View allAll Photos Tagged SANDSTONE
Two NG6 'Lawley' 4-4-0 locomotives that originally worked on the Beira Railway pass an ox wagon on the Sandstone Estates.
Copyright. Before use, email: geoff@geoffs-trains.com
Details of a side window of the exceptionally florid 1894 Glasgow Savings Bank (Arch. J.J. Burnet). The sculptures are by William Shirreffs.
Things from a photographic walk into Glasgow.
Sandpaper fig top right.
This stone track was built through the forest to take King George the sixth to the lighthouse up top. This small littoral rainforest was recently damaged by fire. Quite a number of rainforest trees have died. A large number are re-sprouting from the base. This rainforest is black in places, but I expect it will probably recover.
The king never made it here, as his health deteriorated because of a life of smoking. I wonder what sort of car was to be used to drive him up the top, in those days a king wouldn't walk up to Barrenjoey lighthouse.
The plants living here grow on soils based on the Narrabeen group of sedimentary rocks. This particular place was once an island. The bottom half is made of rocks of the Narrabeen group, the top part made of Hawkesbury sandstone and a couple of rows of ancient volcanic dykes or sills, a couple of hundred metres to the north of this photo.
Rainfall is 1300 mm per year, fires seldom seen in this place. The rainforest is on the south western corner of the rocky area, once an island. Relatively safe from fire which is the most significant enemy of Australian rainforests (apart from man).
The rainforest here is low, with a few trees above 10 metres tall, mainly because of the shallow, acid and infertile soils. Dominant species include Sweet Pittosporum, Cheese Tree, Sandpaper Fig and Lilly Pilly. I could have sworn I saw Moreton Bay Figs here, as the large leaves were far too big for the Port Jackson Fig. But the scientists say they were all Port Jackson figs, (who am I to argue)?
This rainforest has interesting species. Such as the Snowwood, and Whip Vine. The Native Quince (Guioa semiglauca), Native Guava (Rhodomyrtus psidioides), Red Olive Plum (Elaeodendron australe) and the Blue Cherry, (Syzygium oleosum) also occur here at Barrenjoey.
Whip Vine is a widespread Asian rainforest plant, very far south of the equator here in Sydney. And the Native Guava is growing naturally south of the Hawkesbury River; an unexpected find. Another interesting rainforest tree here is the most southerly of the mighty tribe of Ebonies and Persimmons, (Diospyros). Around 450 species of ebony occur in all continents apart from Antarctica. And here the Southern Ebony was growing well, with juicy black fruit.
The original Australian flora was mostly rainforest. And the eucalyptus and acacias evolved from the rainforest flora. When the continent dried out and the fires became more prevalent then the surviving plants evolved to their current state.
That is to adapt, change and to survive fire. However, some didn't bother to change, they stayed more or less the same.
Acacias have much in common with the Snowwood. Their curly seed pod is easily recognised as similar to a wattle. Snowwood stayed put in the rainforest, wattles moved out and dominated so much of Australia and Africa.
The Snowwood is a good example of a Gondwana rainforest relict. An ancient plant, still well suited to its environment. And here they're happy in this little remnant, a sea-side rainforest.
DSC_0046
In 2008, Geoff's Trains visited Sandstone for a three day charter. One morning session was with two NGG16 Garratts, numbers 113 and 153,
This abandoned quarry is very close to my parents house in Switzerland. Last time I was here was on a class field trip in 3rd grade. I didn't remember exactly what it looks like, and was worried that I remember it way bigger than it actually is. But to my surprise the quarry is pretty big and we spend a couple hours walking around in it.
I brought a couple candles with me for dramatic lighting... The greenish light in the background is actually sunlight shining through leaves at one of the entrances.
It's quite amazing how the tides either cover or expose certain areas of sandstone depending on the season and the flow direction. Go back to the same area again next week and it could be all change. It's a great oppurtunity to record rock formations not often seen, and highlights my theory that it is important to continually revisit the same areas, for only then do you notice change or recognise something new.
Thursday morning, and all I had to do was get back to Kent. Hopefully before five so I could hand the hire car back, but getting back safe and sound would do, really.
I woke at six so I could be dressed for breakfast at half six when it started, and as usual when in a hotel, I had fruit followed by sausage and bacon sarnies. And lots of coffee.
Outside it had snowed. OK, it might only be an inch of the stuff, but that's more than an inch needed to cause chaos on the roads.
Back to the room to pack, one last look round and back to reception to check out, then out into the dawn to find that about a quarter of the cars were having snow and ice cleared off them before being able to be driven.
I joined them, scraping the soft snow then the ice. Bracing stuff at seven in the morning.
Now able to see out, I inched out of the car park and out to the exit and onto the untreated roads.
It was a picturesque scene, but not one I wanted to stop to snap. My first road south had only been gritted on one side, thankfully the side I was travelling down, but was still just compacted snow.
After negotiating two roundabouts, I was on the on ramp to the M6, and a 60 mile or so drive south. The motorway was clear of snow, but huge amounts of spray was thrown up, and the traffic was only doing 45mph, or the inside lane was, and that was quite fast and safe enough for me.
More snow fell as I neared Stoke, just to add to the danger of the journey, and then the rising sun glinted off the road, something which I had most of the drive home.
I went down the toll road, it costs eight quid, but is quick and easy. And safe too with so little traffic on it. I think for the first time, I didn't stop at the services, as it was only about half nine, and only three hours since breakfast.
And by the time I was on the old M6, there was just about no snow on the ground, and the road was beginning to dry out.
My phone played the tunes from my apple music store. Loudly. So the miles slipped by.
After posting some shots from Fotheringhay online, a friend, Simon, suggested others nearby that were worth a visit, and I also realised that I hadn't taken wide angle shots looking east and west, so I could drop in there, then go to the others suggested.
And stopping here was about the half way point in the journey so was a good break in the drive, and by then the clouds had thinned and a weak sin shone down.
Fotheringhay is as wonderful as always, it really is a fine church, easy to stop there first, where I had it to myself, and this time even climbed into the richly decorated pulpit to snap the details.
A short drive away was Apethorpe, where there was no monkey business. The village was built of all the same buttery yellow sandstone, looking fine in the weak sunshine.
Churches in this part of Northamptonshire are always open, Simon said.
Not at Apethorpe. So I made do with snapping the church and the village stocks and whipping post opposite.
A short drive up the hill was King's Cliffe. Another buttery yellow village and a fine church, which I guessed would be open.
Though it took some finding, as driving up the narrow high street I failed to find the church. I checked the sat nav and I had driven right past it, but being down a short lane it was partially hidden behind a row of houses.
The church was open, and was surrounded by hundreds of fine stone gravestones, some of designs I have not seen before, but it was the huge numbers of them that was impressive.
Inside the church was fine, if cold. I record what I could, but my compact camera's batter had died the day before, and I had no charger, so just with the nifty fifty and the wide angle, still did a good job of recording it.
