Stone-quarrying is an industry to which the references in medieval records are more numerous than enlightening. It would be easy to fill pages with a list of casual references to the working of quarries in all parts of England, and after struggling through the list the reader would know that stone was dug in quite a lot of places at different times, which he might have assumed without the documentary evidence. It is natural that when a castle, an abbey, a church, or other stone building is to be erected the stone, whose cost lies mainly in transport, should be obtained from the nearest possible source. Founders of monasteries frequently made grants either of existing quarries or of the right to dig stone for the monastic buildings, and the discovery of a bed of suitable stone close to the site selected for the Conqueror's votive abbey of Battle was so opportune as to be deemed a miracle.[225] When a monastery was founded in a district where stone could not be found, it was almost essential that its supplies should be drawn if possible from some place from which the stone could be carried by water, and it was no doubt the position of Barnack between the Welland and the Nene that made its quarries so important to the monks of the Fenland.[226] The abbeys of Peterborough, Ramsey, Crowland, Bury St. Edmund and Sawtry all held quarries in Barnack and quarrelled amongst themselves over their respective rights. The monks of Sawtry, for instance, had made a canal for carrying stone to their abbey by way of Wittlesea Mere by permission of the abbey of Ramsey, a permission which they seem to have abused, as in 1192 orders were given to block all their lodes except the main one leading to Sawtry, and they had to promise to put up no buildings except one rest house for the men on their stone barges.[227]

For York Minster[228] stone was brought from the quarries of Thevesdale, Huddleston, and Tadcaster down the Wharfe, and from Stapleton down the Aire into the Ouse, and so up to St. Leonard's wharf, whence it was carried on sleds to the mason's yard. Westminster and London were mainly supplied from Surrey, from the Reigate and Chaldon quarries, and Kent, from the Maidstone district. The tough 'Kentish rag,' which was used by the Romans for the walls of London, was much in demand for the rougher masonry,[229] and in a contract for building a wharf by the Tower in 1389, it was stipulated that the core of the walls should be of 'raggs,' and the facing of 'assheler de Kent.'[230] The Reigate stone, on the other hand, was of superior quality and more suited for fine work, and we find it constantly used for images, carved niches, and window tracery.[231]

The most accessible stone not always being the most suitable for the varying requirements of architecture, it was necessary to find other stone possessing the desired qualities, and certain quarries at an early date acquired renown. Setting aside the famous Norman quarries of Caen, whose stone appears in greater or less quantities in hundreds of buildings and of records, there are a number of English quarries of more than local repute in medieval times. Such were the quarries of Beer in Devonshire, from whose labyrinthine galleries stone was carried to Rochester in 1367,[232] to St. Stephen's Westminster in 1362,[233] and elsewhere. The fine limestone, later known as Bath Stone, was quarried to a large extent at Haslebury in Box in Wiltshire, from which place it was sent in 1221 to the royal palace at Winchester for the columns of the hall and for chimney hoods,[234] Richard Sired receiving 23s. 4d. for cutting 105 blocks of stone in the quarry of Hesalburi.[235] For these same works at Winchester much stone was brought from the Hampshire quarry of Selebourne, and from the better known quarries of the Isle of Wight, while a stone-cutter was sent to procure material from the quarry of Corfe. This latter was no doubt the same as the 'hard stone of Corfe,' bought for Westminster in 1278.[236] With Corfe and Purbeck is associated Portland stone, which attained its greatest fame in the hands of Wren after the Fire of London, but was already appreciated in the fourteenth century, when it was used in Exeter Cathedral and at Westminster.[237] Further east Sussex possessed a number of quarries of local importance,[238] and the quarry of green sandstone at Eastbourne, from which the great Roman walls of Pevensey and the medieval castle within them were alike built, probably provided the '28 stones of Burne, worked for windows of the vault under the chapel' at Shene in 1441.[239] Another Sussex quarry, that of Fairlight, near Hastings, supplied large quantities of stone for Rochester Castle in 1366 and 1367.[240] The list of stone brought in the latter year at Rochester is of interest as showing the various sources from which it was derived.[241] There were bought 55 tons of Beer freestone at prices varying from 9s. to 10s. the ton,[242] 62 tons of Caen stone at 9s., 45 tons of Stapleton freestone[243] at 8s., 44 tons of Reigate stone at 6s., 195 tons of freestone from Fairlight at 3s. 4d., 1850 tons of rag from Maidstone at 40s. the hundred tons, and a large quantity[244] of worked stone from Boughton Mounchelsea.

