BUILDING STONES of LYME REGIS and UPLYME by Richard Bull1 Jan 2019

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.

© Lyme Regis Museum & Richard Bull - Industrial Lyme Paper 17: Building Stones of Lyme 1 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.

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

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

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

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).

Basalt rock armour, from Arklow Quarry, Ireland (repositioned 2005).

Arklow Basalt rock armour at East Beach stacked against Portuguese granite walls as

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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).