
The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland

St Wilfred (medieval)
Parish church
A large church with W tower, aisled nave, S chapel and chancel; pantiled porch. Part of the SE corner of the nave is supposed to be early fabric. Steep pitched roofs are marked on the E walls of tower and nave. The fabric is very mixed, often cobbles are used, whatever the date. Box pews remain in the nave; a stone lectern in the chancel. Thick walls at SE corner of nave and part of the S wall of the chancel are considered to be of the 12thc.
The tower arch was perhaps remade from the chancel arch; two remounted corbels are in the wall above the N arcade. The fabric of the tower arch indicates a good quality building, while the corbels are quite simple.
Parish church
The church lies close to Hickleton Hall and its extensive outbuildings, including lodge, stabling etc, surrounded by trees. The 20th-century lords of the manor, the earls of Halifax, redecorated and refurnished the interior of the church in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. Externally the church is Perpendicular. Owing to subsidence caused by coal mining, a rescue archaeology project and restoration at the church was funded by the National Coal Board in 1982-6; the report of the excavation was never fully published, but the papers are with South Yorkshire Archaeological Services (see Bibliography below). The Romanesque remains are the chancel arch, and some loose stones housed at the time of our visit in the nearby stable buildings of Hickleton Hall. In Doncaster Museum store is at least one item from the excavation at the church, a star-patterned window-head probably from the east window, recorded for CRSBI in December 2001, YW97(35). According to Raine 1873, 186, the dedication in 'modern' times, was St Denis.