An Exploration of Campsall I

 

The retaining wall to the Old Rectory

 

During Church Explorers Week in 2024, having already visited St. James’ church in High Melton and the Church of St. Michael and All Angels in Brodsworth, which had both involved 2 bus journeys and a train journey from Treeton and back, the last event that I attended was at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Campsall. 

 

The Doncaster public transport map

As usual when planning a day out, I looked at the Doncaster public transport map on the Travel South Yorkshire website and was very surprised to discover that Campsall is not even marked on this and that the timetable for the No. 51 bus was yet another one published by the SYMCA that is extremely confusing and without a map. 

 

An extract from the 2024 vesion of the No. 51 bus timetable

 

Using Google Map I had established the location of the various bus stops in Campsall and, on the day, after passing through the run down old coal mining villages of Bentley, Carcroft and Skellow since leaving Doncaster, I arrived at the edge of Burghwallis. 

 

Areas of Doncaster traversed during Church Explorers Week

 

By this time I had traversed a landscape that is underlain by the Permian Edlington Formation, Brotherton Formation and the Roxby Formation, which are overlain by the Triassic Sherwood Sandstone Group - of which only the Brotherton Formation has produced building stone. 

 

The geology between Skellow and Campsall

 

I noted a few old buildings in Skellow, constructed with thinly bedded dolomitic limestone from the Brotherton Formation for the walling with red pantiles used for the roofs, and the same traditional pattern of vernacular materials can also be seen in Sutton. I was then dismayed to discover that the bus then took the most excruciatingly slow route around the houses of Askern, where there isn’t a single listed building. 

 

A few memorials in Campsall Cemetery

Alighting at the Ryecroft Road/The Avenue bus stop, after an hour long journey to cover a distance of 11 km as the crow flies – compared to the 15 minute journey to Brodsworth and the 12 minute journey to Marr over similar direct distances of 7.5 km and 6 km respectively – I had a quick look at the memorials in Campsall Cemetery. 

 

The former boundary wall to the Stony Hills Plantation

Finding only a sandstone war memorial cross, a Portland stone Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone and the memorial to Alfred Stubbs (d.1934), which is made of pink Peterhead and dark grey Rubislaw granites, I just took a few photos and continued down The Avenue, where the wall on the west side once formed the boundary of Stony Hills Plantation. 

 

A detail of the former boundary wall to the Stony Hills Plantation

Along with woodland on the east side of the road, this was cleared in the second half of the C19 and redeveloped for housing. I didn’t have my Estwing hammer with me, but I managed to obtain a specimen of dolomitic limestone. 

 

A specimen of dolomitic limestone

 

This is from a section of thinly bedded walling and is pale cream in colour and extremely fine grained, with no sign of a granular texture or ooliths that are common in the Cadeby Formation, but it does contain very fine grains of black manganese oxide and is quite similar to specimens that I had previously collected from Wadworth and Loversall. 

 

Active and disused quarries marked on the 1854 Ordnance Survey map

Looking at the 1854 Ordnance Survey map of Campsall, several active and disused quarries are marked around the village and limestone for the boundary walls in the village would have no doubt have been obtained from these. 

 

Listed buildings in Campsall

 

Entering the Conservation Area, the first structure on my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge that I had prepared was the Grade II Listed retaining wall to the Old Rectory, which Historic England thinks is probably of an early C19 date. This is listed for its group value only and passes into a long boundary wall that continues down to High Street. 

 

Views of the retaining wall to the Old Rectory

 

The Grade I Listed Old Rectory itself, which dates back to c.1400 and has c.1800 additions, is partly obscured by its high retaining wall and also by trees and shrubs in its garden, but I managed to take a few record photographs. 

 

Views of the Old Rectory

Much of the east elevation that was added c.1800 is rendered, but the north-east gable end, which Pevsner refers to as being the preserved chapel with its church like tracery, and the rest of the T-shaped house is built with limestone ashlar that is quite yellow and was undoubtedly quarried from the Cadeby Formation. 

 

Limestone from the Brotherton Formation in vernacular architecture

 

I have seen outcrops of the Brotherton Formation in a few roadside exposures and in old quarries, where it is predominantly very thinly bedded, but it does have more massive beds up to 200 mm or more thick; however, these are vertically and laterally inconsistent and aren't suitable for ashlar and, as seen in the substantial house to the north of the Old Rectory, it is at best used for roughly coursed and squared walling.

