Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 23 February 1924
Conisborough Church
Absorbing Story Of Its History
Sunderland Vicar’s Lecture
A small, but enthusiastic audience listened to a lantern lecture given in the Conisborough Church Hall yesterday (Thursday) evening by the Rev. Thos. Romans, M.A., Vicar of St. Mark’s, Sunderland. The Vicar of Conisborough, Rev. W. A. Strawbridge, presided.
The lecturer dealt in a fascinating way with the fascinating subject of research in the architecture of old churches, with the object of discovering the date of their erection, and of the various restorations and alterations. In the course of his lecture he showed how the smallest pieces of evidence, combined with a knowledge of the architectural characteristics and idiosyncrasies of the various periods, enabled one to build up the story of a church’s erection and subsequent history.
He admitted to a fascination which Conisborough had for him, though his visits, inspired by his reading of “Ivanhoe,” had undermined his faith in Scott as a historian. Conisborough, like other Norman churches, did not to-day conform to the plan of the original builders, but there had been a series of changes taking place through the centuries. To reconstruct the original building, they must have knowledge of the fashions of early architecture; written history helped little, for definite dates could not be ascertained. An examination of Conisborough Castle revealed the fact that it had grown out of a very small original building.
By means of slides, he showed joinings in the walls which indicated the position of the corners of the old church. The ablest they found traces of corner stones. Further examination enabled them to find the ground plan, and to fix the dimensions of the early church. The nave would be 40ft. long and 17ft. 6in. wide. They could not be certain about the chancel, which had been seriously mutilated in restorations, and included work of more than one period, and part of the chancel of the early church. It would then be nearly as wide as the nave, but shorter than at present. In the 12th century the arch was replaced by a loftier and wider one. He thought the date of its building could be fixed at about 1080.
In the Saxon churches the nave was longer and narrower than to-day. As time went on churches grew shorter and wider. The Norman tendency was to squareness, and the nave increased in size. Windows were a good criterion of date, but one difficulty in making use of small points like those in this church was the way they had been dealt with in restorations. It had been “skinned alive,” and he was not sure that the spayed window had not been given to it in restoration. The window was too large and wide for early date. The north windows were Norman.
Thick walls were a sure test of date, the Saxons hardly ever building them more than two feet, while the Norman rarely made them less than three feet. Here, Conisborough “wobbled,” her walls being 2ft. 6ins. thick, but the tendency was that of an early date. Carved stones, parts of memorials, which had fallen and been used in restoration work, were a valuable clue. In that church was the upper part of the shaft of a cross, and the carving on both sides conformed to that of the early type, but the traces of looseness in the carving indicated a later date of the work. The stone closely resembled that which Professor Collingwood declared to belong to the period between the Danish invasion and the Conquest. The Normans employed Saxon masons, and copied Saxon designs. There was capital in that church which was thoroughly Saxon in style, but could not have been put in until one hundred years after the Conquest. A slide showing St. Leonard’s Cross at Thruxon had in it details of early English work mixed up with that of the 13th century.
Though there was no really decisive point of evidence, a number of things pointed to the building of the Conisborough Church in the last quarter of the 11th century. The early part showed features which were not Norman, but the date could not be put back on that account. It was undoubtedly built by English masons, and the probability was that it was done after the Conquest. The date of the enlargement of the aisles and the alterations from the columns and capitals. The bases resembled those known elsewhere to be of the 12th century, and the capitals were characteristic, with their square instead of round top stones. Twenty years later they would have been round.
The lecturer went on to outline the changes in architectural styles. The churches at Thorpe Salvin, Edlington, and Conisborough were all built about the same time, probably under the same direction. The Castle was also probably built about that time. Great alterations took place in the church about the beginning of the 15th century, bringing it into its present stage. The north aisle was widened, the walls of the nave were raised, and high windows were added, the tower was raised, and the roofs were lowered. A Chantry Chapel was built on the north side of the chancel with the door outside. The old eastern arch of the tower was replaced by a lofty one. A building, of which all outside traces had disappeared, was built on to the north side of the chancel close to the east end, and was removed in 1887. Inside was left a window with heavy iron bars. The building was evidently the dwelling of an anchorite.
The font of the church was a fine specimen of early 15th century work, the font panel being intended to represent the Resurrection.
The lecturer was very heartily thanked at the close, Mr. W. Smith moving, and Mr. T. W. Ireland seconding the vote.