Mexborough and Swinton Times March 5, 1897
The Church and the Castle and Flowers
How often one hears a question asked by the visitors to the castle which is the oldest building, the church or the castle?
An old antiquarian, writing on the above subject, states: “I look upon the present church of Conisborough as contemporaneous with the keep. Both having been erected probably by Hamaline Plantagenet.”
A glance at the interior of the church three or four centuries ago would have been most interesting.
Dodsworth, who visited the church in the 17th century states that “the East window was curious. Depicting Prior Atwell holding in his hand a crozier, attended by cannons with shaven crowns.”
This was probably the first example of stained glass in the church. Can any of my readers informed me where the water house closet was suited in the church? In the closet there were three chained books, the gift of John Waterhouse, of Halifax – deceased 1810.
One cannot help in reading books about places without noticing the events, etc which have taken place in beyond years.
A friend lent me a most interesting book of poetry, largely dealing with the flowers of the Doncaster district. The next few verses are interesting. –
On Conisborough cliffs the Hazel Show
The wary catkins dusty gold;
The scarlet things are all aglow.
And germs of future nuts enfold.
The gorse puts forth its golden spray,
Wood laurels there in fragrance bloom,
When sallow blades are gosling grey,
When glow the leaves of butchers broom.
These rocks that rise with massive walls,
Have clefts where purple violets blow;
Above the rocks where ivy crawls,
In flower the periwinkles grow.
Beneath the Ward woods outer trees
are showers of purple violets shed,
all through the wood, anemones
Are one shining lake outspread.