Edge Rock, which can be very similar to the Chatsworth Grit.

 

A detail of the sandstone masonry

Having had a good look at the west front, I had a quick wander around the old churchyard to take a few general record photographs of the various elevations, which would be suitable for adding to the British Listed Buildings website entry for the church. 

 

A view of the Church of St. John the Evangelist

 

I then set off down to Cricket Inn Road, to start my exploration of Sheffield’s industrial east end, beyond Sheffield Parkway, but firstly stopped to have a quick look at the sculpture by Steve Roche, which has been set next to the footpath. 

 

A sculpture on Cricket Inn Road by Steve Roche