LIST OF OFFICERS FOR 1900. President. EDMUND WILSON, F.S.A., Red Hall, Leeds. Vice-Presidents. JOHN RAWLINSON FORD, Quarrydene, Weetwood. Council. W. PALEY BAILDON, F.S.A., Lincoln's Inn, London, W.C. J. N. BARRAN, St. Paul's Street, Leeds. F. W. BEDFORD, Greek Street Chambers, Leeds. GODFREY BINGLEY, Thorniehurst, Headingley. W. BRAITHWAITE, St. George's Terrace, Headingley. W. S. CAMERON, 57, Caledonian Road, Leeds. The Rev. C. HARGROVE, M.A., 10, De Grey Terrace, Leeds. A. E. KIRK, 13, Bond Street, Leeds. S. D. KITSON, Greek Street Chambers, Leeds. W. T. LANCASTER, Yorkshire Banking Co., Leeds. S. MARGERISON, The Lodge, Calverley. W. H. WITHERBY, M.A., 2, Woodsley Terrace, Leeds. Hon. Librarian and Curator. S. DENISON, 4, St. George's Terrace, Headingley. Hon. Treasurer. EDMUND WILSON, Red Hall, Leeds. bon. Secretaries. G. D. LUMB, 65, Albion Street, Leeds. E. KITSON CLARK, M.A., F.S.A., 9, Hyde Terrace, Leeds. Excursions. EDLINGTON, CONISBOROUGH, AND SPROTBOROUGH. MAY 26TH, 1900. (No. 28.) For the first excursion in 1900, to Edlington Church, Conisborough Church and Castle, and Sprotborough Church, Mr. J. N. Barran acted as guide, and spoke of the historical facts, and Mr. J. Bilson, F.S.A., described the architecture. The party drove from Doncaster, visited the places in the above order, took tea at the Star Inn, in Conisborough, and returned to Doncaster. They left Leeds 1-10, and arrived in Leeds about 8-45. The district in which this excursion lies is rich in historical and antiquarian interest, and bears evidence (e.g. in its place-names and the fosse in Edlington wood) of very early settlements. It falls just within the point where the magnesian limestone meets the coal measures, and still possesses much picturesqueness of feature, particularly in the wooded valley of the Don between Conisborough and Sprotborough. EDLINGTON. Edlington Manor, "the town of the Atheling or younger son," is of great age. Granted at the Conquest to William de Perci, it has passed through a multitude of hands, including the Fitz Warrens, Scropes, Whartons, and Molesworths, some of whose monuments are now to be seen in the church. The old manor-house stood near by, and Hunter saw it in 1802, though much had been pulled down in 1775. THE CHURCH.--The plan of the Church comprises a western tower, nave with north aisle of two bays and south porch, chancel and north chapel of one bay. The original church consisted of oblong nave and chancel only, dating from the middle of the twelfth century. Almost all this structure remains, with a fine south doorway and window to east of it, and chancel arch. Notice also the original corbel tables to the eaves on both sides of the church. At the end of the twelfth century a north aisle was added to the nave, and a tower at the west end of the nave; the corbelled shafts supporting the east tower arch recall the influence of Roche. The north chapel is an addition of the second quarter of the fourteenth century, when some of the chancel windows were also inserted. The south porch was probably added late in the fourteenth century. In the fifteenth century the belfry stage and angle buttresses were added to the tower, and the nave walls were raised and finished with a battlemented parapet. The nave pews and pulpit retain some woodwork of the fifteenth century. The font bears the date 1590. There are two brasses in the north chapel-Philip Wharton, 1684-5, and Lady Mary, wife of Sir Thomas Wharton, 1672. CONISBOROUGH. Conisborough, or as the old and better spelling gives it, Coningsburgh, is the city or fortress of the king, and was therefore a royal residence in Saxon times. Its present remains, no less than the extent and history of its honour, are worthy of its name and origin. The legend connecting it with Hengist may be put aside, but it was probably held by Ethelred, and certainly by Harold, and at the Conquest was given to the Conqueror's son-in-law, the Earl of Warren. The family of Warren came to an end in 1347, and the honour passed to a son of Edward III, and became a private fief of the Crown till granted away by Elizabeth. The Castle has, ever since the fourteenth century, been in gradual decay, and thanks to this it escaped dismantling at the time of the Civil War. Leland scarcely mentions it. After various vicissitudes it has come into the hands of its present owner, Lord Yarborough. Conisborough Castle is famous as the place pictured by Sir Walter Scott, as the palace of Athelstane, and scene of the funeral feast described in chapters xli, xlii of Ivanhoe. The circumstances of his visit to it, and "its romantic effect in the early dawn," are given in vol. iii of Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott. THE CHURCH.