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St John the Baptist, Wales, Yorkshire, West Riding

Location
(53°20′20″N, 1°17′0″W)
Wales
SK 478 827
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Yorkshire, West Riding
now South Yorkshire
medieval York
now Sheffield
  • David Hey
  • Rita Wood
28 July 2011

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Description

The village of Wales is eight miles ESE of Sheffield. Of the medieval church only the early 12thc two-bay nave and chancel, and a Perpendicular 15thc W tower survive (Harman and Pevsner 2017). The village was transformed by coal mining in the late 19thc and a necessary extension to the church was added in 1897. The large nave and S aisle were added on the S side, so that the small old building was reduced to the status of a N aisle. At the same time, the Norman S doorway was re-set on the S side of the new aisle.

History

This was originally a chapel-of-ease in the large parish of Laughton-en-le-Morthen. The place-name refers to a settlement of British people, perhaps serfs, and is recorded in 1002-4.

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Exterior Decoration

Corbel tables, corbels

Interior Features

Arches

Chancel arch/Apse arches

Furnishings

Fonts

Comments/Opinions

Ryder (1982, 100) observes that 'The surviving N and E walls of the original building are of rubble, with irregular but quite large angle quoins, and some very large stones used in the lower courses of the N nave wall'. He places it 'quite early' in the Norman period, with an 'impressive' doorway.

Bibliography

Borthwick Institute faculty papers Fac.1896/5.

R. Harman and N. Pevsner, Yorkshire, the West Riding, Sheffield and the South. London 2017, 719.

P. F. Ryder, Saxon Churches of South Yorkshire, South Yorkshire County Council, 1982.

A. H. Smith, The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire, I. Cambridge University Press, 1961, 155-6.