There was time for one more church. Just.
For those of us who remember the seventies, Warmington means Dad's Army, or rather Warmington on Sea did. THat there is a real Warmington was a surprise to me, and it lay just a couple of miles the other side of Fotheringhay.
The church is large, mostly Victorian after it fell out of use and became derelict, if the leaflet I read inside was accurate. But the renovation was excellent, none more so than the wooden vaulted roof with bosses dating to either the 15th or 16th centuries.
Another stunning item was the pulpit, which looks as though it is decorated with panels taken from the Rood Screen. Very effective.
Back to the car, I program the sat nav for home, and set off back to Fotheringhay and the A14 beyond.
No messing around now, just press on trying to make good time so to be home before dark, and time to go home, drop my bags, feed the cats before returning the car.
No real pleasure, but I made good time, despite encountering several bad drivers, who were clearly out only to ruin my mood.
Even the M25 was clear, I raced to the bridge, over the river and into Kent.
Nearly home.
I drive back down the A2, stopping at Medway services for a sandwich and a huge coffee on the company's credit card.
And that was that, just a blast down to Faversham, round onto the A2 and past Canterbury and to home, getting back at just after three, time to fill up the bird feeders, feed the cats, unpack and have a brew before going out at just gone four to return the car.
Jools would rescue me from the White Horse on her way home, so after being told the car was fine, walked to the pub and ordered two pints of Harvey's Best.
There was a guy from Essex and his American girlfriend, who were asking about all sorts of questions about Dover's history, and I was the right person to answer them.
I was told by a guide from the Castle I did a good job.
Yay me.
Jools arrived, so I went out and she took me home. Where the cats insisted they had not been fed.
Lies, all lies.
Dinner was teriyaki coated salmon, roasted sprouts and back, defrosted from before Christmas, and noodles.
Yummy.
Not much else to tell, just lighting the fire, so Scully and I would be toast warm watch the exciting Citeh v Spurs game, where Spurs were very Spursy indeed.
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I was exploring the churches of north-east Northamptonshire, and on my way back to Peterborough station how could I resist a visit to lovely Warmington church? The village is rather a suburban one but, the solid little entirely Early English church sits at its heart. Entirely a Huntingdonshire church in style, with a stubby spire and big dormer-style lucarnes.
I had previously visited almost exactly a year ago, and as before I left my bike in the Early English porch, which is vaulted in blocks of stone, handsome yet familiar. I remembered in 2015 stepping into what turned out to be then the most interesting interior of the day, although rather overshadowed by Apethorpe and Blatherwycke on my current trip. The most striking feature, and rather a surprising one, is that the roof of the nave is vaulted in wood. This was done in the 13th Century, and the bosses survive from that time - even more surprising, they all depict green men, nine of them. Why was this not done elsewhere?
The rood screen is one of the best in the area, and the medieval pulpit appears to be constructed of rood screen panels (can that be right? Did they come from the rood loft? Surely it is pre-Reformation, in which case perhaps they came from somewhere else). Lots to think about. A good church, it would be considered so in any county.
So I got back on my bike and headed on towards Peterborough, but not without a memory of the last time I had done the same thing, because in 2015, as I was about to leave the church, three young women came in. They were walking the Nene Way, and were attired as you might expect attractive young women to be on such a sunny day. I didn't want them to be made nervous by the presence of a middle-aged man with a camera, so I nodded a greeting as I left, but in the event they engaged me in conversation, asking me where I'd come from, telling me what they were doing, where they were going, and so on.
In the end I had to make my apologies and leave as they didn't seem to want to let me go, not an experience I have very often these days, I can tell you. It rather put me in mind of the Sirens episode in the Odyssey.
And so I headed on, wary now of any wandering rocks and one-eyed giants.
www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/27033140016/in/photo...
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St Michael’s Parish Church, Warmington
Warmington was already an established farming community when its assets were recorded in Domesday Book. Shortly afterwards, its Norman owner, the Earl of Warwick, gave the manor of Warmington to the Benedictine Abbey which his father had endowed in Normandy, St.Peter’s at Preaux. Warmington was to remain in monastic hands, with one short break, for about 450 years. Monks were sent over from Preaux who built a small Priory. Its foundations were discovered when houses were built in Court Close in the 1950s. The Priory has disappeared, but the splendid church built under the monks’ supervision, mainly in the early medieval period, remains.
The church stands high above the village, close to the summit of Warmington Hill. Tradition tells us that the stone for building it was dug close by, in the area known as Catpits, or Churchpits. The stone for the tower was brought from a field known as Turpits, or Towerpits, a quarter of a mile away along the Hornton road. The churchyard is entered either by the lych-gate from the main road, or from the village by two long flights of steps. A diagonal line of pine trees marks the former boundary of the churchyard which was extended in the 1850s. In the older part, and especially near the south porch, are gravestones of exceptionally fine workmanship dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. About eighty of these are ‘listed’ by the Department of the Environment. All the inscribed memorials were recorded in 1981.
An admirable and detailed architectural description of the church is available in the Victoria County History. These notes are intended rather as a ‘layman’s conducted tour’. The church was purpose-built and used for the first half of its long life for forms of worship very different from our own. It was also the village meeting place for many secular purposes The church comprises north and south porches, nave with north and south aisles, a west tower and chancel with two-storey vestry adjoining.
As you enter the church by the south porch you walk forward into the nave. This area, with the first three pillars on each side, is where Warmington people have met and worshipped since the twelfth century. The area was extended by the addition of the aisles a century later. Today the overwhelming impression is a sense of simplicity, of space and of strength. Imagine the scene in the medieval period: no pews but white-washed walls covered with paintings, images of the saints in stone, on wood and painted cloths, the whole lit by the sunlight through stained glass and by candles and lamps burning before every image. On Sundays before Mass, at special festivals and for some fifty saints’ days in the year, a procession would form, with banners and hand bells, winding its way around the church and churchyard, and stopping at various points for particular acts of worship. The north and west doors, so rarely used today, had significance in these processions.
Before leaving this area of the church, notice the variety of windows, almost all of early date, but now mostly with clear glass. The ones at the east ends of the aisles, where the stone plate is pierced with roundels and a five-pointed star, are unusual. Considerable work has been undertaken in recent years in renewing the stone mullions, worn by the weather over time. The early Norman tub font of simple design is large enough for infant immersion. The aisles both taper by a foot, one to the east, and one to the west. The nave and chancel are slightly out of alignment, perhaps symbolic of Christ’s drooping head on the cross.
Before stepping down into the chancel, run your hand along the wooden screen under the chancel arch. This is all that remains of the great rood-screen which would have dominated the medieval church. The screen was hacked through quite roughly when the church was stripped of its ‘idolatrous’ treasures at the Reformation. Just to the right of the chancel arch is the doorway and stair which used to lead to the rood-screen loft.
