City Road Cemetery in Sheffield

 

A detail of the Blitz Grave

A few days after my recce to prepare the March field trip for the Sheffield U3A Geology Group, I took advantage of a bright sunny afternoon to have another short walk in Sheffield, mainly with the aim to photograph a handful of buildings for the British Listed Buildings website. 

 

Listed buildings around City Road

The first of these were to be found in the City Road Cemetery, which I had only walked through on my way from Manor Top to Manor Lodge towards the end of 2018, but firstly I wanted to take a closer look at the boundary wall, which is made of a coarse grained sandstone. I had always assumed that it was Chatsworth Grit but, having seen coarse Loxley Edge Rock with a similar colour variation at Malin Bridge and Wadsley, now I wasn’t so sure. 

 

The boundary wall at City Road Cemetery

The only building of any substance that I am aware is built with Loxley Edge Rock is the Sheffield Royal Infirmary, where the colour is extremely variable, with sudden changes from orange to a washed out grey and a blotchy appearance.

 

A detail of the boundary wall at City Road Cemetery

 

Moving up to the Grade II Listed crematorium (1905) by C. and C.M. Hadfield and the chapel (1881) by M.E. Hadfield & Son, the same sandstone has been used. Although orange/grey colouration is visible, like in the boundary, the lack of wild variation makes me think that the sandstone is in fact from the Chatsworth Grit. 

 

The crematorium and chapel

 

The main gatehouse (1879), also by M.E. Hadfield & Son, had already been photographed for the British Listed Buildings and, although I had taken photos of the front elevation myself on a couple of previous occasions, I hadn’t recorded its east elevation. 

 

The main gatehouse

 

I next went looking for the Blitz Grave, where 134 victims of the German bombing of Sheffield in December 1940 are buried. It essentially consists of a walled entrance to an octagonal enclosure, with low walls, which is built with rock-face sandstone. 

 

The Blitz Grave

 

On the inner side of the low wall, there is a band of pink granite with the names of the victims, together with an inscribed plaque with a quote from Deuteronomy, which looks like the Sardinian pink variety but other Variscan granites from Spain and Portugal are quite similar. 

 

The inner wall of the Blitz Grave

 

In a couple of places, I noted that the band of light pink granite is interrupted by a much darker red granite, which is typical of the Precambrian granites of Sweden and Finland, but I can’t think of any reason why this might have been done on a generic memorial such as this. 

 

A band of inscribed dark red Scandinavian granite

 

Having finished photographing the listed buildings in the City Road Cemetery, I had a wander around the cemetery to look for Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones, which I shall describe in my next post, and had another look inside the Halls of Remembrance. 

 

Inscribed Carrara marble panels in the Halls of Remembrance

 

Here, there are numerous niches that are designed to accommodate two caskets of cremated remains and the inscribed panels provide examples of white Italian Carrara marble and also of Hopton Wood limestone from near Wirksworth in Derbyshire.

 

A panel of Hopton Wood limestone

 

A Field Trip in Doncaster - Part 1

 

An outcrop of the Sprotbrough Member in Nearcliff Wood

February 2022 was dominated by particularly wet weather, which included Storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin. My days out were limited to a recce for a Sheffield U3A Geology Group field trip, the field trip itself and a further exploration of Broomhill in Sheffield – including brief surveys of Kersal Mount and Tapton Hall. 

 

Field trip locations

A week later, in the first week of March, I set off again with Paul and Dave from the Sheffield U3A Geology Group to undertake a recce for our next field trip on 16th March in Doncaster – this time involving visits to Cedar Road Quarry, Warmsworth Park and the Nearcliff Wood Quarries. 

 

The Doncaster Geodiversity Assessment

 

The bad weather in February, which led to our field trip being abandoned, had improved slightly but we had still been unable to prepare an itinerary for the year, so again I resorted to various sites that I had encountered when surveying the RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) in Doncaster, firstly in 1997 and then in 2007, when producing the Doncaster Geodiversity Assessment. 