Limestone from the Brotherton Formation in vernacular architecture

St. Michael's Church in Brodsworth III

 

A view east along the nave

Entering the porch of St. Michael’s church, having had a brief look at the various phases of construction of its exterior and making a particular note of the poor condition of the masonry that formed part of the 1874 restoration, there was just less than an hour before I had to catch the No. 203 bus back to Doncaster. 

 

The south door

 

I immediately set about taking a systematic photographic record of the principal architectural elements, starting with the south aisle and south arcade. The walls to these and all of the other C19 masonry have been rendered and the columns appear to have been limewashed. 

 

A view east along the south aisle

 

Except to note the very unusual development of a golden brown hue in places, which I had seen in the patina that is a feature of the external stonework of the same age, I paid very little attention to their details and just took a few general photos of the arcade. 

 

The south arcade

 

Looking at the masonry at the west end of the north arcade, this section of walling and the west end of the nave was originally part of the tower of the C11 church, according to Peter Ryder in his book Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire and which Historic England (HE) refers to in their description of the church. 

 

The west arch of the north arcade

 

Getting closer to the west arch of the arcade, which has been inserted into the C11 wall, the responds are semi-circular with square abaci and date to the late C12 but the arch itself is part of the work undertaken during the 1874 restoration. 

 

The north arcade

 

The two eastern arches in the arcade are considered by Pevsner to be slightly later than the western arch, probably early C13 and he draws attention to the octagonal column, which has an octagonal capital that he considers to be a hybrid of scalloped and waterleaf designs. 

 

The capital to the column of the north arcade

 

Set against the wall of the north aisle, there are three square section columns of stone that are positioned between and to either side of the square headed windows, which I presume to be some kind of buttress that provide support to the wall and relate to the remedy of structural problems associated with coal mining subsidence, which were addressed from 1997 to 2003 by the renowned church architect Ronald Sims. 

 

The west wall of the nave

The west end of the nave has a very thick wall, the east (internal) face of which Ryder describes as having a “confusion of joints, different masonry types and repairs due to recent damage, creating a picture almost impossible to interpret”. 

 

Peter Ryder's drawing of the west wall of the nave

 

Ryder obviously spent a considerable amount of time surveying the exterior and interior of St. Michael’s church and taking measurements of the various features and his drawing quite clearly indicates the changes in masonry that are far too many to describe in my Language of Stone Blog. 

Herringbone masonry in the west wall of the nave

 

I just took a few close up photos of some of the details of the walling, particularly the sections of herringbone masonry which has probably been used by Ryder as evidence of his C11 date and an Anglo-Saxon/Norman overlap style. As noted on the exterior of the tower, the dolomitic limestone is a yellow sandy variety of the Cadeby Formation but I didn’t examine it closely.

 

A view of the font in the tower

 

The entrance to the tower was blocked by a heavy bench and I didn’t get the opportunity to have a look at the west face of the original tower, which was originally on the exterior but Ryder says has been rendered. I therefore couldn’t get a good look at the font or see the mediaeval grave slabs. 

 

Pevsner's description of St. Michael's church

When first developing an interest in mediaeval churches, when living in Sheffield, I relied on my 1974 reprint of The Buildings of England Yorkshire West Riding by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner; however, since starting my investigation of mediaeval churches at St. Helen's church in Treeton in 2016, I have often found his descriptions somewhat enigmatic and quite random in nature and he makes no mention of a possible C11 date of the church. 

 

The chancel arch

 

Making my way back down the nave to the chancel arch, Pevsner omits to mention that on the south side of the current arch, thought to date to the C15, a remnant of the jamb of the C12 arch has a square impost and four voussoirs. 

 

A detail of the south side of the chancel arch

 

On the north side of the chancel arch, there are further remnants of the earlier chancel arch and, although the impost has been cut back at a later date, more voussoirs can be seen. For the C12 details, the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture of Britain and Ireland (CRSBI) is the best reference source that I have found and this often discusses aspects of The Romanesque elements that Pevsner and partcularly HE, with its very sterile descriptions, rarely address. 

 

The north side of the chancel arch

 

Moving into the chancel, as with the south aisle and the south arcade, white painted plaster is the product of the 1874 restoration and the columns and arches to both of the north and south chapels are part of this work, although Ryder’s floor plan shows that the chancel still possesses C11 masonry, including the round headed window in its north wall, which the CRSBI describes. 

 

Views of the chancel

 

Although the painted and rendered elements of the interior were not of great interest, mainly because they are mainly C19 in date but also because the oldest masonry to the chancel is obscured, the west end, north arcade and north aisle deserved more time than I had on the day - to fully appreciate the archaeological aspects of the fabric.