The stained glass and memorial tablets in the chancel all commemorate the family of the Victorian rector during whose incumbency the church was restored. On the south wall are a richly decorated triple sedilia and piscina, dating from the fifteenth century when Warmington manor had newly passed to the Carthusian monks of Wytham in Somerset.
A door from the chancel leads into the vestry, built about 1340. The lower room was a chapel, dedicated to St Thomas. The stone altar shows four of its five original crosses cut in the top. An altar would have a piscina nearby for washing the vessels used at Mass. The piscina here has a trefoiled ogee-head and quartrefoil basin. On the opposite wall is a blocked fireplace.
The oak doors and stairway are delightful and a testament to the skills of local carpenters, smiths and masons. The upper room was the priest’s home complete with windows, commanding extensive views, fireplace, lavatory and a shuttered opening for keeping watch over the main alter. The exterior walls of the vestry are extraordinarily thick. One Warmington tradition was that it was used as a prison for recalcitrant monks!
A more credible and interesting suggestion is that the walls were so constructed to carry the weight of a tower. If this was indeed the plan, it was quickly abandoned, for soon after the vestry was built work started on the tower in the usual Warwickshire position at the west end of the nave.
The slightly different stonework on the exterior indicates the stages of its building. The tower is recessed slightly into the nave, presumably to accommodate it in the very limited land there was available for extending the church at the west end. A stair within the thickness of the wall gives access to the bell chamber and the roof. The flight is steep and the treads are worn down to the bottom of the risers. The present bells are dated 1602, 1613 and 1811.
There are many interesting gravestones in the churchyard, which were recorded by members of Warmington WI in a 1981 survey.
VICTORIA COUNTY HISTORY
WARMINGTON
This extract from the Victoria County History gives a very detailed description of the parish church.
The church stands directly on the east side of the main road from Banbury to Warwick at the top of a steep gradient and the village lies mostly to the northeast of it at a lower level. The parish church of ST. MICHAEL, or ST. NICHOLAS, consists of a chancel, north chapel with a priest’s chamber above it, nave, north and south aisles and porches and a west tower.
The nave dates from the 12th century; no detail is left to indicate its original date but it was of the proportion of two squares, common in the early 12th century. A north aisle was added first, about the middle of the 12th century, with an arcade of three bays; a south aisle followed, near the end of the 12th century, also with a three-bay arcade. After about a century a considerable enlargement was begun and continued over a period of half a century or more; the nave was lengthened eastwards about 10 ft. and a new chancel built. The extra length of the side walls added to the nave perhaps remained unpierced at first.
Although there is a general sameness in the Hornton stone ashlar walling throughout, all the various parts—chancel, chapel, aisles, and tower—have different plinths, &c., and there is a great variation in the elevations and details of the windows, showing constant changes from the 14th century, when there was much activity, onwards, probably because of decay and need for repair caused by the church’s exposed position on the brow of a hill.
The south aisle was widened to its present limits about 1290, on the evidence of the wide splays and other details of its windows; but an early-13th-century doorway was re-used. It is possible that the east part of the north aisle followed soon afterwards, c. 1300, as a kind of transeptal chapel, on the evidence of its east window, which differs from the other aisle windows. From c. 1330–40 much was done. The chancel arch was widened, new bays to match were inserted in the east lengths of the nave walls, making both arcades now of four bays, the widening of the whole of the north aisle was completed with the addition of the north porch. The 12th-century north arcade, which seems to have lost its inner order, was probably rebuilt. There is a curious distortion about both aisles, perhaps only explained by the widenings being made in more than one period; the north aisle tapers from west to east and the south aisle tapers from east to west, about a foot each, as compared with the lines of the arcades. The south porch was probably added about 1330.
About 1340 came also the addition of the chapel with the priest’s chamber above it. The north wall of the chancel, probably of the 13th century and thinner than any of the other walls, was kept to form the south wall of the chapel, but the other walls were made unusually thick, as though it was at first intended to raise a higher superstructure than was actually carried out, perhaps even a tower. If such was the intention it was quickly abandoned and the west tower was begun about 1340–5 and carried up to some two-thirds of its present height. There was not much room above the road-side and it had to encroach 2 or 3 ft. into the west end of the nave. The top stage was added or completed in the 15th century.
With the addition of the chapel, alterations were made to the chancel windows, but its south wall had to be rebuilt in the 15th century, when new and larger windows were inserted and the piscina and sedilia constructed.
There have been many repairs and renovations, notably in 1867 to the chancel and 1871 for the rest of the church, and others since then. The roofs have been entirely renewed, though probably more or less of the original forms of the 14th or 15th centuries.
The chancel (about 30½ft. by 16½ft.) has an east window of four trefoiled pointed lights and modern tracery of 14th-century character in a two-centred head with an external hood-mould having head-stops. The jambs and arch, of two moulded orders, and the hood-mould are early-14th-century. In the north wall is a 14th-century doorway into the chapel with jambs and ogee head of three moulded orders and a hoodmould with head-stops, the eastern a cowled man’s, the western a woman’s. It contains an ancient oak door, with stout diagonal framing at the back and hung with plain strap-hinges. At the west end of the wall are two windows close together; the eastern, of c. 1340, of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and cusped piercings in a square head with an external label having decayed head-stops. It has a shouldered internal lintel which is carved with grotesque faces. The western is a narrower and earlier 14th-century window of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and a quatrefoil, &c., in a square head with an external label.
The window at the west end of the south wall is similar. The other two are 15th-century insertions, each of two wide cinquefoiled three-centred lights under a square head with head-stops, one a cowled human head, the other beast-heads. The jambs and lintel of two sunk-chamfered orders are old, the rest restored. The rear lintel is also sunk-chamfered and is supported in the middle by a shaped stone bracket from the mullion.
The 14th-century priest’s doorway has jambs and two-centred ogee head of two ovolo-moulded orders and a cambered internal lintel; it has no hood-mould.
Below the south-east window is a 15th-century piscina with small side pilasters that have embattled heads, and a trefoiled ogee head enriched with crockets. The sill, which projects partly as a moulded corbel, has a round basin. West of it are three sedilia of the same character with cinquefoiled ogee heads also crocketed and with finials. At the springing level are carved human-head corbels: the cusp-points are variously carved, an acorn, a snake’s head, a skull, and foliage. The two outer are surmounted by crocketed and finialled gables and all are flanked and divided by pilasters with embattled heads and crocketed pinnacles.
The east wall is built of yellow-grey ashlar with a projecting splayed plinth; the gable-head has been rebuilt. At the south-east angle is a pair of square buttresses of two stages, probably later additions, as the plinth is not carried round them. Another at the former north-east angle has been restored. The south wall is of yellow ashlar but has a moulded plinth of the 15th century. The eaves have a hollow-moulded course with which the uprights of the 15th-century window-labels are mitred.
The 14th-century chancel arch has responds and pointed head of two ovolo-moulded orders interrupted at the springing line by the abacus.