 

Glaciofluvial sand and gravel at Cedar Road Quarry

Starting at the Cedar Road Quarry in Balby, I had a quick look to see how stable the access was to the exposure of glaciofluvial sand and gravel, which overlies the Triassic sandstone from the Chester Formation in this old building sand quarry. 

 

Trimming overhanging branches at Cedar Road Quarry

When I last visited this site with the newly established XP School in Doncaster, in September 2015, the approaches to the quarry faces were quite overgrown. As we had done at Cadeby Rattles the previous month, we took some tools with us to do some clearance if necessary, but on this occasion we just needed to remove a few overhanging branches at the most interesting rock face, where a river channel with mudstone pellets is exposed. 

 

Examining mudstone pellets

 

Moving on to Warmsworth Park, another old quarry that had been used for the XP School field trip, we just had a quick look at a part of the western quarry face, behind planted shrubs. The partially obscured section exhibits massive limestone overlain by thinner flaggy beds, which both show noticeable lateral variation.

 

Massive and flaggy beds at Warmsworth Park

 

The main quarry face, although being progressively covered by ivy, still has plenty of exposures of the Sprotbrough Member of the Cadeby Formation, which differs significantly from the underlying Wetherby Member, which I had previously shown to the group at North Cliff Quarry and Clowne.

 

An exposure of the Wetherby Member in Warmsworth Park

The Wetherby Member consists of massive beds that are very often oolitic, with shells of the brachiopod genus Bakevellia, with bryozoan reef masses being common along its length in South Yorkshire and further to the north; however, the Sprotbrough member contains no reefs or fossils and its primary texture has been obliterated by dolomitisation and large scale cross-bedding is a characteristic feature, with individual beds thickening and thinning rapidly. 

 

The car park at the Lotus restaurant

 

Having already visited the sites on our field trip several times already, I had already identified the points of interest and I was more concerned with the parking arrangements for this part of the walk. With no on road parking in the immediate vicinity, I had always asked permission from the adjacent public house to use their large car park, but the owner of the new Indian restaurant on the site very uncharitably refused this, unless we all purchased an evening meal. 

 

A detail of the Church of St. John the Evangelist

Moving on to Sprotbrough Lock to have lunch, we briefly stopped at the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Cadeby, where there are some interesting features relating to the dolomitisation of the limestone and one of the restored Corinthian capitals has decayed at an accelerated rate. 

 

On Conisbrough Viaduct

Parking at the northern end of Conisbrough Viaduct, which was planned as part of the walk that had to be abandoned the previous month, Dave explained the problems of building such structures - based on his experience as a civil engineer - and a quick look down to the River Don confirmed that the recent floodwater had not yet fully abated. 

 

A view of the River Don from Conisbrough Viaduct

 

At the southern end of the viaduct, we made our way down a muddy path to the main footpath to Sprotbrough and then to the Nearcliff Wood Quarries, where there are some spectacular examples of slumping, cambering and rifts that are filled with glaciofluvial sand and gravel. 

 

Examining slumped rock at Nearcliff Woods Quarries

I have not seen such disrupted rocks anywhere else in the Cadeby Formation and this is probably associated with the North Don and South Don faults and the Don Monocline – a major structure that has controlled the north-easterly flow of the River Don from Sheffield.

Slumped limestone and a rift at Nearcliff Wood Quarries

A Walk From Shore Lane to Broomhill

 

A relief sculpture by Alfred and William Tory at Weston Park Museum

My brief surveys of Kersal Mount and Tapton Hall had provided me with plenty of photos to choose from, when giving my talk for the Ranmoor Society in September 2022, and I continued my walk by having a quick look at the sandstones used in the boundary walls down Shore Lane.

 

Boundary walls on Shore Lane

A long section of walling is built continuously from nearly the top of Shore Lane and ends at a point opposite the entrance to the Ranmoor Village at Woodhead Way, which I assume to be from quarry in the Rough Rock on the opposite side of the road to the entrance to Tapton Hall.

