Historic Architecture in Whitkirk

The blue plaque at Whitkirk Manor House

My day out to Heath and the Church of St. Peter the Apostle, in the parish of Warmfield Cum Heath, provided a great start to the Heritage Open Days festival but, with the requirement of 6 separate journeys by bus and train now becoming the norm, I could have done with a short break before setting off on another adventure using public transport. 

 

The Metro bus stop map for Leeds city centre

 

With my travel time now beginning to outweigh time spent seeing some interesting geology and photographing various historic buildings, which are typically the focus for a good walk, the planning of my trips is becoming much harder and, on my visit to St. Mary’s church in Whitkirk the next day, I found that that the Metro Leeds city centre bus stop map and the No. 19/19A timetable, with limited stopping points marked and no route map, were not that easy to use. 

 

The No. 19/19A bus timetable for my journey to Whitkirk

Although I thought that I had been very thorough with my preparation, I didn't easily find the location of the bus stop and missed the bus that I had originally planned to catch but, with the 19/19A bus running every 20 minutes, I made the most of the sunshine by taking a few photos of the Grade II* Listed Mill Hill Chapel, which is built with very coarse grained Rough Rock. 

 

Mill Hill Chapel

 

As always, I had prepared a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Whitkirk, which came up with a cluster of 14 buildings including St. Mary’s church and, after finally arriving at the Whitkirk Church bus stop, I immediately set about going to find these. 

 

The Grange

First on my list was the early C19 The Grange, a large house that has been converted into three dwellings and which, along with its separately scheduled gate piers, is Grade II Listed but it has been stuccoed and I didn’t stop to look at it very closely. 

 

No. 396 Selby Road

 

Adjacent to this is No. 396 Selby Road (1794), a brick house with a stone slate roof that I again didn’t have a good look at it and just took a few record photographs. I had never been to this part of Leeds before but, having seen that the area is underlain by Coal Measures strata, with named sandstones – the Emley Rock, Slack Bank Rock and the Thornhill Rock – all within a distance of 2 km, I assumed that sandstone would be the favoured building material. 

 

The geology of the area around Whitkirk

This assumption was soon dispelled when I immediately saw that the mid C18 Nos. 1 and 2 Colton Road and its adjoining buildings on Colton Road are also built in brick or rendered. The 1852 edition of the Ordnance Survey map shows a brick field within 250 metres from the settlement that has grown around St. Mary’s church, but there are no sandstone quarries in the immediate vicinity. 

 

Nos. 1 and 2 Colton Road

 

The early No. 394 Selby Road is another example of the use of render that presumably covers brick and, with it again possessing no features of great interest to this Language of Stone Blog, I just took a couple of general photos and continued along the boundary wall of the churchyard. 

 

No. 394 Selby Road

 

I passed by the Grade II Listed lychgate, which was part of my Photo Challenge, without really taking much notice of it and it was only after I picked up a very informative leaflet about it inside the church, did I go and have another look. 

 

The lychgate at St. Mary's church

Constructed as a war memorial and dedicated in 1949, it incorporates stones that have been recycled from six important war damaged buildings - the Houses of Parliament, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Coventry Cathedral, the Church of St. Martin-le-Grand in York, Leeds Town Hall and Leeds City Museum.

 

An inscribed volcanic green slate plaque inside the lychgate

 

I have to say that I didn’t look at these at the time, or the timbers that were salvaged from prominent Royal Navy ships and used for the roof trusses, gates and posts, but the volcanic green slate plaque from the Lake District did catch my eye. 

 

Ivy House

 

Next to this is the mid C18 Ivy House, which is again built with local hand made red bricks, whose colour beneath the moderate thick layer of dirt has a brownish tinge and is quite different in colour to the hard extruded red bricks that were made from ground Coal Measures mudstone, once brick making was industrialised in the second half of the C19. 

 

Nos. 3, 3A and 4 Colton Road

 

Making my way back to Colton Road, the large sandstone quoins to No. 1 and Nos. 3, 3A and 4 (1732), which were originally one house, caught my attention mainly for the fact that they are very weathered and were presumably quarried from the local Coal Measures. 

 

No. 5 Colton Road

 

Along with the adjoining No. 5, which Historic England describes as “Brick and rubble, rendered, stone slate and corrugated asbestos roofs”, I just took a few general record photographs to place St. Mary’s church into the context of the surrounding Conservation Area.