The roof with arched trusses is modern and is covered with tiles.
The north chapel (about 12 ft. east to west by 17 ft. deep) is now used as the vestry, and dates from c. 1340. In its south wall, the thin north wall of the chancel, is a straight joint 3¼ft. from the east wall probably marking the east jamb of a former 13th-century window, and below it is the remnant of an early stringcourse that is chamfered on its upper edge. The east wall is 3 ft. 10 in. thick and the north wall 4 ft. 6 in. In the middle of each is a rectangular one-light window with moulded jambs and head of two orders and an external label; the internal reveals are half splayed and part squared at the inner edges and have a flat stone lintel. The lights were probably cusped originally. In the west wall is a filled-in square-headed fire-place, perhaps original. Partly in the recess of the east window and partly projecting is an ancient thick stone altarslab showing four of the original five crosses cut in the top. It has a hollow-chamfered lower edge and is supported by moulded stone corbels. South of it in the east wall is a piscina with a trefoiled ogee-head and hood-mould and a quatrefoil basin.
The stair-vice that leads up to the story above is in the south-west angle, its doorway being splayed westwards to avoid the doorway to the chancel. In it is an ancient oak door with one-way diagonal framing on the back. The turret projects externally to the west in the angle with the chancel wall; it is square in the lower part but higher is broadened northwards with a splay that is corbelled out below in three courses, the lowest corbel having a trefoiled ogee or blind arch cut in it. The top is tabled back up to the eaves of the chapel west wall. A moulded string-course passes round the projection and there is another half-way up the tabling. The doorway at the top of the spiral stair leading into the upper chamber has an ancient oak door hung with three strap-hinges.
The upper priest’s chamber has an east window of two plain square-headed lights, probably altered. In the north wall is a rectangular window that was of two lights but has lost its mullion. Outside it has a false pointed head of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and leaf tracery, all of it blank, and a hood-mould with human-head stops, one cowled. Apparently this treatment was purely for decorative purposes, like the square-headed windows at Shotteswell and elsewhere. The south wall is pierced by a watching-hole into the chancel, which is fitted with an iron grill and oak shutter: it has been reduced from a larger opening that had an ogee head and hood-mould. There is a square-headed fire-place in the west wall and in the splayed north-west angle is the entrance to a garderobe or latrine, which is lighted by a north loop.
The walls are of yellow ashlar and have a plinth of two courses, the upper moulded, a moulded stringcourse at first-floor level, and moulded eaves-courses at the sides. The north wall is gabled and has a parapet with string-course and coping. At the angles are diagonal buttresses of two stages; the lower stage is 2½ft. broad up to the first-floor level, above this the upper stage is reduced to about half the breadth. They support square diagonal pinnacles with restored crocketed finials. The west wall is unpierced but above it is a plain square chimney-shaft with an open-side hood on top. Internally the walls are faced with whitish-brown ashlar. The gabled roof is modern and of two bays.
The nave (about 41½ft. by 16½ft.) has north and south arcades of four bays. The easternmost bay on each side, with the first pillar, is of the same detail and date as the chancel arch. They vary in span, the north being about 9 ft. and the south about 10 ft., and in both cases the span is less than those of the older bays. Those on the north side are of 11–12 ft. span and date from the middle of the 12th century. The pillars are circular, the west respond a half-circle, with scalloped capitals, 6 in. high and square in the deep-browed upper part and with a 4½in. grooved and hollowchamfered abacus. The bases are chamfered and stand on square sub-bases. The arches are pointed and of one square order with a plain square hood-mould, The voussoirs are small. The middle parts of the soffits are plastered between the flush inner ends of the voussoirs, suggesting a former inner order, abolished perhaps in a rebuilding of the heads.
The same three bays of the south side are of 11 ft. span and of late-12th-century date. The round pillars are rather more slender than the northern, and the capitals are taller, 12 in. high, with long and shallow scallops, and have 4 in. abaci like the northern. The bases are taller and moulded in forms approaching those of the 13th century, on chamfered square sub-bases.
The pointed arches are of one chamfered order and their hood-moulds are now flush with the plastered wall-faces above.
The half-round west responds of both arcades have been overlapped on the nave side by the east wall of the tower.
High above the 14th-century south-east respond is a 15th-century four-centred doorway to the former rood-loft. The stair-vice leading up to it is entered by a four-centred doorway in the east wall of the south aisle.
The north aisle (11½ft. wide at the east end and 12½ft. at the west) has an uncommon east window of c. 1300. It is of three plain-pointed rather narrow lights; above the middle light, which has a shorter pointed head than the others, is a circle enclosing a pierced five-pointed star, all in a two-centred head with an external hood-mould having defaced head-stops, and with a chamfered rear-arch.
Set fairly close together at the east end of the north wall are two tall windows of c. 1340, each of two trefoiled round-headed lights and foiled leaf-tracery below a segmental-pointed head with an ogee apex, the tracery coming well below the arch. The jambs are of two orders, the outer sunk-chamfered. The lights are wider and the splays of ashlar are more acute than those of the east window.
The third window near the west end is narrower and shorter and of two plain-pointed lights and an uncusped spandrel in a two-centred head: it is of much the same date as the east window. The jambs and head are of two hollow-chamfered orders and the fairly obtuse plastered splays have old angle-dressings. The segmental-pointed rear-arch is chamfered.
The north doorway, also of c. 1340, has jambs and two-centred head without a hood-mould; the segmental rear-arch is of square section. In it is an 18th-century oak door.
The three-light window in the west wall has jambs and splays like those of the north-west but its head has been altered; it is now of three trefoiled ogee-headed lights below a four-centred arch. The chamfered reararch is elliptical.
The walls are yellow ashlar with a chamfered plinth and parapets with moulded string-courses and copings that are continued over the east and west gables. Below the sills of the two north-east windows is a plain stringcourse. At the east angle is a pair of shallow square buttresses and a diagonal buttress at the west, all ancient. White ashlar facing is exposed inside between the two north-east windows only, the remainder being plastered. The gabled roof of trussed-rafter type is modern and covered with tiles.
The south aisle (13 ft. wide at the east end and 12 ft. at the west) has an east window of three plain-pointed lights, and three plain circles in plate tracery form, in a two-centred head with an external hood-mould having mask stops. The yellow stone jambs and head of two chamfered orders and the wide ashlar splays are probably of the late 13th century; the grey stone mullions and tracery are apparently old restorations but are probably reproductions of the original forms.
There are two south windows: the eastern is of two wide cinquefoiled elliptical-headed lights under a square main head with an external label with return stops. The jambs are of two moulded orders, the inner (and the mullion) with small roll-moulds, probably of the 13th century re-used when the window was refashioned in the 15th century. The wide splays are of rubble-work and there is a chamfered segmental reararch. The western is a narrower opening of two trefoiled-pointed lights, with the early form of soffit cusping, and early-14th-century tracery in a twocentred head: the jambs are of two chamfered orders and the wide splays are plastered, with ashlar dressings: the chamfered rear-arch is segmental pointed.