The Kentish quarries seem to have been especially favoured for the manufacture of the stone balls flung by the royal artillery, in early days by mangonels, balistae, and other forms of catapults, and in later days by guns. Thus in 1342 the sheriff of Kent accounted for £13, 10s. spent on 300 stones dug in the quarry of Folkestone and drawn out of the sea in various places, and afterwards cut and hewn into round balls for the king's machines; one hundred weighing 600 lbs. each, and the same number 500 lbs. and 400 lbs. respectively; and a further £7, 10s. for another 300 stone balls of various weights.[245] It is true that some years earlier, in 1333, similar balls had been obtained in Yorkshire, the sheriff buying 19 damlades[246] and 3 tons of stone in the quarry of Tadcaster, and setting 37 masons to work, the result being 606 stone balls weighing 9 damlades,[247] but casual references point to Kent as the great centre of manufacture. In 1418 as many as 7000 such balls were ordered to be made at Maidstone and elsewhere, and the Maidstone quarries were still turning out stone shot for bombards during the early years of Henry VIII.[248]

So far we have been dealing with what may be called block stone, but there were also in many parts of the country stones that from the ease with which they could be split into thin slabs were suitable for roofing purposes. How early, and to what extent the true slates of Cornwall and Devon were worked it is difficult to say, but in 1296, when certain buildings were put up for the miners at Martinestowe 23,000 'sclattes' were quarried at Birlond, and another 10,000 at 'Hassal.'[249] For the roofing of buildings at Restormel in Cornwall in 1343 slates were employed, 19,500 being bought 'between Golant and Fowey,' at 11d. the thousand, and 85,500 dug in the quarry of Bodmatgan at a cost of 6d. the thousand.[250] So also in 1385, at Lostwithiel, it is probable that the 'tiles,' of which 25,400 were bought 'in the quarry' at 3s. 4d. the thousand were true slates.[251] But besides the real slates, which in their modern uniformity of perfection render so many towns hideous, there were many quarries of stone slates, of which the most famous were at Collyweston in Northants.[252] The Collyweston stone after being exposed to the influence of frost could easily be split into thin slabs,[253] and seem to have been used for roofing purposes as early as the times of the Romans. During the medieval period there are numerous references to these Collyweston slates, and about the end of the fourteenth century they seem to have fetched from 6s. to 8s. the thousand.[254] Other similar quarries of more than local fame were situated round Horsham in Sussex,[255] and Horsham slates continued in demand from early days until the diminished solidity of house construction made a less weighty, and incidentally less picturesque, material requisite for roofing.

The work of quarrying stone counted as unskilled labour, and the rate of pay of quarriers is almost always that of the ordinary labourer. At Martinstow in 1296, men 'breaking stone in the quarry' received 1½d. to 2d. a day, and women, always the cheapest form of labour, 1d. a day for carrying the stones from the quarry.[256] The Windsor accounts for 1368 show quarriers at Bisham (Bustesham) receiving 3½d. a day, and one, no doubt the foreman, 4d., while 65,000 blocks of stone were cut at 'Colingle' at 10s. the thousand, and 3500 at Stoneden at 20s.[257] Those employed upon shaping the rough blocks were naturally paid at a higher rate, and in 1333, while the quarriers at Tadcaster were paid 1s. 4d. a week, the masons employed there in making stone balls earned 2s. 6d., and their foremen 3s. a week.[258] Often, however, the payment was by piece work, and in the case of the stone wrought at Boughton Monchelsea in 1366 for Rochester Castle, we have a list of the rates of payment: 'rough ashlar' worked at 10s. the hundred, 'parpainassheler'—for mullions—cut to pattern 18s. the hundred, newel pieces 12d. each, jambs 3d. the foot, 'scu' or bevelled stones 2d. the foot, voussoirs (vausur) 5d. the foot, and so on.[259] The tools used were of a simple nature; the inventory of tools at Stapleton quarry in 1400[260] shows a number of iron wedges, iron rods, 'gavelokes' or crowbars, iron hammers, 'pulyng axes,'[261] 'brocheaxes' and shovels.