 

A boundary wall built with Crawshaw Sandstone

 
From this point down to Fulwood Road, the stone used in a separately built wall has a very different character, with much more evenly shaped and sized blocks of a medium grained sandstone. It is a greyish sandstone with considerable orange iron staining and banding, with planar bedding that is characteristic of the Crawshaw Sandstone from Bolehills in Crookes – 1.5 km to the north as the crow flies.

 

A boundary wall built with Crawshaw Sandstone on Fulwood Road

When I first visited Fulwood a few years previously, I had been quite amazed to see so many large Victorian houses from the top deck of the No. 120 bus, which had been built during the expansion of the western suburbs in the second half of the C19.

 

Victorian houses on Broomhall Road

This time, when walking along Fulwood Road to Broomhill, I could only get glimpses of these houses behind high boundary walls or thick hedges and was therefore unable to glean much information about the sandstone used to build them.

 

Broomhill Community Library on Taptonville Road

Arriving at Taptonville Road, where I had photographed its various listed buildings during a brief exploration of the Broomhill and Endcliffe Conservation Areas a few months earlier, I had another look at the Broomhill Community Library, where it looks like Crawshaw Sandstone with iron staining has been used for the walling.

 

Crawsha sandstone at Broomhill Community Library

 
On the opposite side of the road, I was interested to see that some of the tarmac on the road has deteriorated to the extent that the original setts have been exposed. These were quarried from several sandstone formations in Sheffield, particularly the coarser varieties such as the Loxley Edge Rock and the Chatsworth Grit, a coarse pebbly variety of which has been used here.

 

A road sett on Taptonville Road

 
I returned to Fulwood Road and headed up Crookes Road to find the early C19 No. 17 Pisgah House Road and the Etruria House Hotel (1876), formerly owned by John Armitage, a manufacturer of decorative fired clay products.

Etruria House Hotel

As also seen at the warehouse and showroom at No. 140 Devonshire Street, the house is ornamented with many of his firm’s products but, with the approach to this being on private land, I didn’t spend any time looking at the fabric of the building and just took a few record photographs. 

 

A detail at the Etruria House Hotel

Continuing my walk, I retraced my steps down Crookes Road and then took a few photos of the former Broomhill Board School, to have another look at its walling stone. The book Building Schools for Sheffield describes it as stone from Dunford Bridge, where coarse grained Huddersfield White Rock and Rough Rock from the Millstone Grit Group is found. 

 

Walling stone at the Broomhill Board School

When I first saw this school, I had already seen many of the Sheffield Board Schools that are built with Crawshaw Sandstone, which is buff coloured, medium grained, has distinctive planar bedding and is laid in small blocks. I immediately thought that it was another example of Crawshaw Sandstone and, having seen it again, it doesn’t look like a very coarse sandstone from the Millstone Grit Group, but perhaps could be from the flaggy Rough Rock.

 

A detail of the walling stone at the Broomhill Board School

I then made my way down to Weston Park Museum, where I wanted to photograph the frieze sculptures by Alfred and William Tory on the 1937 addition to the original Mappin Art Gallery (1887). These are the Shrine of Knowledge above the entrance, with various crustaceans, fishes, reptiles, mammals and birds and a depiction of various Sheffield trades at the southern end of the east elevation. 

 

The entrance to Weston Park Museum

Although I took a couple of photos of the relief sculpture of the various trades, the Shrine of Knowledge is set beneath a portico and the strong afternoon sunshine created a deep shadow that prevented me from getting a good record of the whole sculpture.

 

A detail of the Shrine of Knowledge

 

A Brief Survey of Tapton Hall

 

The south elevation of Tapton Hall

After briefly surveying the stonework at Kersal Mount, which was a pleasant surprise and would later feature in my talk to the Ranmoor Society, I continued up Manchester Road past a couple of large houses and then turned down Shore Lane towards the entrance of Tapton Hall.