The reset south doorway has jambs and pointed head of two moulded orders with filleted rolls and undercut hollows of the early 13th century, divided by a three-quarter hollow more typical of a later period, and all are stopped on a single splayed base. The hoodmould has defaced shield-shaped head-stops. There are four steps down into the church through this doorway.
The window in the west wall is like that in the east but the three lights are trefoiled and the three circles in the two-centred head are quatrefoiled: the head is all restored work. The jambs are ancient and precisely like those of the square-headed south window, and the wide splays are of rubble-work.
The walls are of yellow fine-jointed ashlar and have plinths of two splayed courses, the upper projecting like that of the east chancel-wall, and plain parapets with restored copings. At the angles are old and rather shallow diagonal buttresses. There are three scratched sundials on the south wall, one, a complete circle, being on a west jambstone of the south-east window.
The gabled roof is modern like that of the north aisle.
The south porch is built of ashlar like that of the aisle but the courses do not tally and it has a different plinth, a plain hollow-chamfer. The gabled south wall has a parapet with a restored coping. The pointed entrance is of two orders, the inner ovolo-moulded, the outer hollow-chamfered, and has a hood-mould of 13thcentury form. There are side benches. The roof is modern but on the wall of the aisle are cemented lines marking the position of an earlier high-pitched roof at a lower level than the present one.
The north porch is of shallower projection. It has a gabled front with diagonal buttresses and coped parapet and a pointed entrance with jambs and head of two chamfered orders, the inner hollow, and a hood-mould with head-stops.
The west tower (about 9½ft. square) is of three stages divided by projecting splayed string-courses: it has a high plinth, with a moulded upper member and chamfered lower course, and a plain parapet. The walls are of yellow ashlar, that of the two upper stages being of rather rougher facing and in smaller courses than the lowest stage. At the west angles are diagonal buttresses reaching to the top of the second stage. There are no east buttresses but in the angle of the north wall with the end of the nave is a shallow buttress against the nave-wall. In the south-west angle, but not projecting, is a stair-vice with a pointed doorway in a splay, and lighted by a west loop. The archway to the nave has a two-centred head of two chamfered orders, the inner dying on the reveals, the outer mitring with the single chamfered order of the responds. It has large voussoirs. The wall on either side of the archway is of squared rough-tooled ashlar.
The 14th-century west doorway has jambs and pointed head of two wave-moulded orders divided by a three-quarter hollow, and a hood-mould with return stops. The head of the tall and narrow 14th-century west window is carried up into the second stage, its hood-mould springing from the string-course. It is of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and a quatrefoil in a two-centred head: the jambs are of two chamfered orders.
There are no piercings in the second stage, but on the north side is a modern clock face.
The bell-chamber has 15th-century windows, each of two lights with depressed trefoiled ogee heads and uncusped tracery in which the mullion line is continued up to the apex of the two-centred head. The jambs are of two chamfered orders and there is no hood-mould.
The font is circular and dates probably from the 13th century. It has a plain tapering bowl, a short stem with a comparatively large 13th-century moulding at the top: a short base is also moulded.
In the vestry is an ancient iron-bound chest.
There are three bells, the first of 1811, the second of 1616, and the tenor of 1602 by Edward Newcombe.
The registers begin in 1636.
Advowson
The church was valued at £8 6s. 8d. in 1291, and at £16 3s. 10d., in addition to a pension of 13s. 4d. payable to Witham Priory, in 1535. The advowson passed with the manor until 1602, when the patron was Richard Cooper. In 1628 William Hall and Edward Wotton, by concession of — Hill, the patron, presented Richard Wotton, who at the time of his wife’s death in 1637 was ‘rector and patron, of the church’. In 1681 and 1694 presentations were made by Thomas Farrer, and from 1726 till his death in 1764 the patronage was held by his son Thomas Farrer. His widow Alice held it in 1766, but by 1773 it had been divided between their two daughters, Mary wife of John Adams, and Elizabeth Farrer (1782) who afterwards married Hamlyn Harris. In 1802 Henry Bagshaw Harrison was patron and rector. He died in 1830, and by 1850 the advowson had been acquired by Hulme’s Trustees, in whose hands it has continued, so that they now present on two out of three turns to the combined living of Warmington and Shotteswell, which was annexed to it in 1927.
For a list of rectors and clergy of Warmington see the ‘trades and occupations’ section of the site.
www.warmingtonheritage.com/village-history/significant-bu....
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the weather and I love living in a place where winter actually occurs. But lately, the sandstone has been calling.
Canyonlands National Park, Utah.
For some reason I don't seem to get tired of seeing images from this beautiful location, despite how popular it has become. I still think there is a lot of room for creativity in a location like this one. Each comp is a little different from one person to the next, and the light and textures change depending on the situation. Each person also uses a little different processing techniques, making for unique and beautiful results.
I needed a break from the wet and rainy images from my recent trip to the PNW, so I went back through some archives and reprocessed this image with thoughts of my trip to the southwest next week. Unfortunately I will not have any opportunities to shoot slot canyons on this trip, but the southwest area has always captivated me, regardless of what I am shooting there. I'm going to be spending 4 days in the parks and areas around Moab, mostly backpacking and camping by myself. It should be a refreshing break from the everyday grind...
Happy Sandstone Tuesday everyone! I hope you are having a great week.
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Tech Info:
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Canon 5D mark II
Canon 16-35L lens @32mm
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ISO 100
RAW file processed in Lightroom 3
TIFF file processed with Photoshop CS4
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Visit my profile for links to my website.
On a beach on Hornby Island, BC, Canada.
This formation is called "tafoni" or "honeycomb weathering".
through the sandstone 'jali' in the new wing of the palace under restoration, in the fort of jaisalmer.
see more WINDOWs here.
Cracked Sandstone. Zion National Park, Utah. October 22, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell - all rights reserved.
Large cracks in layers of sandstone, Zion National Park
On our way to Utah points further east in late October, we passed through Zion National Park and ended up spending the better part of a day photographing along the Mount Carmel Highway route through the park. There are any number of places here to park the car, get out, and walk down into the narrow washes and valleys or climb up to various prominences. On this day the prospect was even more interesting since autumn color had come to the high country - much more than in the more famous Zion Canyon - and the oak and red maple trees were showing brilliant and vivid colors.
At several points we decided to investigate small canyons that passed near the roadway, and several of them included short stretches that were very narrow. There is a lot of tortured looking geology in some of these places, the result of eroding and sculpting power of the sand and water and other processes. Here a large "chunk" of sandstone was leaning away from the creek and was cracking, both along the natural strata in the rock and perpendicular the layers. In these places it is often interesting to see how seemingly solid rock can take on the qualities of a plastic material that has been bent and carved.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
One of a set of images taken by Geoff Cooke when he hosted the Geoff's Trains group at the Stars of Sandstone Festival in April 2019. Copyright Geoff Cooke. Please do not use without permission.