 

The reset window in the north aisle

 

 Looking at the church guide – which was the last of the print run published in 2003 – there are various ledger stones, brasses and other monuments that I didn’t get to see and I look forward to an opportunity to visit again in the not too distant future.. 

 

The St. Michael's church guide

 

St. Michael's Church in Brodsworth II

 

A view of St. Michael's church from the south-west

Continuing my brief survey of the exterior of the Church of St Michael and All Angels, having taken note of the very advanced deterioration of the limestone used for the C19 work on the south elevation, I could quite clearly see the differences in the masonry of these and the tower when standing back to take a few general record photographs. 

Contrasting masonry in the tower and the south aisle

The limestone ashlar used for the 1874 restoration is very pale cream in colour, which has developed a golden brown patina that seems to be associated with the spalling of its surface, but the reasonably well coursed and squared rubble limestone used to build the tower has developed a grey patina, which is typical of the dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation.

 

The south elevation of the tower

 

Looking very closely, where the patina has weathered off and some inappropriate sand and cement repairs have been undertaken, the fresh stone has a distinctly yellow colour that is usually associated with the presence of reworked sand from the Yellow Sands Formation, which is sometimes found immediately beneath the Cadeby Formation. 

 

The geology around Brodsworth

 

The Yellow Sands Formation outcrops on the escarpment to the east of Brodsworth at Watchley Crags and Bilham Quarry and 5.km to the south at Melton Park and the churches at Hooton Pagnell, Hickleton, Barnburgh and High Melton all contain yellow limestone. 

 

Mediaeval churches in Doncaster containing yellow dolomitic limestone

 

The only old quarry of any substance, where I have seen yellow limestone is at the Castle Hill Quarry in Hickleton, but it is quite possible that the many old quarries found around Brodsworth extracted yellow limestone in places from its lowest sections. 

 

The belfy stage of the tower

All of my usual reference sources - Historic England, Pevsner, the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland and Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire - state that the tower dates to c.1200, with the belfry stage being raised at a later date. Pevsner assigns a C13 date to the twin lancet windows, but Peter Ryder considers them to have an unusual form and that they could be C14 or even possibly C15 work. 

 

A gargoyle on the tower

 

I was too busy photographing the gargoyles and I didn’t notice them at the time, but my photo of the belfy stage shows that the setback between the second and belfry stages has a lozenge pattern and these are repeated on the kneeler of the south-west corner of the nave, which forms a buttress to the tower and also contains a line of raised balls – both of which Ryder believes have been reused from pre-existing masonry. 

 

The west elevation of the tower

 

In Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire, Peter Ryder makes full use of floor plans that identify the difference phases of construction and, as a buildings archaeologist, applies a similar methodology that I am familiar with as a geologist – the significance of unconformities in the Earth’s history. 

 

The floor plan of St. Michael's church

 

Since beginning my investigation of mediaeval churches at St. Helen’s church in Treeton back in February 2016, when I had hoped to further develop a professional interest in standing buildings archaeology - first acquired when undertaking a survey of the stonework of All Saints church in Pontefract - I have taken great interest in the patterns of masonry that I have seen in more than 125 mediaeval churches since. 

 

Repairs to the crack in the west elevation of the tower

 

Looking up the west elevation of the tower, the buttresses are made of large ashlar blocks that to my eye are obviously of a much later date and I can see distinct changes in the pattern of the stonework above them, but the aforementioned authorities make no reference to this. 

 

 A detail of repairs to the crack in the west elevation of the tower

Coal mining subsidence has caused great damage to the church, which is clearly evident in the large crack in the tower and, 30 years after its effects had first become apparent, a 6 year programme of restoration was started in 1997 under the supervision of Ronald G. Sims. 

 

The junction between the nave and north aisle

 

Moving round to the north elevation, there was no space to step back and get a good view of the whole elevation, but I noted the junction between the C11 nave and the narrow C12 north aisle, with the large Anglo-Saxon/Norman overlap style side alternate quoins being clearly visible. 

 

The round arched window in the north aisle

Looking along the elevation, I could see the narrow C12 round headed window that Ryder considers to have been reset and placed the wrong way around, but the thick undergrowth stopped me from taking a close look at this. 

 

A C19 window in the north aisle

 

A little further along the north aisle is a square headed window with four mullions, which are part of the 1874 restoration, but I did not go any further along the north elevation and rely on Ryder’s illustration and comments to get a better understanding of this part of the church.

 

Impressions of the changes to St. Michael's church