 

The remains of the archway to the stables south of No. 5 Colton Road

 

Having owned an original copy of the Illustrated Handbook of Vernacular Architecture by R.W. Brunskill many years ago – and since working as a specialist restoration contractor - I appreciate that the colours and textures of brick reflect the underlying geology just as much as stone; however, I was very interested to see that the Remains of Archway to Stables South of Number 5 are built with an iron rich sandstone of unknown provenance that is very eroded in places. 

 

A detail of the stables to the south of No. 5 Colton Road

 

Continuing down Colton Road, the Grade II Listed late C18 Coach House and the early C17 Manor House have had their masonry covered with stucco and roughcast render respectively, but both retain their original stone slate roofs, although I didn’t look closely at them. 

 

The Coach House and Manor House

 

Retracing my steps, I entered the churchyard at its south-east corner and went to find the pair of mid C19 Grade II Listed chest tombs, which commemorate various members of the Robinson and Waite families, before having a look at the exterior of the church.

 

Chest tombs for the Robinson and Waite families

 

Monuments in St. Peter's Church

 

A detail of the monument to Thomas Stringer and his wife Katherine

In its description of the Church of St. Peter the Apostle in Kirkthorpe, Historic England states that the chief merit of the church is a fine collection of C18 wall monuments but, as with other features in the church, the fieldwork officer essentially relies on Pevsner’s entry in his architectural guide for the West Riding of Yorkshire.

 

Pevsner's description of monuments in St. Peter's church

As a geologist, my main interest in mediaeval churches is in the stones used to build their fabric and, although I do have some interest in the decorative stones used in the monuments, any detailed description of church wall monuments is beyond my ability and is best left to members of organisations such as the Church Monuments Society. 

 

The monument to Charles Smyth

 

While photographing the principal architectural elements of the church, however, I did record some of the monuments and the first one that I came across in the north chapel was a simple memorial to Charles Smyth, who was mortally wounded during the Battle of Quatre Bras on 16th June 1815. It consists of a white Carrara marble plaque with a black brecciated marble surround, which is similar to the photo of Marmo Portoferraio from Elba, which is listed in Decorative Stone - The Complete Sourcebook by Monica T. Price. 

 

The monument to Sir Charles Dalston

Further along the wall of the north chapel is the substantial monument to Sir Charles Dalston 3rd Baronet (d.1723), who once occupied Heath Hall, along with his daughter Anne who died aged only 5 weeks. It is made with veined white marble that is probably also from Carrara, with the inscribed panel set in an arch with a broken segmental pediment above and flanked by Corinthian columns with fluted corbels at their base. 

 

The monument to Thomas Stringer and his wife Katherine

 

Next to this is the monument to Thomas Stringer (d.1731) and his wife Katherine, which was made by Giovanni Battista Guelfi, a leading Italian sculptor who worked in the late Baroque style and was favoured by established architects such as James Gibbs and William Kent. 

 

The monument to Thomas Stringer and his wife Katherine

 

Pevsner describes it as “Two detached busts on a sarcophagus with straight tapering sides. Background by Kent with inscription, a frame starting from two big volutes and crowned by an open segmental pediment. Carved coat-of-arms with putti”. It is made with a veined white marble, with the surround to the sarcophagus in black marble of unknown provenance. 

 

The grave slab of Joseph Thornton

 

Briefly returning to the nave, an interesting design on the sandstone grave slab of Joseph Thornton (d.1712) caught my eye, but again this would be best described by a specialist in this field and I returned to the north chapel to photograph the monument to John Smyth (d.1731).

 

The monument to John Smyth

The original squire of Heath was John Smyth (1654-1729), who made his fortune as a wool stapler, but this is presumably his son (1685-1731) and a genealogist is best qualified to unravel the history of the Smyth family. Pevsner’s description is “Two putti uncovering his portrait on an oval medallion. A pretty conceit, prettily rendered”.

 

The monument to Lady Georgiana Smyth

 

The white marble monument of Lady Georgiana Smyth (d.1799), the mother of the Charles Smyth whose memorial has been briefly described above, also commemorates 2 infant children and her husband, another John Smyth (d.1811). According to Pevsner, this and other monuments in the north chapel are signed by John Flaxman and he describes it as “A perfectly plain tablet with an attic over. A shield and some ornamental enrichment on this”. 

 

The monument to John Leake

 

The only other monuments that I noted were those of the vicar of Warmfield cum Heath, John Leake (d.1740), which has its painted inscription cut into a triangular veined white marble panel that is topped with a heraldic crest and escutcheon, and John Burton (d.1743), a London merchant who, due to ill health, retired to Heath and spent the last 20 years of his life there. 