One of a set of images taken by Geoff Cooke when he hosted the Geoff's Trains group at the Stars of Sandstone Festival in April 2019. Copyright Geoff Cooke. Please do not use without permission.
GEC_1350
Fractured Sandstone Detail. Zion National Park, Utah. October 12, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell - all rights reserved.
Details of fractured sandstone rock, Zion National Park
On this day we had driven across a good chunk of Arizona and southern Utah while traveling from Moab towards Springdale and Zion - and it had rained, heavily at times and lightly most of the day. Back in Arizona many of the creeks and rivers had come back to life, and north of where we were it may have been snowing. By the time we reached Zion and headed across the Mount Carmel Highway on our way to Springdale, everything was quite wet.
Rain radically changes the appearance of this portion of the park. (In truth, it changes the appearance of many things, but that is a topic for another post!) There were puddles and rivulets everywhere, and those dry waterfalls that characterize this country were no longer dry. The clouds soften the light and fill in the shadows, and the moisture intensifies the colors, especially the red and pink colors of the sandstone. Shortly after entering the park we pulled over and spent some "quality time" exploring this change near a small valley that held pools and a little temporary creek, and I found this area of fractured sandstone.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Sandstone windows (tafoni) and ice in a canyon in southern Utah.
To view all of my images, and for information on purchasing prints, please visit my website, Alpenglow Images Photography.
There's a long row of these spectacular ancient cliffs, on the beach near Lake Floras, Langlois, Oregon. It's also often very windy there....the winds today were about 60 miles per hour.
Sandstone Formations, Morning. Arches National Park, Utah. April 7, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell - all rights reserved.
Early morning light illuminates fins, towers, cliffs and ridges in Arches National Park, Utah.
After the better part of a week photographing in Utah in early April, the day came to start the long drive back to California. But on the last morning I rose very early and made one last trip up from Moab into Arches National Park to photograph in the morning light. I started up on the ridge around the Windows area, looking for suitable sandstone formations to frame the setting full moon. (Still not sure whether or not the photographs of that subject are going to be share-able or not - we'll see!) From there I headed back toward the Petrified Dunes area from which a panoramic view of many subjects is available - the towers and spires and arches up on the ridge near the Windows, the La Salle Mountains in the distance, and the huge sandstone formations down in the Wall Street area.
This photograph includes a more distant view of the latter area. Most often I think we view these features from close up, and look up at them from below. And when we are close to them we are more likely to consider one or perhaps a couple of them at once. However, from this elevated and more distant vantage point, the individual features and formations are seen more clearly as part of the larger landscape. From front to back there are first some isolated sandstone features standing alone and apart. Beyond them are the walls of the, well, Wall Street area, which are largely intact but have eroded away in some areas. Next there is a narrow canyon, in shadow in this photograph, and beyond that a wider and more solid wall running down from left to right. This one is thicker and there is a bit of a plateau on top where it appears that plants grow. Then there is yet another valley, another ridge, and the sequence continues on beyond the upper edge of the photograph.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Listorama, a fellow contact on flickr refers to this as sandstone addiction when he is drawn frequently to Utah.
Looking along the coast from beneath sandstone cliffs.
Film - Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100II
Camera - Voigtlander Perkeo II
Sandstone (also New Richmond or New River Falls) is an unincorporated community in Summers County, West Virginia, United States. It lies along West Virginia Route 20 and the New River to the north of the city of Hinton, the county seat of Summers County
One of a set of images taken by Geoff Cooke when he hosted the Geoff's Trains group at the Stars of Sandstone Festival in April 2019. Copyright Geoff Cooke. Please do not use without permission.
GEC_4853
One of a set of images taken by Geoff Cooke when he hosted the Geoff's Trains group at the Stars of Sandstone Festival in April 2019. Copyright Geoff Cooke. Please do not use without permission.
GEC_4887
Tiger Moth aircraft landing at the landing strip.
One of a set of images taken by Geoff Cooke when he hosted the Geoff's Trains group at the Stars of Sandstone Festival in April 2019. Copyright Geoff Cooke. Please do not use without permission.
GEC_3798
One of a set of images taken by Geoff Cooke when he hosted the Geoff's Trains group at the Stars of Sandstone Festival in April 2019. Copyright Geoff Cooke. Please do not use without permission.
GEC_1417
This is the ruins of Castle Rising Castle, near the village of Castle Rising.
When we got to the car park, I noticed a school party. So as soon as we paid and got in, I went all the way around taking pictures of the castle. By the time I completed one lap of the castle mound above, the secondary school kids started to come in. So I went out, had a little look at the village and road then back in.
Weren't here for long but at least I got my photos of the castle. I missed going inside it, but then those students were probably inside doing school work or something.
It is north of King's Lynn, and south of Sandringham.
Castle Rising Castle is a ruined castle situated in the village of Castle Rising in the English county of Norfolk. It was built in about 1138 by William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel, who also owned Arundel Castle. Much of its square keep, surrounded by a defensive mount, is intact. It is currently owned by Lord Howard of Rising, a descendant of William d'Aubigny.
The ruins are Grade I listed.
Ruins of Castle and Eleventh Century Church, Castle Rising - British Listed Buildings
Castle, c1138 for William d'Albini II. Barnack limestone with carstone,
Sandringham sandstone and flint. Hall keep with footings to domestic
buildings in carstone to north, surrounding circular rampart with parts of
curtain wall, gateway through rampart and bridge across deep encircling
ditch. Keep (c24m x 21m x 15m high) ashlared walls now with panels of
coursed local stone. East facade: 3-storeyed forebuilding to right breaking
forward with tiled saddle roof, to left the enclosed outside stairway of
keep. 2-bay forebuilding of ashlar with central pilaster strip and clasping
buttresses to angles, all having shafts to ground and 1st floors; 2 large
semi-circular headed windows to 1st floor, string course above with figure
ccrbels; 3 square openings to 2nd floor; left return with similar window
as east to 1st floor, tall semi-circular headed blank arch below blocked
with local stones and having side shafts. Wall to roofless outside stairs
with ashlar clasping buttress with shafts at angles, central ashlar pilaster
strip having remains above of postern stair; high blank arcade to left and
right, that to left of 6 semi-circular headed arches with cushion capitals
to lost shafts, rear of arcade with chevron indentations, zig-zag string
course below, remains of two circular openings above now containing grotesque
corbels; blank arcade to right of 6 intersecting semi-circular headed arches
with roll mouldings. Keep wall above to rear with central ashlar pilaster
strip, openings to 1st and 2nd floors, clasping buttress to left angle.
