Page 96 - The Building Conservation Directory 2013

9 6 t h e b u i l d i n g c o n s e r vat i o n d i r e c t o r y 2 0 1 3 T w e n t i e t h a N N i v e r s a r y e d i t i o n
3.2
Structure & Fabric :
Masonry
remains a limestone-dominated city, other
British sandstones, with the exception of
Kentish Ragstone and Reigate Stone, were not
in general use in the city until the early 19th
century, although Yorkshire sandstones were
apparently imported for paving as early as the
18th century.
In rural counties like Shropshire the need
for local building stones was met by quarrying
a range of variegated sandstones from the
local Cambrian, Silurian or Ordovician
successions, none of which ever travelled
much further afield. The red-brown and
green Devonian sandstones of Herefordshire
are ubiquitous in buildings throughout the
county and are used for both wall and roofing
stones. A comparatively recent revival of the
sandstone roofing stone industry has now
successfully brought the stone back onto the
local market.
Until the 19th century British
building sandstone production appears
to have remained very localised with each
county largely meeting its own needs.
Subsequently, however, driven by booming
industrial development in the North of
England, sandstone production gradually
centred on the Carboniferous successions
of the Pennines. Today the heartland of
Britain’s building sandstone industry is
still concentrated on these Carboniferous
sandstone resources with numerous
active quarries in Derbyshire, Lancashire,
Yorkshire, Northumberland and Durham.
In contrast, the Permian and Triassic
outcrops that dominate the Midland
counties (Worcestershire, Warwickshire,
Shropshire, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire)
and the north-west (Cheshire, Lancashire
and Cumbria) have provided variegated
sandstones for building since Roman times.
The red sandstones are displayed in many
cathedrals (Worcester, Lichfield, Coventry,
Chester, Liverpool) and in countless village
churches and houses throughout the area.
Equally important but perhaps less evident
are the ‘white’ sandstones of this region once
extensively quarried in the Forest of Arden,
around Warwick, Hollington, Colwich and
in the Wirral (Storeton) but currently only
available from Grinshill Quarry in Shropshire.
The Jurassic succession in southern
England includes many of our principal
building limestones, with only a few locally
important and distinctive ferruginous
sandstone beds such as the Middle Jurassic
Northampton Sand ironstones. By contrast,
in north east Yorkshire the Middle Jurassic
succession is dominated by sandstones which
were extensively quarried along its outcrop
for building stone in the past, notably around
Scalby, Cloughton and in the North York
Moors. The Jurassic sandstones of the Whitby
area are still actively quarried for local use but
in the distant past were occasionally shipped
to London. Higher in the sequence, the fine-
grained sandstones of the Upper Jurassic were
also extensively quarried in the past for local
use, near Scarborough and in the Howardian
Hills, principally for the construction of rural
churches of the area. Currently there are no
sandstones quarried in these areas.
The Lower Cretaceous successions of
southern England include a wide variety
of sandstone beds, some of which were
once extensively quarried for local use,
although they were not generally exported
beyond their source areas. These fine-
grained sandstones are commonly, but
not always, characterised by the presence
of the green mineral glauconite.
Sandstones are very much in evidence in
the vernacular architecture of Sussex, Kent,
the Isle of Wight, Wiltshire, Hampshire,
Dorset, Bedfordshire and Lincolnshire.
However, only a small number of sandstone
quarries are still active, including those
at Maidstone (Kentish Rag), Chilmark,
Tisbury and West Hoathly. The thin Wealden
sandstone beds known locally as Horsham
Stone are also still actively quarried for roofing
stone. In Norfolk the succession is locally
characterised by the strongly ferruginous
Carstone, which was widely used in many
villages and is still quarried at Snettisham.
Sandstones occur within the Tertiary
rocks of southern England and were common
sources of vernacular building materials in
Dorset, Wiltshire and Hampshire. In the
past they have yielded coarse-grained, highly
ferruginous sandstones (Heathstones) and
the better-known grey Sarsen sandstones
for building. The huge upright Sarsen
sandstone blocks used in Stonehenge form
perhaps one of the most recognisable
historic structures in England. However,
these siliceous sandstones were also
extensively quarried and used locally in the
18th and 19th centuries in farm buildings,
houses, churches and field walls around,
for example, Marlborough and Avebury.
Scotland
The building sandstone industry in Scotland
has a long and significant history, which
more recently has been tempered by a
record of decline in the diversity of its
sandstone production. The vernacular use
of the variegated red-brown sandstones
from the Devonian succession in the
Orkneys, perhaps best displayed in St
Magnus Cathedral (12th century), probably
dates back to the Neolithic period. Today,
however, despite their widespread use in
the past across their outcrop in towns like
Dundee, Perth and Inverness, they are no
Sheriff’s Court buildings, Central Glasgow: Massive stonework using the local
Carboniferous ‘blonde’ sandstone
Castle Gates Library, Shrewsbury (Formerly Shrewsbury School, 1630),
constructed entirely of white Grinshill Sandstone (Triassic)
Southam Church, Warwickshire: Occasionally a
building fabric exemplifies what can happen when
the local sandstones are no longer available
Aislaby Quarry, North Yorkshire: The quarry
remains an important source of Middle Jurassic
(Saltwick Formation) sandstone in the North
Yorkshire area