industrial lyme paper no. 17: building stones of lyme ... · other building stones in lyme many...
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1 © Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme
INDUSTRIAL LYME PAPER NO. 17: BUILDING STONES OF LYME REGIS AND UPLYME
by Richard Bull1 Jan 2019
Building Stones Raised in Lyme There are three local building stones, and these are described. There are many
more building stones used in Lyme, and these have been imported. This paper
illustrates the various stones so that you can identify them. Walking east from
Lyme no natural rock exposures can be seen in-situ until the East Jetty is
reached. Beyond is the low-tide expanse called Broad Ledge and the cliffs, both
formed of Blue Lias. Both were extensively quarried in the past. Similarly, the
cliffs and beach ledges were formerly quarried west of Lyme.
Blue Lias
The new eastern promenade looks out over further low-tide ledges extending
from the base of Church Cliff to East Cliff, all curves and swirls formed where the
horizontal surface of the marine wave-cut platform intercepts the gently folded
strata, like wood grain on a sawn plank. Wave-cleaned ledges expose similar
features to those seen west of the Cobb, including clusters of rhynchonellid
shells, large ammonites and nautiloids. Cliffs of Blue Lias emerge behind the end
of the new sea wall, where a large Arietites bucklandi ammonite has been
inserted as a plaque above the steps.
It was these cliffs and ledges where much of the Blue Lias used in Lyme, sold as
ship’s ballast and used to make hydraulic cement at Monmouth Beach was
raised. Quarrying threatened the destruction by the sea of Lyme Regis Church
and eventually had stopped completely by 1913. Stone was quarried mainly
using crowbars and muscle power from cliffs and beach ledges and taken to the
Cobb by stoneboats at high tide: large double-ended double-skinned rowing
boats similar in shape the then fishermen’s Dorset lerrets.
Stone was also taken from cliffs and beaches west of Lyme, and from quarries at
Uplyme, where White Lias was also raised. The best stone from the most durable
beds was used for building, the rest sent for ballast or burning for lime or
cement. The very best stone was readily shaped into squared-off ashlar blocks
and used in the best buildings or sea walls. Walls of the inferior or rubbly stone
had to be rendered, tarred or slate hung as weather protection, and away from
the sea, frost protection. Uplyme Church is built of the very best shelly stone
taken from Blue Lias quarries in the wood behind the church and has withstood
1 Richard Bull undertook postgraduate research on the Middle Lias of Britain, surveyed in Lincolnshire for the British Geological Survey and, later, was Geologist to the Countryside Commission.
2 © Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme
the centuries un-rendered, but the stone from some beds is so poor that it will
not stand more than two or three seasons of frost.
Chertstone
More so inland, but rubble stone walls were also built of cherts - the very hard
siliceous nodules from the Upper Greensand – or the similar but blue-hearted
flints from the Chalk. Sometimes these were knapped to shape and laid in
courses, sometimes they were used rough set in thick lime mortar. Modern
chertstone walls are built of concrete blocks which come faced with cherts and
which, when built and carefully pointed, resemble the coursed variety of
chertstone walls, but never as effective as the knapped and coursed walls, of
which one or two can be seen as panels in Coombe Street. The best local
example is the Old Police Station in Axminster, now the Arts Café. Cherts were
often obtained through clearance of stones from the fields to assist agriculture.
Cowstone
Some of the sea walls and the old parts and the core of the Cobb consists of
Cowstones, naturally cemented sandstone doggers from the Upper Greensand
collected from the beaches by floating between barrels and towed to the Cobb
by rowing boat. Originally the Cobb consisted of these 1-1.5m elongate but
rounded stones laid in a piled oak cribwork, but later Cowstones were set
vertically in mortar as in the old Cobb wall behind the buildings on the Landing
Quay. Cowstones set at an angle can be seen in the older parts of town on the
corners of street-facing buildings to deflect cartwheel tyres away to avoid
cartwheel hubs gouging the rendering.
No building materials are raised in the Lim Valley today so even Blue Lias stone
has to come from Somerset.
Other Building Stones in Lyme Many different building stones can be seen in the town and in the Cobb and the
seawalls – recently some have come from as far away as Portugal and Norway -
although use of stone from Portland and Purbeck started by the 18th Century.
Artificial materials have also been used since then, and some synthetic stones
are illustrated below. Bricks and tiles were made at Monmouth Beach and locally
in field clamp kilns as well as having been imported from Holland, North Devon
and Exeter, but these are not included because there is insufficient information
available about any, except roofing tiles from Monmouth Beach.
This paper concludes with pictures to help you identify local and imported
stones, as well as some artificial material.
3 © Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme
Blue Lias (Gun Cliff Walls, 1998), from Tout Quarry, Charlton Adam, Somerset.
White Lias would look similar but creamy, but no walls seem to remain.
Sawn Carboniferous Limestone from the Mendip Hills (Buddle Bridge Parapet,
1998) note the fossil corals. Morris & Perry, Gurney Slade Quarry, Somerset
4 © Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme
Granite from Portugal (outer face sea walls at Gun Cliff) 1998, note the darker
inclusions of earlier rock incorporated into the magma. Chosen to match Lias
grey and to be much more resistant to marine weathering. From Penifiel, near
Porto, Portugal.