 

The monument to John Burton

 

St. Peter's Church in Kirkthorpe - Part 2

 

The spiral staircase in the tower

After a quick look at the exterior of the Church of St. James the Apostle in Kirkthorpe, where I had been most interested in the generally poor durability of the sandstone and its unusual soft sediment deformation structures, I went inside and introduced myself to the members of its congregation who were welcoming visitors to their Heritage Open Days event. 

 

A view of the nave and arcade

 

My first task, as usual, was to make a general photographic record of the principal elements of the church, of which only the presumably C14 arcade is referred to in my copy of the reprinted 1967 edition of Pevsner and essentially repeated by Historic England (HE) in its listing description. 

 

An edited description in Pevsner - The West Riding

 

I took a few photos of the arcade, including the quatrefoil section, clustered colonnettes with moulded capitals and fleurons, but I didn’t spend any time examining them closely and continued through the wide shallow pointed arch to the chancel. 

 

A detail of a complex capital with fleurons

 

I have got used to the rather brief and haphazard descriptions offered by Pevsner and, on this occasion, it seems that the HE fieldwork officer hasn’t made much of an effort to undertake any further research on the architectural details and there is no mention of the chancel and the decorated panels with ogee arches and finials, which are placed either side of the reredos. 

 

The chancel

The east end of the church, according to the church guide, was extended by 3 yards in the 1850’s, but I didn’t see anything obvious in the masonry of the arcade between the chancel and north chapel, which might record this. 

 

The arcade between the chancel and north chapel

 

The headstop above the column to the central bay looks very weathered and is quite crude compared to the obviously Victorian headstop on the western respond and is presumably original, with the latter being a later replacement, but again I didn't closely examine any of the masonry at the east end of the church. 

 

A weathered headstop

 

The walls of the nave and north aisle contain numerous C18 marble wall monuments, which obscure much of the stonework and I just took a few record photos of these without looking at their details and will briefly describe these in my next post. 

 

A view along the nave from the chancel

 

From the chancel, I took a couple of photos along the nave and walked down to the west end, where the font is placed in the centre of the nave in front of a screen that hides the organ. This simple cup shaped font has a 1718 date carved in raised numerals and, according to the church guide is made from Caen stone from Normandy - probably best known for its use at the White Tower at the Tower of London and for the cathedrals at Canterbury and Rochester. 

 

The font

 

During my visit, I had a good talk with one of the churchwardens about the arcade and various other features, as well as having another look at the condition of the external stonework with him, and I didn’t explore the details of the church as well as I would have done if I was by myself. 

 

An account of the history in the church guide

 

When sitting down to write this Blog post, 18 months after my visit, I was interested to read in the church guide about its Saxon origins and Norman and mediaeval history, but I was very surprised by Peter Ryder’s description in Medieval Churches of West Yorkshire: “The three western bays of the nave seem to be of 12th century date (some areas of typically ‘Norman’ masonry survive, along with part of the rear arch of the original south door”, as I didn’t notice any of this. 

 

Anorther view of the spiral staircase in the tower

Having plenty of time before the next hourly No. 189 bus to Wakefield, I took advantage of the opportunity to go up to the top of the roof of the tower, as I had done previously at All Saints church in Aston and St. Peter and St. Paul’s church in Barnby Dun. 

 

The ladder to the belfry

After walking up the spiral staircase to the ringing room, while holding on tightly to the rope that substitutes for a hand rail, I was a bit surprised to see that there was a long ladder up to the belfry, which I duly ascended; however, I was completely unprepared for the final leg up to the roof, which entailed a scramble through the bell frame. 

 

A view of the bell frame

I wasn’t very happy about doing this but, having got so far up the tower, I could hardly turn back and so I gritted my teeth and carefully followed instructions, before exiting onto the roof via a loft hatch and then encountering a castellated parapet that appeared far too low for my liking. 

 

The stone slate roof to the tower

 

Even though I have been on very many scaffolds while working in the building restoration industry, I have never been very comfortable at heights and, as I did when on the roof of All Saints church, my first instinct was to look for the flagpole to cling to; however, finding only a steep stone slate roof, I declined the invitation to walk around the roof along the lead gutter, took a few quick snaps and retraced my steps to the bottom of the tower, where I was offered a much needed cup of tea.

 

Views from the roof of the tower

 

St. Peter's Church in Kirkthorpe - Part 1

 

A weathered headstop on the porch

Arriving at the Grade II* Listed Church of St. Peter the Apostle in Kirkthorpe, having walked from Heath, I firstly took a photo of the unlisted war memorial, which is made of grey granite from the Cornubian Batholith in south-west England and is in the form of a plain Celtic cross. 

