Anston
Built for the most part over six centuries ago, with a tower and spire 100 years younger, the attractive church looks from a hill to the mines of Yorkshire and Notts. Its oldest work is the north arcade with pointed arches of the 12th century, its heavy style contrasting with the daintier arcade to the other aisle. An old arch leads to a chancel made almost new. There are old sedilia and a double piscina, and in one of two old recesses rests an unusual sculptured stone showing a man at prayer, an angel touching the head of the tiny woman at his side. It may be 14th century.
This village has paid great homage to Methodism, beginning in an old room now transformed into a Garden of Remembrance and ending in a noble church which is known hereabouts as the Cathedral of Methodism. It goes back 100 years, when James Turner, a working mason in the Anston quarries, joined the Methodists in the old room, helped them to build a small chapel, and set his heart on giving the people a worthy temple of their faith. In 1924 Mr Turner died, but he had left the land for a new church and his four sons built it as his memorial. It is an impressive place, designed by Mr B. D. Thompson and built in Norman style because it was the Norman Minster at Southwell which led the Westminster Commissioners to the Anston quarries in looking, for stone. It has a fine rugged tower, a pointed porch with a round doorway of three orders, an apse, Norman arches, and three glowing east windows given by James Turner’s daughters.
Anston is home to the Tropical butterfly house, and also the limestone gorge of Anston Stones Wood, a site of Special Scientific Interest.
North Anston
Anston, North Rothm. Anestan, Litelanstan 1086 (DB), Northanstan, Suthanstan 1297. ‘The single or solitary stone’. OE na + st n. Source A Dictionary of British Place-Names in Names & Places
Reproduced courtesy of The Francis Frith Collection.
History
In the parish of South Anston, liberties of St. Peter and Tickhill; 6 miles from Worksop, (Notts.) 8 from Rotherham, 9 from Tickhill. Population is included in South AnstonSouth Anston
. Anston, South Rothm. Anestan, Litelanstan 1086 (DB), Northanstan, Suthanstan 1297. ‘The single or solitary stone’. Source A Dictionary of British Place-Names in Names & PlacesHistory
Described in 1822 as a parish-town, in the upper-division of Strafforth and Tickhill, liberties of St. Peter and Tickhill; 6 miles from Worksop, 8 from Rotherham, 9.5 from Tickhill; 12 from Sheffield, 50 from York. Population including North-Anston, 776, which being united form the township, usually denominated Anston with its Members. The Church, peculiar, is a perpetual curacy, in the deanry of Doncaster Patron, the Duke of Leeds.At Dead Man's Cave, Anston Gorge there has been a couple of interesting finds excavated by George Gwynne-Griffiths in 1967: A toe bone from a reindeer,about 10,000 years old. Evidence from this site and elsewhere in Britain suggest that reindeer populations were thriving at this time. Flint blades about 12,000 years old, part of the Late Upper Palaeolithic period. The use of these tools for disarticulating prey and filleting meat is only one interpretation and they could have been used for other tasks that involved cutting, piercing and whittling. George Gwynne-Griffiths also found a few chips of flint with these artefacts which suggest some flint knapping was taking place at the cave. The evidence indicates only a short episode of use of this site.
Turner's Quarry, Anston, Yorkshire. The pale yellow magnesian limestone from the Anston area have been used extensively for local building. The transport and use of the stone outside the local area was boosted by the opening of the Chesterfield Canal in the late 18th century. which allowed the stone to compete in markets as far away as London.
The beds of limestone in this working face show the vertical marks where the 'plug and feathers' iron wedges have been used to break out the limestone from its bed into manageable blocks. The large iron bars are the jumper bars used to percussively 'drill' a line of holes into the relatively soft limestone prior to the insertion of the iron wedges used to fracture the rock.
Anston Stone was selected for use as the principal freestone in the construction of the Palace of Westminster (new Houses of Parliament 1839-52) buildings in London. In the 1830's the planners of the New Palace of Westminster were aware, from the effect of coal burning on London's stone buildings, that the choice of a suitable stone was important. Expert advice pointed towards magnesian limestone. A committee consisting of Sir Charles Barry, the architect, two leading geologists, and a stone carver toured the country in 1839 looking at quarries and buildings. The disused Harry Crofts quarry at Anston was eventually chosen because the stone could be supplied in blocks up to four feet thick and it lent itself to elaborate carving. Moreover, this quarry was cheaper than the other quarries considered. It was transported from the quarries first by barge along the Chesterfield Canal and then by small boat via the Humber estuary and North Sea, to a quayside on the Thames embankment close to the building.
Area Map
Read about The Anston Padfoot
Websites
Anston Male Voice ChoirAnston Conservation Society
www.j31.co.uk
St James' Church, Anston
Woodsetts
©2004