So far we have been dealing with stone as a building material, but there were two varieties of stone worked in England in medieval times whose value was artistic rather than utilitarian. These were marble and alabaster. Purbeck Marble,[262] a dark shell conglomerate capable of receiving a very high polish, came into fashion towards the end of the twelfth century, and continued in great demand for some two hundred years. Not only was it used in 1205 at Chichester Cathedral, but it would seem that some thirty years earlier it was sent to Dublin and to Durham. All the evidence goes to show that the marble was not only quarried at Purbeck, but worked into columns and carved upon the spot, and it is probable that most, if not all, of the scores of marble effigies which still remain in churches, such as the figures of knights in the Temple Church and the tomb of King John at Worcester, were carved by members of the Purbeck school[263] and usually at the quarries, though in some cases it would seem that the carver was called upon to do his work at the place where it was to be used, and under the eye of his patron. But however much we may admire the execution of these Purbeck effigies, we must not hastily assume that they bear any particular resemblance to the persons whom they commemorate; for although the Purbeck carvers were no doubt capable of executing portrait sculpture, a large proportion of their work was undoubtedly conventional. Thus in 1253 we find Henry III. ordering the sheriff of Dorset to cause 'an image of a queen' to be cut in marble and carried to the nunnery of Tarrant Keynston, there to be placed over the tomb of his sister, the late Queen of Scots.[264]

Corfe was the great centre of the Purbeck marble industry. William of Corfe who executed the tomb of 'Henry the King's son,' at Westminster in 1273,[265] was probably William le Blund, brother of Robert le Blund, also called Robert of Corfe, who supplied marble for the Eleanor crosses at Waltham, Northampton, and Lincoln; and one Adam of Corfe settled in London early in the fourteenth century, and died there in 1331. This Adam 'the marbler' seems to have carried out several large contracts, including the paving of St. Paul's, and in 1324 supplied great quantities of marble for the columns of St. Stephen's, Westminster, at 6d. the foot.[266] The same price was paid in 1333 for similar columns bought from Richard Canon,[267] one of a family which for a century and a half played a prominent part as carvers and marble merchants, particularly in connection with Exeter Cathedral.

By the sixteenth century, and probably for some time earlier, the 'Marblers and Stone Cutters of Purbeck' had formed themselves into a company. By their rules the industry was restricted to freemen of the company, and regulations were laid down as to the number of apprentices that might be employed. These apprentices, in turn, could become freemen at the end of seven years upon payment to the court held at Corfe Castle on Shrove Tuesday of 6s. 8d. and the render of a penny loaf and two pots of beer. The wives of freemen were also allowed to join the company on payment of 1s., and in that case might carry on the trade, with the assistance of an apprentice, after their husband's death. At the time, however, that this company was formed, it is probable that the greater part of their business was concerned with building stone, as the marble had gone out of fashion and been largely superseded by alabaster in the fifteenth century for sepulchral monuments.

Alabaster appears to have been dug in the neighbourhood of Tutbury in very early times, some of the Norman mouldings of the west door of Tutbury church being carved in this material.[268] It is in the same neighbourhood, at Hanbury, that the earliest known sepulchral image in alabaster is to be found: this dates from the early years of the fourteenth century, but it was not until the middle of that century that the vogue of alabaster began. From 1360 onwards there exists a magnificent series of alabaster monuments which bear striking testimony to the skill of the medieval English carvers,[269] and it is clear from records and the evidence of such fragments as have survived the triple iconoclasm of Reformers, Puritans, and Churchwardens that these monuments found worthy companions in the statues and carved reredoses scattered throughout the churches of England.[270] One of the finest of these reredoses must have been the 'table of alabaster' bought in 1367 for the high altar of St. George's, Windsor. For this the enormous sum of £200 (more than £3000 of modern money) was paid to Peter Mason of Nottingham, while some idea of its size may be gathered from the fact that it took ten carts, each with eight horses, to bring it from Nottingham to Windsor, the journey occupying seventeen days.[271]