-Of the church mentioned in Domesday there appear to be no remains. A large aisleless church seems to have been erected in the middle of the twelfth century, of which the chancel-arch remains. The aisles extend to the west face of the tower, and were added towards the end of the twelfth century, the north aisle being a little earlier than the south. A squint from the north aisle points to a position in the chancel, where probably the original chancel ended. The south door is an excellent work of the end of the twelfth century, and the doorway of the south porch belongs to the early part of the thirteenth century. In the fourteenth century some windows were inserted, and in the fifteenth century the chancel was rebuilt and the greater part of the western tower was constructed. The font, of the middle of the fourteenth century, has a representation of the Resurrection on its east face and a Majesty on the west face. There are several sepulchral memorials of interest, the most notable of which is a fine Norman tomb-cover, length 5 feet 8 inches, width at head I foot 10 inches, at feet 1 foot 5 inches, ridged, covered with sculpture, Early Norman, cf. work in Durham Cathedral and on Bible of William of St. Carileph; on the top roundels, enclosing signs of zodiac (?); on the side bishop, r.h. benediction, L.H. pastoral staff; a knight, R.H. Sword, L.H. water shaped shield. See Associated Societies' Reports and Papers, 1867, vol. ix, P. 1, pp 70, 71 (Raine). Romilly Allen, Christian Symbolism in Great Britain and Ireland, 1887, p. 270, gives drawing of above under the head of St. George and the Dragon. In a window in the vestry there are fragments of excellent fifteenth century glass. THE CASTLE.-The castle occupies a fine site overlooking the Don. It is approached across an outer ward on the west side, which is separated from the inner ward by a deep ditch which surrounds the latter. From the outer ward the ditch is crossed by a causeway which replaces the drawbridge, and from this we pass through the remains of the gatehouse and along an oblique passage-way to the entrance to the inner ward. The inner ward is an irregular figure, following the natural outline of the ground. The older parts of the curtain probably date from the first half of the twelfth century, and the domestic buildings of the castle were built along the inside of the curtain, on the north, west, and south sides. The keep is probably the finest cylindrical keep remaining in England. It stands near the north-east angle of the curtain, which it interrupts. It is a cylinder of 52 feet external diameter above the spreading plinth, divided equally by six massive buttresses, tapering on plan. The interior consists of a basement and four stages. The basement is vaulted, and approached only from the floor above, by an opening in the vault, below which is the well. The keep was entered on the first floor by an external stair, and light drawbridge; the first floor has no window or opening except the entrance doorway, and, like the basement, was probably a store. The second floor is lighted by a two-light window, and has a fine fireplace. The third floor is similarly lighted, and has a smaller fireplace. The south-eastern buttress contains a charming little oratory, of two bays, covered with a ribbed vault, with a small vestry to the north of it. The fourth floor, in the b roof, was surrounded by an open rampart walk. The buttresses rose above the parapets, and in two of them steps remain which gave access to small platforms on the top; in another is an oven. The staircases and garderobes are contrived in the thickness of the wall, which is about 15 feet above the tapering base. The keep is doubtless the work of Hameline Plantagenet, half-brother of Henry II, who married Isabel de Warren in 1163, and died in 1202. The castle is well described and illustrated in G. T. Clark's Medieval Military Architecture. SPROTBOROUGH. Sprotborough Manor, derived more obviously than probably from a Saxon "Sprot," can be traced to the Confessor's reign. It was granted at the Conquest to Roger de Busli, and descended direct in "a beautiful line of hereditary lords" (Hunter) for over eight hundred years to its last owner, Sir Joseph Copley, with whose death the direct line died out. For four hundred years of this period it was held by the great Fitzwilliam family, and the church monuments are principally in the names of Fitzwilliam and Copley. THE CHURCH.-The plan of the church comprises a western tower, nave with north and south aisles of three bays, north and south porches, chancel, and two-storey sacristy on the north side. The earliest parts of the church are the responds of the north arcade of the nave, which represents an aisle added in the second half of the twelfth century to probably an aisleless nave. The chancel was rebuilt c. 1300. The nave arcades were reconstructed in the first half of the fourteenth century, when the aisles were no doubt widened. The tower was rebuilt in the fifteenth century. The church contains many interesting monuments. In the south aisle are the effigies of a knight and a lady, the latter under an arch in the south wall-possibly Sir William Fitzwilliam, who died before 1342, and his widow, Isabel, who in her will dated 1348 leaves her body to be buried in the chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr in the Church of Sprotborough (Hunter's South Yorkshire, i, 337). On the chancel floor is a brass with effigies of William Fitzwilliam (d. 1474), and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Chaworth. In the chancel is the tomb of Philip Copley (d. 1577), son of Sir William Copley and Dorothy Fitzwilliam, and his wife, Mary (d. 1597), daughter of Sir Brian Hastings. There is a remarkable stone chair (fourteenth century) in the south aisle. The nave pews contain much early sixteenth century woodwork. |