These Middle and Upper Jurassic limestones are generally oolitic in nature, but there are important exceptions. The outcrop continues in a wide band through Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire, and forms a very narrow band north of the River Humber to sweep round to the coast near Redcar. The limestones crop out over a large sweeping curve from the Dorset coast, through the Cotswolds where they form a prominent escarpment. One of these, the Portland Stone, has been used country-wide. However, the limestone members, primarily because of their ease of working and general consistency, have been extensively used especially in southern England. Clay is the major constituent of the beds above the Lias and is of great importance for the production of bricks. Without doubt the limestones obtained from the series of Beds above the Lias (see Figure 4.47) have had a greater effect on the general appearance of towns, especially in southern England, than any other stones. The outcrop of the stone extends southwards from Hamdon Hill to North Perrott, Dorset where it was wrought under the local name of North Perrott Stone. Its use was also extended to vernacular architecture, as seen unexpectedly in Hamstone House, Weybridge, Surrey. Hampshire House, Bayswater Road, London (Figure 4.53) and the Ladbroke building, Piccadilly, London, are also of this stone. The window arches, quoins and coping stones of the west front, and the turrets of the tower, which are contrasted with a grey-coloured Devonian limestone, of Buckfast Abbey, Devon, are of Ham Hill Stone. It was used also for Sherborne Abbey, Dorset. It is a durable building stone which is most widely known for its use for the classic masterpiece, Montacute House, Somerset built in 1603. The second was darker in colour and known as the Grey Bed. One was pale brown or buff in colour and known as the Yellow Bed. Although the formation may be more or less sandy in places, the stone is correctly classified as a limestone, rather than a sandstone. A richly-toned brown in colour, it consists mostly of broken fossil shells with a ferruginous cement. It has been worked at least since Roman times and some Roman coffins are made of it. Ham Hill Stone, from the upper part of the Lias, quarried at Hamdon Hill, near Norton-sub-Hamdon, Somerset, is a lenticular mass of detrital shelly limestone about 90 feet (27m) thick although only about 50 feet ( 15 m) is worked for building stone. The thirteenth century church at Hornton, Oxfordshire is a prime example of the use of the greenish brown variety. This popular stone was used far more widely than is generally realized. Hornton Stone was used for the reredos of Ampleforth Abbey Church, Yorkshire, in the church at Harold Wood, Essex, the War Memorial, Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, the Moat House Hotel, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire (where fine nests of Terebratulids can be seen in the stone), and elsewhere. It was also used for his, Mother and Child (1924), Reclining Figure (1947), Square Form (1936) and other pieces (Figure 4.52). The stone was often used by the sculptor Henry Moore, for example for the Memorial Figure at Dartington Hall, Devon. The best building stone is the least oxidized because it breaks into large blocks up to several tons in weight. Forsyth Lawson) Road Figure 4.52 Memorial figure 1945-46 by Henry Moore, carved in Hornton Stone, Dartington Hall, DevonĬalcareous iron ore. from Somerset is found in Hampshire House, Bayswater (Courtesy of J. Figure 4.51 House of Hornton Stone (by Forsyth Lawson) Figure 4.53 Unusually used in London, Ham Hill Stone with Painswick Stone dressings and Stonesfield slate roof.
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