All the evidence points to Nottingham having been the great centre of the industry, the material being brought from the Derbyshire quarries of Chellaston. The stone and the workmanship alike found favour outside this country, and in 1414, when the abbot of FÉcamp required alabaster he sent his mason, Alexander de Berneval, to England to procure it; and it was from Thomas Prentis of Chellaston that the stone was bought.[272] The alabaster tomb of John, Duke of Bretagne, which was erected in Nantes Cathedral in 1408, was made in England by Thomas Colyn, Thomas Holewell, and Thomas Poppehowe,[273] but it is not certain that they belonged to Nottingham. Various customs accounts[274] show that carved alabaster figures were often exported to the Continent, and Mr. Hope has shown that a number of carvings still to be seen in the churches of France, and even of Iceland,[275] have the green background, with circular groups of red and white spots, peculiar to the Nottingham school.[276]

Thomas Prentis, who is mentioned above, is found in 1419 in company with Robert Sutton[277] covenanting to carve, paint, and gild the elaborate and beautiful tomb of Ralph Green and his wife, which may still be seen in Lowick Church, Northants, for a sum of £40. An examination of this tomb makes it almost certain that the glorious monuments of the Earl and Countess of Arundel at Arundel, Henry IV. and Queen Joan at Canterbury, and the Earl of Westmoreland and his two wives at Staindrop, were all from the same workshop. During the last twenty years of the fifteenth and the first thirty years of the sixteenth century, we have the names of a number of 'alablastermen' and 'image-makers' in Nottingham,[278] Nicholas Hill in particular being prominent as a manufacturer of the popular St. John the Baptist heads,[279] and during the same period we find a number of 'alblasterers' at York.[280] At Burton-on-Trent, also, where Leland in the sixteenth century mentions 'many marbellers working in alabaster,' the trade was evidently established in 1481, when Robert Bocher and Gilbert Twist were working for a number of religious houses; and it still flourished there in 1581 and 1585, when Richard and Gabriel Royley undertook contracts for elaborate tombs of alabaster,[281] but for all practical purposes the English school of alabaster carvers ceased to exist when the Reformation put an end to the demand for images and carven tables.

The alabaster, or gypsum, when not suitable for carving, was still valuable for conversion into plaster by burning, the finer varieties yielding the so-called Plaster of Paris and the coarser the ordinary builders' plaster. References to the actual burning of plaster seem practically non-existent, but it is noteworthy that one of the places from which Plaster of Paris was obtained for the works at York Minster was Buttercrambe,[282] where there is a large deposit of gypsum which probably furnished the York alabasterers with their material. In the same way Chalk, though to some extent used for masonry, was most in demand for conversion into lime. When building operations of any importance were undertaken, it was usual to build a limekiln on the spot for the burning of the lime required for mortar. In earlier times the kiln seems to have taken the form of a pit, 'lymeputt' or, in Latin, puteus, being the term usually employed, but in 1400 we find a regular kiln (torale) built, 3300 bricks and 33 loads of clay being purchased for the purpose.[283] Where lime was burnt commercially, that is to say for sale and not merely for use on the spot, the kilns would naturally be larger and more permanent, and a sixteenth-century account of the erection of eight such kilns[284] at a place unnamed—probably Calais—shows that each kiln was 20 feet high, with walls 10 feet thick, and an average internal breadth of 10 feet, and cost over £450.

When wood was plentiful it was naturally employed for burning the lime, and a presentment made in 1255 with regard to the forest of Wellington mentions that the king's two limekilns (rees calcis) had devoured 500 oaks between them.[285] But it was soon found that pit coal was the best fuel for the purpose, and it was constantly used from the end of the thirteenth century onwards, as much as 1166 quarters of sea coal being bought in 1278 for the kilns (chauffornia) in connection with the work at the Tower.[286] For the most part, chalk and lime required for work at London or Westminster was brought from Greenwich. Kent has indeed always been one of the great centres of the trade, both home and foreign, and in 1527,[287] to take but one instance, we find six ships from Dutch ports taking out of Sandwich port chalk to the value of £20.[288] In the chalk hills round Chislehurst labyrinthine galleries of great extent bear witness to the flourishing state of chalk-quarrying in this district in former times;[289] smaller quarries of a similar type exist in the 'caverns' at Guildford. Kent, Surrey, and Sussex[290] were indeed busily employed in quarrying chalk during the medieval period, and for long afterwards, down to the present day.