Glassby Arch
GLASSBY ARCH, WITHIN GROUNDS OF ALMSHOUSES, 76-84, CHURCH STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1392929
- Date first listed:
- 04-Oct-2004
- List Entry Name:
- Glassby Arch
- Statutory Address:
- GLASSBY ARCH, WITHIN GROUNDS OF ALMSHOUSES, 76-84, CHURCH STREET
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Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1392929
- Date first listed:
- 04-Oct-2004
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 01-Sept-2005
- List Entry Name:
- Glassby Arch
- Statutory Address 1:
- GLASSBY ARCH, WITHIN GROUNDS OF ALMSHOUSES, 76-84, CHURCH STREET
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- GLASSBY ARCH, WITHIN GROUNDS OF ALMSHOUSES, 76-84, CHURCH STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Doncaster (Metropolitan Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SK4781699769
Reasons for Designation
Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 30/06/2016
1488/0/10006
MEXBOROUGH
CHURCH STREET
Within grounds of Almshouses, Nos 76-84
Glassby Arch
(Formerly listed as Historic Arch sited in the Garden of Fern Villa, CHURCH STREET)
04-OCT-04
II
Stone arch constructed c.1859 by Robert Glassby, stone mason and later sculptor.
Free-standing Romanesque style semi-circular arch beneath triangular superstructure resting on dressed stone abutments. Engaged piers with worn stone carved capitals supporting arch with several rows of decoration including chevrons, crosses and beak-heads, and most distinctively a row of individual gargoyles supposedly copied from local churches and including a skull at the centre. Above the top row of decoration is a carved knight's head below a decorated square panel. The apex of the arch is surmounted by a Celtic cross. The reverse side of the arch is less intensely decorated, bearing spaced-out carved gargoyles beneath the extrados. Further gargoyles on the outside of the stone abutments on either side of the arch. Stone variously weathered, most dirt-blackened, possibly different types of stone used, though impossible to tell from black-and-white photos supplied at time of original listing. The arch was relocated to the grounds of the Almshouses on Church Street in November 2015; Robert Glassby's maternal grandparents used to live in a cottage on this site (now mostly demolished)
Robert Glassby (1835-1892) was born in Mexborough and was encouraged by a local businessman, Mr John Reed, for whom he executed this arch as his first large piece after an apprenticeship in Doncaster and employment in Sheffield. The arch stood in Reed's garden in Market Street in Mexborough. Glassby went to Paris in 1860 and subsequently to London where he worked under Phillips on the Albert Memorial. He also worked for Marochetti and Sir Edgar Boehm, and undertook on his own account several commissions for Queen Victoria, including a bust of the Grand Duke of Hesse.
Sources: "Some Doncaster Worthies", The Doncaster Review, 1896
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 491347
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
The Doncaster Review in 'Some Doncaster Worthies', (1896)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 23-Jun-2026 at 18:47:58.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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