Chert, Upper Greensand (Gun Cliff) re-pointing rather over done in 1998
5 © Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme
Possibly Pennant Sandstone from South Wales on Blue Lias blocks (walls east of
the Marine Theatre) 1998. Suggestions on the origin of this stone welcome.
Portland Stone Roach Bed (copings) on Portuguese granite East Beach walls 1998. Also used from 18th Century to cap and encase the Cobb. Note the fossil
moulds of “osses’ ‘eds” (bivalves) and Portland screws (gastropods). From A S Quarries Ltd, Isle of Portland, Dorset
6 © Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme
Larvikite from Larvik Quarry, Norway, an ultrabasic igneous rock mainly of large
blue crystals of felspar - rock armour boulders below the Museum 1998 (as
here) and at end of the Cobb 2005.
Carboniferous Limestone rock armour boulders used only to the west of the
River Lim, from Carrières du Boulonnais, Pas de Calais, France (repositioned in
1998).
7 © Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme
Basalt rock armour, from Arklow Quarry, Ireland (repositioned 2005).
Arklow Basalt rock armour at East Beach stacked against Portuguese granite
walls as
8 © Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme
Devonian Limestone band sandwiched between Blue Lias work (Marine Theatre
Retaining Wall (a former sea wall) late 19th Century. Has marbled appearance
with reddish and whitish banding. From Torquay or Plymouth.
9 © Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme
Carboniferous Limestone rock armour boulders from Carrières du Boulonnais,
Pas de Calais, France. Below the Rock Point Inn (1998 repositioned 2005).
Granite possibly from Dartmoor (Marine Parade walls behind the Beach Huts)
mid-20th Century
10 © Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme
Dressed Cowstones (left) and
Portland Roach (right and top)
(Southern Arm of the Cobb), 1785
Rough Cowstones from the beach (oldest part of Cobb), 17th Century
11 © Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme
Don’t be fooled I Brushed concrete cast in situ (Gun Cliff copings by the
Museum) 1998
Shelley Purbeck Stone with fossil shell moulds and rain prints (Gun Cliff Steps) 1998 used in copes, steps and some of the stone paving setts, from D P Lovell Quarries, Downs Quarry, Swanage, Dorset. Uplyme White Lias would be fairly
similar, but creamy, often with rain prints and ripple marks, but little survives.
12 © Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme
Sawn Purbeck Stone pavig
setts (outside Tesco) 1980s?
Note polished surfaces with
fossil freshwater shells. Due to
be replaced as too slippery.
Purbeck stone walling (a house in Uplyme) 1986
Note: Purbeck Stone used to come from Portland as well as Purbeck, and
Portland Stone used to come from Purbeck as well as Portland. Purbeck Stone
overlies the Portland Stone, but their respective quarrying is restricted to each
locality now.
13 © Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme
Ham Stone quoins, Inferior
Oolite Somerset (Lyme Church)
Ham Stone tracery set in weathered Blue Lias ashlar under ?Portland Stone
parapet (Lyme Regis Church) c.1500
14 © Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme
Beer Stone column and arch
(Lyme Regis Museum) 1901, a
variety of Chalk from East
Devon. Above are faience (see
later) corbels and cement render
bands and window mullion
repairs to match earlier badly
worn Beer Stone
Don’t be fooled II - Reconstituted
Portland Stone (a house in
Uplyme) 1986 – this can contain
visible Portland fossils and can
be cast to much finer dimensions
and quality than this rustic
ashlar. No quality of this artificial
shows signs of bedding.
15 © Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme
Don’t be fooled III – Faience – this is
sculpured fired clay – ie, pottery
(Marine Parade Shelters early 20th
Century – set in render with coarse
chert & flint pebble dash.
Don’t be fooled IV more
faience – Coade Stone
decoration on Eleanor
Coade’s own house,
Belmont, Pound Street
(added 1784). There are
also 1960s faience corbels
over the entrance to the
Museum.
16 © Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme
Don’t be fooled V – Cob. Rendered cottages in Sherborne Lane and elsewhere in
Lyme may be built of cob, that is well watered and trodden earth, straw and
manure forced into moulding boxes in situ and built up in layers. Here one is
being repaired with cob blocks made off-site - from redder hued Devon earths,
rather than local darker soils. An earlier repair was achieved in brick. When re-
rendered, you’d hardly know it wasn’t made of rubble stone from the Lias. First
built pre-1825.
Slate – used on
this exposed
gable wall to
cure a damp
problem from
wind-driven
rain.
Grey slate could
be from North
Wales or
Portugal, purple
slate only from
Penryn Quarry,
Bethesda.
17 © Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme
Two contrasting igneous rocks (Cobb Gate Jetty) to visually resemble Cowstone
under Portland Roach. Tooled dolerite capped by granite. Dolerite is similar to
basalt, but coarser. Very high-quality stone and workmanship. Kevin’s Jetty and
the sea wall around Jane’s Cafe, Town Beach, is similar (2005).
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Other papers on the www.lymeregismuseum.co.uk
Lime Burning in the Lyme Regis area (Paper 4 in this series)
Stone and Quarrying in the Lyme Regis area (Paper 5 this series)
Cement Making in Lyme (Paper 6 in this series).