Page 97 - The Building Conservation Directory 2013
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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
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
9 7
3.2
Structure & Fabric :
Masonry
longer quarried to a significant extent. In
contrast, however, the Devonian sandstone
industry in Caithness is still thriving. Here
several quarries actively produce the thinly
bedded, dark-grey flagstones that have
paved many of Scotland’s cities and towns
for centuries and still provide one of its
most significant building stone exports.
A rather different story is evident in the
Carboniferous sandstone successions that
dominate the Midland Valley of Scotland.
Currently the production of once ubiquitous
Carboniferous ‘blonde’ sandstones has
dwindled despite a clear need for adequate
supplies of these sandstones for conservation,
repair and new build projects in Glasgow
and several other large towns in the Midland
Valley. Glasgow city centre alone has some of
Britain’s finest sandstone buildings. Further
east a similar story unfolds, the once famous
Craigleith Quarry of Edinburgh is probably
the most prominent of its sandstone quarries
to have been lost to developments within
the city. There is no other British city in
which so many of its most notable buildings
are constructed of sandstones from a single
source. Modern sandstone repair to its
historic buildings and new build projects are
now heavily dependent on Carboniferous
sandstone quarries south of the border.
The extensive red Permo-Triassic
sandstone outcrops, most notably in
Dumfrieshire and Ayrshire in south west
of Scotland, remain one of Scotland’s most
important sandstone producing areas.
Quarries such as those at Locharbriggs, Spynie
and Corncockle have long provided a range of
red sandstones for local building and continue
to export stone to England and occasionally
further afield to the US and even Australia.
Wales
Currently with only a few quarries in
operation, the modern building sandstone
industry in Wales is significantly smaller
than in England or Scotland. The quarrying
and use of local sandstone for building stone,
however, dates back at least to medieval
times. The local Cambrian Harlech Grit
sandstone was used extensively in Harlech
Castle. By contrast, in South Wales such early
buildings made extensive use of the local
red-brown and grey Devonian sandstones
(Tintern Abbey and Raglan Castle) or the
‘blue’ Carboniferous Pennant Sandstone
(Caerphilly Castle). While in North Wales
the abbeys of Basingwerk and Talacre were
constructed using the local yellow-brown
Carboniferous Cefn y Fedw sandstones.
By the 19th century, however, the Welsh
building stone industry was firmly centred
in the rapidly expanding coalfield areas of
South and North Wales. In South Wales
many small Pennant Sandstone quarries were
used almost exclusively for constructing the
thousands of terraced houses, shops, clubs and
municipal buildings that typify the area. In
each valley community extensive quarrying
of the local sandstone crags produced the
green- or blue-grey sandstones and flagstones
that still characterise the architecture of
the area. Currently, Pennant Sandstone
production is sourced from a few remaining
small quarries in the coalfield and nearby in
the Forest of Dean. In North Wales a similar
demand saw sandstone production focus on
the yellow-brown Carboniferous sandstones
of the Millstone Grit and the Pennine Coal
Measures. Sadly none of these sandstones are
currently being worked for building stone in
the area and any replacement sandstone is
likely to be sourced from quarries in Yorkshire
or Lancashire.
In South Wales sandstone present in the
Triassic succession was worked for building
stone near Bridgend in the Quarella quarries.
The fine, grey-green sandstones produced
were used extensively for local buildings in
the area.
Northern Ireland
Sandstones occur in the Silurian,
Carboniferous and Permo-Triassic successions
in Northern Ireland and have been quarried
and used locally for building stone at a
number of locations. The Silurian sandstones
are generally grey, fine- to coarse-grained,
poorly sorted and are commonly termed
‘greywacke sandstones’. They have been used
in a number of notable historic buildings
including Bangor Abbey in County Down.
They are principally used as a vernacular
rubblestone, but are not currently quarried
for building stone. The Carboniferous
succession of Northern Ireland includes the
variegated, fine- to coarse-grained Ballycastle
Sandstone of County Antrim which can
range from pink to grey or white in colour.
The sandstone was often used for bridge
construction, for example in the Glendun
Viaduct and the bridge at Ballycastle. The
local red sandstone used in Northern Ireland
is known as Dundonald Sandstone and was
sourced from the Permo-Triassic succession in
County Down. In general, however, the lack of
indigenous sources suitable for building stone
has resulted in extensive use of sandstones
imported from mainland Britain and Ireland.
Recommended Reading
J Curran et al, Stone by Stone: A Guide to
Building Stone in the Northern Ireland
Environment, Appletree Press, Belfast, 2010
English Heritage, Practical Building
Conservation: Stone, Ashgate, Farnham, 2012
JA Howe, The Geology of Building Stones,
Edward Arnold, London, 1910
E Hyslop, The Performance of Replacement
Sandstone in the New Town of Edinburgh,
Technical Conservation, Research and
Education Group, Historic Scotland,
Edinburgh, 2004
E Hyslop et al, Stone in Scotland, UNESCO
Publishing, 2006
GK Lott, ‘The Development of the Victorian
Stone Industry’, in England’s Heritage in
Stone, English Stone Forum, Folkestone, 2008
GK Lott, ‘The Building Stones of the Edwardian
Castles’, in The Impact of the Edwardian
Castles in Wales, DMWilliams and
JR Kenyon (eds), Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2010
GK Lott, Building Stones of the Isle of Wight,
Proceedings of the Geological Association,
London, 2012 (forthcoming)
Further Information
English Stone Forum
English Strategic Stone Study, English
Heritage and BGS
/
mineralsuk/mines/stones/eh_project.html
The Natural Stone Database for Northern
Ireland
Graham Lott
PhD is a sedimentary
petrologist with the British Geological
Survey.
Wimborne Minster, Dorset: Coarse-grained, brown,
ferruginous sandstone (Heathstone) from the local
Tertiary succession
English Bridge, Shrewsbury: Discoloration, blistering,
salt precipitation and aggressive biological growth,
the consequences of poor maintenance of a Grinshill
Stone fabric
Caerphilly Castle, Caerphilly: Local Carboniferous
Pennant Sandstone stonework, with white Jurassic
(Sutton Stone) limestone window dressings
Crosland Hill Quarry: Using the natural fissility of
the sandstone to produce flagstone from the Rough
Rock Flags
