INDUSTRIAL LYME PAPER NO. 17: BUILDING STONES OF LYME ... · Other Building Stones in Lyme Many different building stones can be seen in the town and in the Cobb and the seawalls

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.


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).

______________________________________________________________

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).

http://www.lymeregismuseum.co.uk/

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INDUSTRIAL LYME PAPER NO. 17: BUILDING STONES OF LYME ... · Other Building Stones in Lyme Many different building stones can be seen in the town and in the Cobb and the seawalls