40 



PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 



1912 



round the country' of it. The old men's story that St. Aldhclm riding over 

 there, threw downe his glove and bade them diggc and they should find 



great treasure, meaning the quarry.' St. Aldhelm also built 



the little church of St. Lawrence, at Bradford-on-Avon, probably the most 

 perfect specimen of Saxon architecture in this country', of which the learned 

 professor, Freeman, saj'S : — ' This, the one surviving old English Church in 

 the land,' and probably the oldest English church in the land. The stone 

 for this building was quarried from Haselbury. It seems only natural that 

 such a keen observer as Leland should note the existence of these quarries, 

 for in the account of his itinerarv, he says ' I left the left hand on the toppe 

 of a little hille a hermitage ; withyn a little I turned down to Hasilbyre.' 

 The quarries near Bo.x have supplied stone for the erection of many other 

 noteworthy and historic buildings, .\mong them are Lacock .\bbey, and 

 such magnificent mansions as Shockerwick, Bowood and Corsham Court. 

 The .Augustine Abbey of Lacock is situated in an old Wiltshire town about 

 three miles south of Chippenham, on the high road between Bath and 



London This structure is one of the best examples of a 



building of Bath stone, though much of the present building, and surrounding 

 out-buildings, are i6th century work. Mr Breakspear states that the .\bbey 

 buildings were constructed with rubble walls of hard stone, and dressings of 

 freestone, and was supplied from the Hasell)ury Ouarre in the Manor of Box."' 

 The Members'entered the workings and went about a mile underground. 



Fig. I. — Plan of a portion of the underground quarries at Box. - 

 [The distance from end to end of the quarry is approximately two miles.] 



The following account of the method of working the stone is taken from 

 a booklet issued by the Firm : — 3 



I.— Extracted from a reprint of a paper by T. S. Cotterell, read at the Sixty-first Congress of the 

 Brit. Archaeol. Assoc., held at Bath in 1904. 



2. — The blocks for figs, i and 2 were kiiidlv lent by the Bath Stone Firms, Ltd. 



3. —Other quarries of The Bath Stone Finiis are situated at Combe Down, Hartham Park, West- 

 wood, Bradford, Limpley Stoke and Kingsdown. 



