History of St Mary’s, Sprotborough, Yorkshire
The earliest record of St Sprotborough, as so often, is the Domesday Book, which
in 1086 mentions not only the Sprotborough of the time, but also shows that it existed
in Edward the Confessor’s time, which indicates that there must have been a church
in Saxon times, although due to the Norse invaders, this was probably not until the
last half of the 10th century.
The present church was started in 1173, this was almost certainly a nave church with
a small chancel. In the late 13th century, it was decided to enlarge the chancel
- peculiarly this meant that it became wider than the nave and almost as long as
the nave. The width meant that external buttressing was needed, which came back
to haunt them in later years.
In the early 14th century, the chancel arch was replaced, and a south aisle was added,
this was the first run-in with the chancel buttress -if you look at the east wall
of the south aisle, you can clearly see where the chancel buttress has been incorporated
within the wall structure. The north aisle was almost certainly built later than
the south, and although less visible, the same problem was encountered with the chancel
buttress, however the capitals are less well defined than those of the south, which
may indicate a lack of funding.
Sometime in the second half of the 14th century, the aisles and nave were lengthened
by one bay and the tower was added. Either at this point, or in the early 15th century
the, now, heavily defaced misericords were installed - their date is quite a mystery,
as you’ve probably notice, they do not have supporters, which would indicate that
they are earlier, rather than later, however the only relatively (70 miles) nearby
example of misericords without supporters are those from St Peter’s, Bolton-le-moors,
which date from the 15th century. The reason for the misericord’s defacement is unknown
as well - the subject matter, where it is still visible, does not seem to be of a
nature to cause offence either during the reformation or during the English civil
war when parliamentarians were billeted in nearby Rotherham, in fact, it is believed
that the frith stool, now situated in the chancel, was buried by the locals to prevent
its damage during the civil war, so I assume that they would have tried to protect
the misericords as well.
Around about 1470 the top stage of the tower was removed and replaced, and the vestry
was added - this appears to have started off life as a 2 storey affair, with the
ground floor being a chapel dedicated to St Nicholas, and the first floor, possibly,
being used either a living space for a priest or as a schoolroom.
The early 16th century brought massive change, the original steeply pitched roofs
of the chancel, nave and aisles were removed, and a clerestory was installed, the
roofs were then reinstalled with the much shallower pitch then in vogue. The change
of pitch caused the east window to no longer fit, so it had to be replaced
The north porch bears the date of 1632, and as it is stylistically similar to the
south porch, it is assumed that they were both added at this date.
During the 19th century the chancel roof was, once again, replaced, and the 16th
century east window was replaced by 3 lancet windows.
In 1915 Sir Ninian Comper performed a major refit, this included trying to recreate
the 16th century east window, reconstruction of the pulpit, and replacement of the
box pews at the eastern end of the nave with contemporary pews, which were given
carved ends by using parts of the old pulpit and the doors of the box pews. During
the 1960’s work was performed on the tower and the remaining box pews were replaced
- the carved ends for these came from a nearby redundant church.
The 21st century has brought its own changes, with a new boiler house, replacing
the first floor of the vestry and two new stained glass windows.
The Official St Mary’s Sprotborough, website.
Click here for more local Misericords
Click here for more 14th century misericords
Click here for more 15th century misericords
