Welcome to St John's Church!
St John’s Church in Little Brington is famous for having a spire but no nave. It was built by Frederick Spencer, the 4th Earl Spencer. (1798–1857) Frederick Spencer is the great-great-great grandfather of the present 9th Earl Spencer and his sister, the late Diana, Princess of Wales. Frederick Spencer built the church as a chapel of ease and memorial to his first wife, Elizabeth Georgina Poyntz, whom he had married in 1830.
Originally, the church did look more conventional, complete with a chancel and nave as well as the tower you see today. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries there were regular services here for the villagers of Little Brington and Nobottle. St John's could seat approximately 150 people and was licensed for baptisms and marriages; funerals and burials were held in St Mary’s in Great Brington.
By the 1940s, the church had fallen into a state of disrepair, mainly because of a leaking roof. The main body of the church was demolished after the war in 1947. However, at the request of the Air Ministry, however, the distinctive tower with its octagonal spire was spared. It had become a landmark to navigators and likely serves the same purpose today. The spire can be seen for many miles in every direction, though the narrow entrance to the circular staircase within the tower has been sealed up to deter vandals.
The rocks that built St John’s were quarried locally in the area of Finedon, which is about 28 miles away.
The oldest rocks in the quarry sequence, and so the lowest strata of rocks, are the ironstone beds which are part of the Northampton Sand Formation, a layer of rocks that outcrops (is exposed) along the length of Northamptonshire. Ironstone is a typically deep brown rock that can be seen used as a building material in many places locally. Ironstone is composed of more than 50% iron-bearing minerals. The origin of ironstones also is not well understood, but most appear to be derived from the erosion and redeposition of red, iron-rich (lateritic) soils. Ironstones occur as thin (around 20 metre thick) units interbedded with shallow marine and transitional carbonates, mudrocks, and sandstones. Cross-bedding, ripple marks, and small scour and fill channels are abundant. These stones have been utilised in Northamptonshire since Saxon times, and the Romans may have worked Cosgrove stone.
The Northampton Sand Formation stretches from north of Lincoln, southwards into Leicestershire, and then into Northamptonshire where a broad outcrop is present through the central part of the county extending from the northeast to the southwest. The principal ironstone beds are to be found in the plateaus and valleys of central and northern Northamptonshire. They formed in warm, shallow seas early in the Aalenian Age, approximately 174.1 million years ago. The rock that built St John’s came from the area of Finedon. Which particular quarry which provided the ironstones of St John’s is not known and likely long abandoned and infilled, but one of the principal quarries that was worked in that area, Finedon Gullet, can still be visited today and is an SSSI. The Northampton Sand Formation is part of a wider rock group that stretches from Dorset to Yorkshire, called the Inferior Oolite Group.
The Northampton Sand Formation consists of two facies (bodies of sediment that are recognisably distinct from adjacent sediments that resulted from different depositional environments.) Groups of strata are divided into formations, and are subdivided into members. Ironstones are found in the Corby Ironstone Member. They can be found in a variety of colours from rich yellow, to ochre and brown.
Some of the ironstones from this Member are oolitic. Oolitic stones (or oolites) are sedimentary rocks made up of ooids (also known as ooliths) that are cemented together. (Cement is the material which binds the ooids together to form a rock.) Ooids are defined as spherical grains of calcium carbonate formed by the precipitation, by algae, of calcium carbonate in concentric layers. The nucleus and mineral cortex accreted around an ooid increases in roundness with distance from the nucleus. The nucleus of an ooid is usually either a mineral grain or an organic fragment. The term “ooid” is applied to grains less than 2 mm in diameter. Some of the ironstones in the Northampton Sand Formation have grains that were formed in the same way, but are over 2mm in diameter. Larger grains that formed in the same way are referred to pisoids (pisoliths). Rocks made up of pisoids are termed pisolite.
In the case of the ironstones at St John’s, the ooids were composed of the minerals berthierine (a form of the iron silicate) and siderite (iron carbonate). Chemical weathering of the siderite resulted in its oxidation to the mineral limonite and it is this process which contributes much of the ferruginous (iron) colouring to the stone. Secondary carbonate cement filled the pore spaces between the remaining ooids, thereby increasing the strength and durability of the stone.
To log this cache, please visit the published co-ordinates and answer the questions below. Once you have obtained the answers, please send them to me via email or through the Message Centre. You are free to log your find once you have contacted me. You don't have to wait for a reply. If there are any questions about your answers, I’ll contact you.
Logs without answers will be deleted. Please don’t include close up pictures in your logs that may answer the questions.
- Please describe the ironstones that have been used on the front and side of the tower.
- What type of rock is this? (igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic)
- Having observed the grain, would you describe these ironstones as oolitic or pisolite? Please explain your answer.
- Optional, take a photo of yourself and/or your GPS in the general area of this EarthCache.
Good luck, and many thanks for visiting this EarthCache.
While you're down here, enjoy the church, and don't forget the original cache (a trad) hidden nearby. You'll find the link to it here.
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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro.co.uk
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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