Paul Davies will give us a talk enigmatically

Silkstone Reflects on the Church Heritage
All Saints
Church
Silkstone
Newsletter August 2012
News of our next meeting, Thursday September 6th 7pm for 7.30 pm.
Paul Davies will give us a talk enigmatically entitled
'Viper's Broth and Pizza'.
Please have a healthy meal before attending!
Heritage weekend 6th and 7th September.
Thursday 6th September: The Bramah Gallery and Church will be open from 10
am to 4 pm, Paul Davies' talk being in the evening as above. Friday 7 th
September open from 10 am to 4 pm.
We have had a lively period since our
last indoor meeting in May,
when there was an
excellent turnout to hear
the report on
ArcHeritage's Survey of
the waggonway. During the
survey a corf wheel was
found by Steve Anderson
in Silkstone Beck
downstream from Nopie
Mill. A few weeks later
during an Archaeology
Festival walk members
Terry and Nancy Brown
and Jim Travis saw
another lying in the bed
of the beck. Next
morning when they went
to take another look they found two
more, so we now have a full set of four!
They were not 'in situ', having been
washed out from the river bank, so
their positions were plotted and they
were retrieved. Archived invoices for
corf wheels (Sheffield Archives) in the
1800s often have a discount for 'old
metal' returned to the foundry for
resmelting. It was puzzling why these
wheels had not suffered the same
fate, and sent back to the foundry.
Close examination of the Bingley map
of 1829 showed a mill pond close to the
present erosion of the river bank, with
its dam wall close to the ironstone
drift mine just upstream from this
point. It seems possible that the
wheels belonged to a corf (pit tub)
Silkstone reflects on the church heritage – a project funded by HLF and EPIP
corf wheels were found.
which had run away down the track
from the exit of the day-hole, and had wheels on the track; also pieces of
black Claywood ironstone and a'bowl'
come off the plate-rails and into the
of iron slag was found in the beck.
mill pond. This would explain why the
wheels survived, not sent to the
There are so many clues here, with
furnace for remelting. Other
potentially two different stories –
intriguing discoveries were a broken
Victorian ironstone mining and / or,
piece of pit rail-plate, smaller in
from a much earlier period, a simple
section than a waggonway rail but
furnace called a bloomery, which would
showing the vertical flange of the early have left the bowl of iron slag.
19th century which held the flangeless Whatever the detailed truth, it
certainly tells of a local iron industry
going on in the Silkstone Valley. We
plan archaelogy activities forvolunteers
in the near future, so if you would be
interested in pursuing this and
researching the rest of the story,
please get in touch. We have several
leads for a curious detective.The
National Railway Museum are assisting
with advice and information about the
corf wheels and track, so watch this
space for more info!!
The dark band of silt in the mill pond which used to
be beside the beck, exposed in the bank where the
(Image with acknowledgements Sheffield Archives)
290 corf wheels weighed 21 cwt 1 qtr 4 lbs makes weight of 1 wheel 8.22 lbs, same weight as
those found
If you can help in this fascinating project, please get in touch.
Progress in pursuit of church history.
As you may be aware, thanks to the
EPIP grant to Roggins Local History
Group the professional archaeological
survey conducted by ArcHeritage has
Silkstone reflects on the church heritage – a project funded by HLF and EPIP
enabled extra interpretations to be
styles of carving which in time may
prepared by Colin and Jim Ritchie – see allow us to group together the bosses
displays in the heritage weekend.
carved by individual carvers or their
Other interpretations have been
workshops – a tall order but this may
designed by Don and Rachel on the
be possible.
Church Windows, both with the
Through these activities a large amount
important input of professional
of information is becoming available for
designers. Tales from the Tombs has us all to explore the history of the
its leaflets completed by Stephen
church and district.
Healey, though as with our other
As you might guess, with all these
'themes' there will always be
themes on the go at the same time we
somewhere else to look and more to
have a problem with so few volunteers
add. We have also completed
to keep all the plates spinning. We
interpretation materials on the Mining
desperately need more people to get
Cabinet arranged by Jim Travis and the
involved, so please, please get in touch;
Huskar window by Colin. Work on the
with the winter months approaching you
St James Chapel and Pews (Colin), the
might like something to occupy the
chancel (Don) and the church bosses
grey days ahead. Contact Colin on
(Margaret B and Stephen Healey) is
790416 or [email protected] or Don
also going well and nearing completion.
on 791130 or [email protected]
At the same time John Robertson has
been busy transferring a large
From this month (August) we should be
databank on to the project's
starting to collect information on the
computers, and Steve Anderson has
tower and bells (we hope the bell-ringers
continued to record progress and
will help with this), the rood screen and
assemble some wonderful collections of
the royal coat of arms. These promise to
images, the latest being the church
be challenging topics since there is
bosses to go with those taken by Harry unlikely to be much in the archives, but if
Leigh a few years ago. These close-ups we can tell their stories from the
are valuable not only from the heritage perspective of general historical
perspective, (they are used extensively development of such features this will be
in the interpretation materials being
informative. We should also soon be
getting started on Silkstone Mother
produced) but also from the
conservation angle – some bosses are Church. Apart from tracing the monastic
suffering from woodworm attack which origins of the wider parish, much of it in
published sources, this could also include
shows well in the high definition
images. Greater familiarity with the tracking and mapping the records of tithe
and glebe lands within the the wider
bosses, possible through the fine
parish area of Upper Cumberworth –
images we have, allows identification of
Silkstone reflects on the church heritage – a project funded by HLF and EPIP
Bretton – Hoylandswaine - Thurgoland –
Dodworth – Barnsley, all of which were in
the ancient parish of Silkstone. In
December Sir Thomas Wentworth and
Gervais Cutler are two themes that also
come on-line, and could start earlier if
anyone has the time to do so.
Information about the bosses is
emerging to show potential interesting
links with this important heritage
asset.
The conservation work has gone
excellently: the Wentworth Monument
is now completely restored and in place,
having been dismantled, spread over
the chapel floor and overflowing into
the south aisle, to allow Hirst's
conservators to delicately clean this
fine seventeenth century marble
sculpture. An invisible damp-proof seal
now protects it from water penetration
which has over the centuries dissolved
some of the extremities of its finer
Note what appears to be worn edges on the weapons
features, particularly on the side
below – caused by water soaking through the
monument, not by wear and tear.
panels.
Conservation on the windows will soon
enter its final stages, with the removal
of the east window to Joe Burton's
workshop in York within the next
month. Jim Travis and Don have
provided access to church whenever
needed, whilst Jim has acted as clerk
of works and has put in many hours
ensuring the conservators had access
to everything they needed, and taking
care of public access and health and
safety issues during the work. We
already have the conservator's
photographic record of their work, and
will shortly have their written report.
Since the beginning of July Don,
Rachel, Stephen, John R, Margaret and
Colin have been present in the church
for heritage visitors every Tuesday and
Wednesday 10 to 4 pm and alternate
Saturdays. This is a commitment within
the Silkstone Reflects Heritage
Lottery Fund Project. With holidays
coming along help is needed to cover
their absence, so this is another way in
which you can support the project.
Please get in touch if you can help by
being in the church during these times,
perhaps joining a small team of
volunteers so that demands on your
time are not too onerous.
Silkstone reflects on the church heritage – a project funded by HLF and EPIP