 

Kirkthorpe war memorial

 

Before starting my investigation of the exterior of the church, I had a quick look at the group of 9 Grade II Listed headstones, dated 1814-18, which commemorate Benedictine Nuns who fled from the French Revolution in 1792 and resided at Heath Old Hall from 1811 to 1821. 

 

The headstones of Benedictine Nuns

 

In the Pevsner guide and the Historic England (HE) description, the only information provided about the external fabric is that the Perpendicular Gothic style tower and north aisle date to the C14, with the body of the church being rebuilt c.1875 and the tower parapet renewed c.1904. 

 

The south elevation

 

Walking anticlockwise around the church, I firstly took general record photographs of the nave, where the square headed windows with cusped lights are presumably a like for like replacement of the original C14 design. 

 

The nave

 

The church guide doesn’t say very much about the fabric of the church, except to mention that the church was extended and altered by 3 yards in the 1850’s and Peter Ryder, in his Medieval Churches of West Yorkshire (1993) writes “In 1850-51 the church was ‘almost rebuilt’ at a cost of £1300; both nave and chancel were extended eastward by an extra bay, and most of the external walls refaced”, but there is no mention of later works referred to by HE.

 

The chancel

 

Ryder goes on further to say that it is now very difficult to distinguish between the genuine mediaeval and the C19 work. During my initial very quick walk around its exterior, I didn’t look closely at the stonework but, looking at my high resolution photos, the profiles of very many of the weathered individual blocks look far too irregular for them to be Victorian. 

 

A headstop on the east window of the chancel

I can see sections of walling where there is modern restoration work with both plain ashlar and tooled blocks, especially at the east end of the chancel, which seems to suggest that the sandstone used to extend the church is not very durable. Furthermore, one of the headstops to the east window of the chancel has lost most of its detail and masonry to the east end of the Lady Chapel is very weathered in places, which is exacerbated by hard sand and cement pointing. 

 

Weathered masonry on the east wall of the Lady Chapel

Moving round to the north aisle, I noted that the flat headed windows, which have different patterns of tracery, have the same designs as those on the south elevation, but I didn’t pay that much attention to them and was more interested in the physical characteristics of the stone used. 

 

A view along the north elevation

In the Wakefield area, the best building stone was obtained from the Woolley Edge Rock, which I have seen in several historic buildings, but its characteristic striped appearance is not seen in the fabric of the church The area is underlain by the Oaks Rock from the Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation and I assume that this has been used in its construction. 

 

A sandstone block showing soft sediment deformation

The medium grained cross-bedded sandstone is grey/light brown and some orange/red colour variation, with differential weathering highlighting the graded bedding, which is common in the Coal Measures sandstones; however, I was very interested to see a block that displays soft sediment deformation – a feature that I had seen in natural rock outcrops at Wharncliffe Crags and Otley Chevin, but never in a building. 

 

The gargoyle on the Lady Chapel

On the north-east corner of the Lady Chapel, there is a sculpture that looks to be mediaeval, but I presume that this was taken down from the tower along with a couple of pinnacles that decorate the churchyard and reset in its current position. 

 

A buttress on the north aisle with a figurative carving

 

I have seen very many gargoyles and grotesques over the years, where they are usually positioned below parapets to the tower, clerestory, aisles and porch, but a sculpture in human form is built into one of the capping stones to a buttress on the north aisle – a feature that I don’t ever recall seeing before. 

 

A window in the south elevation of the chancel

 

The modern toilet block and the attached church hall prevented me from continuing my walk around the exterior of the church, so I retraced my steps and had another look at the masonry and windows to the south elevation of the chancel. 

 

A weathered headstop

 

Several blocks of stone have been quite recently restored and, if the original masonry is actually Victorian, this again indicates that the sandstone used for the walling is not very good quality and some of the headstops are at an advanced stage of deterioration. 

 

Soft sediment deformation structures

 

Looking closely at the stonework, I could see several more examples of soft sediment deformation and continuing to the porch, where the sandstone is quite orange in colour, both of the headstops are quite badly decayed. 

 

The porch

 

I finished my quick look at the exterior of St. Peter’s church by taking a few photographs of the tower, which is the only part of the church that is unequivocally C14 in date, but which the HE description says had its Perpendicular Gothic style windows renewed in the C19. 

 

The south window of the tower

 

Looking at the south window, the crude headstops do not look Victorian to me and the profiles of the tracery looks very sharp, which suggests that it has been recently restored with a much better quality West Yorkshire sandstone. I finished my quick examination of the exterior by photographing the west window and its headstops, before going to have at a look at the interior.

 

The west window of the tower and details of the headstops