St. Michael's Church in Brodsworth I

 

The Church of St. Michael and All Angels

Continuing my day out to Brodsworth, having spent 15 minutes finding and photographing the Grade II Listed Glebe Farmhouse, the Gatehouse and the gates and gatepiers to the now demolished old Brodsworth Hall, I arrived at St. Michael and All Angels’ churchyard. 

 

The Church of St. Michael and All Angels in 2007

I had only seen the church from a distance back in 2007, when I was looking at the old quarry in the gardens of Brodsworth Hall as part of the resurvey of RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) for the Doncaster Geodiversity Assessment – a site visit that led to the publication of an article in 2007 for the Australian stone trade magazine Discovering Stone. 

 

An article for Discovering Stone

When starting my investigation of the mediaeval churches of South Yorkshire, nearly 10 years later, I was interested to see that St. Michael’s church is one of the seven churches described by the buildings archaeologist Peter Ryder, in his book Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire – a book that I had bought back in the mid 1980’s but had never previously put to use. 

 

Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire

Approaching the east end, from the Historic England (HE) description of “C11 nave, additions of c1200, C15 and C19, restoration 1874”, I can assign the vestry at the north-east corner to the C15, with its old square headed 5-light mullioned window and its butted joint with the chancel. 

 

The east end

 

Pevsner refers to the single stepped lancet windows in the east wall of the chancel, which appears to have more irregularly squared and coursed rubble masonry, as C13 and HE and other sources state that the south wall of the chancel was rebuilt and the south chapel, south aisle and the porch were added as part of the restoration of 1874. 

 

The south chapel and chancel

  

As with the stonework that I had seen at Glebe House, I was very surprised to see that much of the C19 masonry of the chancel and the south chapel has developed a golden brown patina, which is so different to the usual grey patina that forms on dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation. 

 

The south elevation

 

Standing at a distance, to take a general photo of the south elevation of the church, the colour variation of the chancel and south chapel contrasts greatly with the south aisle and porch, but these have all presumably used the same source of stone. 

 

The south wall of the chancel

Looking closely at the masonry to the south wall of the chancel, this golden brown patina seems to coincide with the development of a thick skin on the surface of the stone, probably due to the migration of soluble salts to form a dense layer, which has subsequently spalled. 

 

A detail of the south wall of the chancel

This not only affects the moulded masonry of the tracery and surrounds to the window, most of which have been recently restored, but the surface of the ashlar walling has largely been lost and some of the low level stones have been refaced. 

 

Silty sandstone used for the plinth

 

The plinth is surprisingly built using a grey Coal Measures silty sandstone of unknown provenance, which is laid on its natural bed for the chamfered top course and appears to be face bedded on the course below – both of which are heavily weathered and have spalled. 

 

Restored masonry in the walling of the south aisle

Although the greater part of the masonry to the south aisle and porch doesn’t show the same golden brown patina, a close look reveals that the condition of the limestone ashlar is equally poor and that much of this has been refaced. 

 

Weathered and restored masonry on the porch

 

Continuing to the west end of the south aisle, the pattern of weathering continues and the entire window has been restored along with the masonry at the junction with the nave, as well as isolated blocks of stone that appear distinctly grey in colour. These struck me as being very odd, but I didn’t have the time to examine these closely with my hand lens or test it with hydrochloric acid. 

 

The west end of the south aisle

When the current hall was built (1861-1863) by Charles Sabine Augustus Thellusson, who eventually inherited the Brodsworth Estate after the notorious Thellusson Will case – thought to have inspired the fictional Jarndyce v Jarndyce case in Bleak House by Charles Dickens - stone was reused from the demolished house and also new stone quarried from the estate. 

 

The distribution quarries around Brodsworth on the 1854 OS map

 

Looking at the 1854 edition of the 6 inch scale Ordnance Survey (OS) map, there are many disused quarries of varying sizes in the immediate area and, at the south-east corner of Brodsworth Park, the Brodsworth Freestone Quarry is marked as active and having a limekiln. 

 

The 1892 OS map showing Brodsworth Hall and its gardens

The eastern part of the gardens at Brodsworth Hall comprises a landscaped quarry, with an old face forming the boundary of The Grove on is western edge. This is first shown on the 1892 1:25,000 scale OS map and I presume that this supplied stone for the house but the HE description of the house states that all of the gardens were completed by 1870. The poor quality stone used for the 1874 work to St. Michael’s church must have therefore come from elsewhere, but I have not found any records of this.

 

The old quarry face on the western edge of The Grove

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