 

A view down Shore Lane

 

When preparing my walk, I had looked at the I855 Ordnance Survey map and noted that the site of Tapton Hall was then occupied by Tapton Grove, a substantial house of unknown date that was occupied by Mary Shore, the grandmother of Florence Nightingale, and that there was an old quarry marked next to Shore Lane. 

 

The 1855 Ordnance Survey map

Walking down the hill, I was hoping that I might see remains of the quarry but, all along the side of the road where this was located, there is a high boundary wall and the site now forms part of the private grounds of West Royd on Manchester Road. 

 

A boundary wall on Shore Lane

 

The rubble wall is constructed of thinly bedded sandstone, which has a very high proportion of dark rusty brown blocks that look very similar to those seen in boundary walling and various cottages etc. around Fulwood. The old quarry is sited on the Rough Rock and I presume this has been used for the walling and that its typical physical characteristics are exhibited here. 

 

The gateway to Tapton Hall

Arriving at the entrance to Tapton Hall, I just took a few general photos of the tall rusticated gate piers, which are built with a uniformly coloured massive sandstone. I didn’t stop to examine the stone, but it looks like one of the medium grained sandstones from the Millstone Grit Group in Derbyshire or West Yorkshire, such as Stoke Hall stone and Crosland Hill stone. 

 

The approach to Tapton Hall

 

Moving to the house itself, it was built in 1855 on the site of the demolished Tapton Grove for another one of the Sheffield steel magnates, Edward Vickers, and designed by Flockton & Son in a Classical style, with Italianate features. It was restored, with alterations and a very large modern extension by Hadfield, Cawkwell, Davidson & Partners in 1967. 

 

The east elevation

 

From 1867 to 1967, the house was the home of the Wilson family, snuff manufacturers at Sharrow Mills on the Porter Brook. It was then purchased by the Sheffield Masonic Hall Company, who turned it into its present form and use as a wedding venue, conference centre and restaurant, while still retaining their headquarters and museum there. 

 

The concrete mural sculpture by William Mitchell

The new extension has been described as “large and uncompromisingly modern”, with a large abstract concrete mural symbolising the 'turmoil and chaos of the outside' by William Mitchell next to the main entrance to the extension.

 

A detail of the concrete mural sculpture

Nearly 30 years previously, I had worked on a temporary project for the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, now part of Historic England – to acquire as many examples of post-war architectural sculpture that I could find and supply 7"x5” black and white photographs at £10 each - and am always interested to see such sculpture, although it is not to my taste. 

 

A detail of the south elevation

 

My main objective was to look at the stonework and, after introducing myself to the museum curator, I was briefly shown around the museum and parts of the old house and the restaurant and bar in the extension. Having discovered that the panes of glass in the large bow window on the south elevation are curved, I went to explore its exterior. 

 

The bow window

I took a quick walk around the house to photograph it from a few angles, including the western extension that I did not see closely, but I did not see any particularly interesting features on the various elevations or examples of stone carving. 

 

A view of the old house and the new extension

On the south and west elevations, the lie of the land has necessitated the construction of what is in effect a small retaining wall, which incorporates entrance steps at the south-west corner that rise up to a reasonably large patio area. 

 

Entrance steps on the south-west corner of the patio

 

The wall has a textured finish that has attracted the dirt and I thought that it could be built of local Chatsworth Grit, which is very often used for similar walls in this part of Sheffield; however, looking much closer, I think that it is the same medium grained gritstone as used in the house, which is probably from Derbyshire.

 

A detail of the steps and adjoining pier

Except for one small section adjacent to the quoins on the east end of the south elevation, where one of the stones is losing its surface, the sandstone is still in very good condition and I didn’t notice any sign of recent restoration to any of the stonework. I spent less than 10 minutes to get all the photographs that I needed for my talk and headed back to Shore Lane and continued along the Fulwood Road towards Broomhill. 

 

A weathered block on the south elevation