Mexborough Parish Church 
TOP: The interior of the Parish Church prior to the 1891 restoration, with pews, pulpit and reading desk, all of which are now changed. The rood screen is no longer there, and the organ has been replaced. The organ in the photograph was passed on to the National School (St John's C of E). Above the much lower chancel arch was a board carrying the royal coat of arms.

RIGHT: The church of St John the Baptist as it was in 1882, a very different building from the present one. A Directory of the latter half of the 19th century states, ‘The church of St John the Baptist is a structure of very ancient foundation, c 1086. After undergoing a thorough restoration was re-opened in September 1891. The work included the erection of a north aisle on the site of one of the ones formerly existing, the chancel was lengthened by the addition of an apse, and an organ chamber built on the north side of the chancel.
The organ provided at a cost of £450, is a memorial to Andrew F W Montague Esq. The total cost amounted to over £1,800.’

BOTTOM RIGHT: St John's Church of England junior and infant school (The 'National'), which stood on Bank Street, photographed around 1908. It had very close ties to the Parish Church. In its place now is the Salvation Army citadel.


St George's Church interior (c.1908) 


St George's choir around the same time
 

      
 



 
From a 1908 source
In 1908, the church held a Sunny South Bazaar in the old Market Hall. The following is an extract from a foreword about the church:

An interesting account of the old Church was written by the Rev. H. Ellershaw for the Handbook of the Bazaar held Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, November 15th, 16th and 17th, 1892.

The following description, is practically a copy of that account with such alterations as were rendered necessary by the difference of date and additional matter to bring the account up-to-date. Mexborough Parish Church is of very ancient foundation. Documentary evidence shows that there was a Church here very soon after the Norman Conquest in 1066, and the edifice itself supplies proof that a portion of it (even as it is flow) is part of the original structure. Previous to 1891 there were signs, tolerably clear, that the building had passed through three several stages. First, the original erection shewn by the two round pillars and plain square capitals on the north side of  the nave, Mr. Ellershaw thought, might date from 1080 to 1100, others looking at the transitional character of the moulding at the bases of the pillars place the date at 1150 to 1190, and account for the rudeness of the capitals and the arches by the remoteness and poverty of Mexborough at that time. Secondly, the doorway found in 1891 in the wall under the arch nearest west not only witnessed to the taking down of a north aisle and the building up of the arches, but also to the date when this was done, probably between 1260 and 1280; and thirdly, the two windows with perpendicular tracery that existed in the north wall spoke of another alteration having been made between 1400 and 1450. There were probably two founders, for the living was for several centuries divided into two medieties. These two founders, owners of the manors of the Parish of Mexborough, while uniting to build the Church chose to keep their gifts of land, &c., for its endowment separate, and so the endowment consisted of two portions or medieties. Each founder appointed his own parson, whose maintenance was supplied by the mediety. One of these medieties came very early into the hands of Swain Fitz Ailric, who gave it to the priory of Nostell, and this grant confirmed by Thurston, Archbishop of York, in 1130. The other founder kept his half or mediety in his own hands and continued to appoint a parson to it. However, in the next generation the second mediety fell into the hands of the great yeoman family who had held the first, and after the death of Swain’s son Adam it descended to Adam de Montbegon, the husband of the aforesaid Adam’s youngest daughter. Adam de Montbegon presented his half of the advowson, together with the whole Manor of Mexborough, to the priory of Monk Bretton, and thus the two medieties of the advowson of Mexborough Church came to belong to the two Religious Houses of Nostell and Bretton. Each house had its shares of the revenues, and each house continued to present its parson, so that till 1247 there were two parsons of Mexborough with concurrent powers, one presented by Nostell, the other by Monk Bretton. A very similar state of things prevailed at Darfield until 1907.