South Facade: 4 panels of roughly coursed local stones replacing original
ashlar, ashlared pilaster strips between and clasping angle turret buttresses
with engaged shafts and small stair light; battered plinth; 1 slit opening
per panel to ground floor, 1st floor with varied openings, 2nd floor with
small bullseye to each of 1st three bays, opening of double semi-circular
headed light to 4th bay. Entrance to right to attached outside stair:
semi-circular headed doorway with side shafts, a frieze of corbels above
and a blank arcade of two arches, cornice and 2 circular openings with
grotesques as to left of east facade. North facade as south. West facade
of 4 bays articulated by ashlar pilaster strips, battered plinth, altered
blank arches in ashlar to 2nd, 3rd and 4th bays, continuous with pilaster
strips, but with ashlared forebuilding to left. Interior: floorless; in
two parts, Great Hall to north, Great Chamber to south; basement to west
of Great Hall with pier and double groined vault; service rooms above
including kitchen with circular hearth of on-edge tiles to south-west angle
having circular chimney above through angle turret. Grotesque corbels for
roof of great hall. Remains of chapel in south-east corner of 1st floor
with blank arcading to south and west wall of nave, semi-circular chancel
arch with cushion capitals to shafts and decorative mouldings; one bay
chancel with raised floor, rib vaulting having figure head bosses at
crossing, zig-zag string course below sill of east window. Forebuilding
to north-east: newel stair with ashlared walls and vault; antechamber, to
Great hall on 1st floor, semi-circular headed doorway to Great Hall of 3
orders with side shafts having cushion capitals, each supporting a zigzag
and roll moulding; doorway converted to fireplace and blocked with C15
encaustic heraldic tiles inserted c1840. 1st floor room of 2 bays with rib
vaulting springing from foliage corbels of late C13, vaulting crosses the
semi-circular headed window rear arches with attached shafts. 2nd floor
room an addition, now with internal buttresses and remains of vaulting,
cushion capital to shaft of former external clasping turret buttress of keep
now low at north-west angle; C19 fireplace to south. Bridge: across ditch
to east; revetment of various local stones and erratics, 4-centred head
in brick to arch, parapet with some brick. Gateway through rampart: roofless
in variety of local stone with limestone dressings, semi-circular arches
to front and rear, returns between arches having to left one recess and
doorway to part newel stair, to right 2 recesses, all with semi-circular
headed arches. Small length of curtain wall to south of gateway on rampart,
mainly of 14th brick with some stone, stone facings lost. Ruins of Cll Parish
church: c30m north of keep of the castle, partly within earth rampart; a
variety of local stone: rubble of carstone, Sandringham sandstone, flint
and erratics. 3-cell plan of nave, central tower and apsed chancel. Part
walls of complete plan remaining. Nave with remains of opposing south and
north doorways, low bench around nave walls, to west of south doorway part
of C16 fireplace with some herringbone brickwork. Apse with round headed
single splayed lights to north and east with Roman tiles in internal
dressings. The church was superceded by the C12 church of St. Lawrence (q.v.
6/4) c260m to north, it was subsequently covered by the castle ramparts.
Excavated in early C19 when font base said to fit the stem of font now
in church of St. Laurence was discovered. From 1331-58 the Castle was the
residence of Isabella, wife of Edward II and accomplice to his murder in
l327. The Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument Norfolk No. 3 in the care
of English Heritage, R.A. Brown Castle Rising, HMSO, 1978.
Church of Ss Peter & Paul, Aston from Holborn Hill.
The New Years Day walk into Nechells.
Villa Park, home of Aston Villa FC behind.
The Britannia put on the left (Lichfield Road).
The church is on Witton Lane and near Aston Hall Road.
Grade II* listed building.
Anglican Church of Ss Peter and Paul, Birmingham
997/7/94 WITTON LANE
25-APR-52 WITTON
Anglican Church of SS Peter and Paul
(Formerly listed as:
WITTON LANE B6
WITTON
PARISH CHURCH OF ST PETER AND ST PAUL)
(Formerly listed as:
WITTON LANE
WITTON
PARISH CHURCH OF ST PETER AND ST PAUL)
II*
997/7/94 WITTON LANE
25-APR-52 WITTON
Anglican Church of SS Peter and Paul
(Formerly listed as:
WITTON LANE B6
WITTON
PARISH CHURCH OF ST PETER AND ST PAUL)
(Formerly listed as:
WITTON LANE
WITTON
PARISH CHURCH OF ST PETER AND ST PAUL)
II*
An Anglican parish church, originating before 1086, though nothing visible survives from this date. The west tower dates from the C15, with its spire renewed in 1776-7 by John Cheshire (circa 1739-1812); otherwise the church dates from 1879-90, with the south porch added in 1908, all to designs by Julius Alfred Chatwin (1830-1907). The church is constructed from brownish-grey sandstone, under slate roofs.
PLAN: The plan has nave, apsidal chancel, north and south aisles, north organ chamber and south chancel chapel, and south porches. Attached to the north and extending westwards is a late-C20 church centre (not of special interest).
EXTERIOR: The building is set on a moulded sandstone plinth, and has angle buttresses and pitched roofs. There is a west tower of four stages with angle buttresses, three-light windows and an unusual treatment of the bell stage, which has rows of segment-headed recesses with two tiers of trefoil-headed panels; the central pair are louvred, those flanking are blind. The stages are marked by moulded string courses. The tower is surmounted by an elegant, broachless octagonal spire. The tower, nave and chancel have unifying crenellations. The aisle windows and those to the south (Erdington) chapel have simple Y-tracery, with drip moulds and some head stops, in part to accommodate stained glass from the earlier church. The clerestory has windows of three lights, with cusped heads and trefoils in Decorated tracery above. The nave and chancel are continuous, the transition between the two marked by large pinnacles with gargoyles at their bases. The high, five-sided chancel has tall buttresses with multiple off-sets, and three-light windows with continuous mullions, those to the sides with similar tracery to those in the clerestory. Nave, chancel and chapel have gargoyles and moulded detailing.
INTERIOR: The interior is long and high, dominated by the apsidal east end; there is no chancel arch. The nave and chancel have a continuous hammer-beam roof, adapted to the apsidal chancel. There is parquet flooring to the nave and aisles, and mosaic floors in geometric designs to the chancel and the Erdington chapel. The west entrance under the tower gives access to the body of the church. The high C15 tower arch has four continuous chamfers. Immediately in front of it is the font, with elaborate cover; designed by Chatwin, it was installed in 1881. The seven-bay nave arcades are formed from pointed arches carried on alternating round and octagonal piers, with shallow capitals with foliate carving. Although there is no structural break between the nave and chancel, the decoration becomes more sumptuous at the east end. The hammer-beam roof has a wealth of carved timber angels, and punched decoration to the trusses. The elaborate two-bay chancel arcades have ogival arches, with rich embellishments including crocketing, cusping, angel figures and pinnacles. The apse has five fine stained glass windows by Hardman and Co, dating from 1885, depicting the Adoration of the Lamb. Below, the sanctuary is clad in marble, with rich carved and pierced decoration, incorporating canopied sedilia. The reredos has three similar marble canopies, over a stone relief triptych. These, and the other furnishings, were all designed by Chatwin, including the pulpit, which is situated at the eastern end of the nave; installed in 1885, it is of alabaster and marble, with biblical scenes in relief, and is integral with the truncated remains of the chancel screen. The Erdington chapel has a timber barrel-vaulted roof, mosaic floor and houses monuments to the Erdington family. In addition to the Hardman windows at the east end, there is further stained glass of the mid- and late C19 to the north and south aisles, Erdington chapel, and tower. Makers include Hardman and Co, Lavers and Barraud, Alexander Gibbs and Heaton, Butler and Bayne. A window of the C18, by Francis Eginton, is resited above the north door, now leading to the attached church centre.
MONUMENTS: The church has an important collection of effigies and mural monuments, dating in a wide range from the medieval period to the C19. In general, those to the Holte family of Aston Hall are situated in the north aisle, and those to the Erdingtons in the Erdington Chapel. There are further mural monuments sited in the north and south aisles, the Erdington Chapel, and under the tower. The monuments include the following, though the list is not exhaustive. An alabaster knight of circa 1360 and a sandstone lady of circa 1490 lying together on a tomb chest; said to be a C16 amalgamation of the two original tomb chests, possibly commemorating Ralph Arden and Elizabeth, wife of Robert Arden, and probably moved here from Maxstoke, his home. Sir Thomas Erdington (died 1433) and wife Joan or Anne Harcourt (died 1417); he is in armour, she in a long skirt and mantle, set on a chest tomb with carved shields and angels; probably erected circa 1460. Another similar effigy, probably to Sir William Harcourt (died 1482 or later), on a chest tomb with carved angels. William Holte (died 1514) and his wife, both effigies in sandstone, on a chest tomb. Portrait bust of 1883 of John Rogers, MA (died 1555); born in Deritend, Birmingham in 1500, Rogers was instrumental in the translation and revision of the Matthews Bible, which became the standard translation in 1537; he was burned at the stake in 1555 as part of Mary Tudor's persecution of Protestants. A mural monument with the kneeling figures of Edward Holte (died 1592) and his wife, Dorothy, set in a recess with Corinthian columns. Effigies of Sir Edward Devereux (died 1622) and his wife Katherine, on an altar tomb, in black marble and alabaster, under a pediment carried on Corinthian columns. A fine monument of the early C18, with weeping putti, to Sir Thomas Holte (died 1654) who built nearby Aston Hall. A draped tablet to Henry Charles (died 1700), servant to the Holte family for 33 years. A highly architectural monument to Sir John Bridgman (died 1710) by James Gibbs, 1726. Mural monument in the Baroque style, to Sir Charles Holte (died 1722). Mural monument to Robert Holden (died 1730) and wife Laetitia (died 1751) by Michael Rysbrack, 1753, with angel heads. A portrait medallion with mourner to Sir Charles Holte (died 1782). A sarcophagus on lion feet, to Sir Lister Holte, by Westmacott, 1794. John Feeney (1809-1899), benefactor of the church, an Arts and Crafts plaque with classical surround and figures, by George Frampton, 1901.
HISTORY: A church at Aston is recorded in the Domesday Book (1086), when Aston was a much more significant settlement than Birmingham, valued at 100 shillings as opposed to Birmingham's 20 shillings. At times during the Middle Ages the advowson was held by members of the de Erdington family; Thomas de Erdington founded a chantry in the church in 1449, and the family are commemorated in the Erdington Chapel in the current church. From the mid-C16 until 1818, the advowson descended with the manor of Aston, falling to the prominent Holte family who built nearby Aston Hall in the early C17 and remained lords of the manor for some 200 years. Members of the Holte family have monuments in the present church. Later in the C19, the advowson was with the Aston Trustees, with whom it has stayed.
The earliest surviving part of the current church is a small amount of C14 stonework set in the north aisle wall, though this is not legible as part of the earlier church building. The west tower was built during the C15, and its spire renewed by John Cheshire in 1776-7. Drawings indicate that during the early C19, the church had a chancel with an east window of circa 1300 of three lights and intersecting tracery, and with three south windows. The nave had a low-pitched roof, and the blocked head of a former chancel arch showed above the low-pitched chancel roof. The south aisle had three south lancet windows and C18 or early-C19 east window, above which was the blocked pointed head of the earlier east window. The mullions of the aisle and clerestory windows had been removed in 1790 when the roof and interior of the church had been restored.
Julius Alfred Chatwin, the foremost church architect in Birmingham in the later C19, set about rebuilding the church during the later C19; construction was carried out in phases from 1879. The construction of the chancel and Erdington Chapel was anonymously funded by John Feeney, owner of the Birmingham Post; Feeney was buried at the church, and is commemorated with a memorial by George Frampton, RA. The chancel and south chapel were complete by 1883, and the nave finished in 1889. The final elements, including the south porch, were not completed until 1908, the year after Chatwin's death. The building incorporated embellishments from the earlier church on the site, including some C19 stained glass, and fragments of the medieval phases, including a C14 piscina, resited in the south aisle. The south chapel was created as the Erdington Chapel, to house monuments to that family. A wide range of monuments from the earlier church was incorporated into the new building, ranged along the north and south aisles, north and south sides of the chancel, and in the Erdington Chapel.
A glass and metal-framed meeting room was inserted into the north aisle during the later C20. A church centre was built to the north-west in 1980, linked to the church on the north side. In 2009, a cruciform baptismal pool was added to the dais in front of the chancel.
SOURCES: Colvin, H, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects (4th edn, 2008), 249-50
Foster, A, Pevsner Architectural Guides: Birmingham (2007), 279-81
Griffin, P and Griffin, P, Aston Parish Church: A History and Guide (2009)
Pevsner, N and Wedgwood, A, The Buildings of England: Warwickshire (1966), 146-8
History of the County of Warwick (Victoria County History), Volume 7: City of Birmingham (1964), 374-6
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The Anglican Church of SS Peter and Paul, Aston, is designated at Grade II*, for the following principal reasons:
* The west tower is an impressive, substantial survival from the C15, with an elegant spire added in 1776-7 by John Cheshire
* The remainder of the church, built to designs by J A Chatwin in 1879-1908, is a high-quality composition in a Gothic style, large in scale and rich in detail
* The interior has a sumptuous east end with a wealth of carved decoration, and an excellent suite of furnishings designed by Chatwin, complemented by good stained glass windows in opulent colours by Hardman and Co
* Its important relationship to Aston Hall and its owners, the Holte family, for whom this was their family church, and numbers of whom are commemorated here
* The church houses a large number of funerary monuments dating from the medieval period to the C19, all of good quality, and unusual in their spread and the extent of their survival
Source: English Heritage
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.