A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



ft cubitorei) with a certain number of unskilled 

 labourers, and personally directed their operations. 

 During the week in which St. Simon and St. Jude's 

 Day fell in 6 Edward I, he himself drew a 

 salary of idd. Eight skilled stonecutters and 

 layers, including Master Thomas's two sons, 

 drew \2,d- each, except one of the sons, also 

 named Thomas, who was only paid 9^. This, 

 it may be remarked, was the weekly wage of 

 each of the four labourers {servitores) attached to 

 the firm. Probably Thomas junior was only an 

 improver. The three quarrymen were paid a 

 shilling a week each. 



The stone for the repair of Rockingham was 

 by no means always procured from the same 

 quarry. Stanion has already been mentioned. 

 Coarse stone was sometimes obtained close to the 

 castle, and slates were brought from Harring- 

 worth,^ and later from Collyweston. Nearly 

 two centuries later we find an entry ^ on a roll 

 of I & 2 Edward IV of $'■ P^'^ for stone 

 called ' tabulstones,' brought from ' Stainardis ' at 

 a cost of 3J. In the same roll of i & 2 

 Edward IV 10s. is mentioned as having been 

 paid for ' vna roda tabulorum', bought at VVaker- 

 ley.' The carriage cost xvjd. 



Of the quarries of Weldon, Leland remarked* 

 in his Itinerary, ' On the south side of Welleden, 

 a little without it, hard by the highe way, ys a 

 goodly quarre of stone, where appere great 

 Diggyns.' At a later time Weldon stone has 

 also met with considerable approval, both within 

 and without the county, for its close texture and 

 perfect crystallization. It was used during the 

 building of Gonville and Caius College at 

 Cambridge, and other work in the University 

 town,* while Kirby Hall, Rushton Hall, and the 

 Triangular Lodge are its sufficient monuments 

 in the Elizabethan period and the reigns of the 

 early Stuarts.* As an illustration of its employ- 

 ment in other ways, the Apethorpe accounts 

 show us a free mason of Weldon commissioned 

 in 1662 to make forty-four flower-pots of stone 

 of the bigger sort and thirty-two lesser ones.' 



The stone of King's Cliffe was of sufficient 

 repute to be used far beyond the boundaries of 

 the county, especially at Cambridge, where it 

 was employed for the Gateway Tower of 

 King's Hall * in 151 8-9, and later at Gonville 

 and Caius and elsewhere. The masonry ac- 

 counts for the porch of Corpus Christi Chapel, 

 erected by Lady Bacon, and destroyed by 

 Wilkins, show that the stone from King's Cliffe 



' Accts. Exch. K.R. -slf-f^ (P.R.O.). ' Ibid. *^^. 



' There were quarries in this neighbourhood at a 

 very early time. One close to the house of Fineshade 

 is mentioned in Had. Ch. 49, G 5 I (B.M.). 



' (Hearne, ed. 1745), i, 13. 



* Willis, JrcA. Hut. ofCamb. ii, 174; cf. i, 294. 



* NorthanU N. and Q. iii, 113. 



' MS. Hist, of Apethorpe, by Lady Rose Weigall. 

 ' Willis, op. cit. ii, 452. 



was taken by cart to Gunworth (Gunwade), and 

 thence by water-carriage to Jesus Green in 

 Cambridge.' From the accounts of a quarry in 

 'ClyfFPark' for the ye9r 1556, it appears that 

 the three men employed to raise stone at 2;. the 

 ton, using the tools provided by Sir William 

 Cecil, which included ' ij races, vj wedges, a barre 

 of yron, a betell of Iron, a poolerace and peckaxe, 

 and couettes and peces of couettes,' dug 59 

 tons of freestone and 9 or 10 tons of paving- 

 stone.*" 



The stone-workers and slaters of King's Cliffe, 

 Stanion, and Weldon were sometimes keen 

 poachers, for the deer of Rockingham offered 

 tempting spoil. 



Before we pass to a mention of the quarries 

 of Mid-Northamptonshire and the south of the 

 county, whose output was mainly for local use, 

 the famous stone slates of Collyweston, Easton, 

 and Kirby demand attention. Slates of this 

 description were certainly quarried by the 

 Romans, and have occurred both at Irchester 

 and in a villa at Apethorpe Park.'* During the 

 Middle Ages they were also in great request. 

 Whilst repairs were being made at Rockingham 

 Castle in 49 Edward III,'^ in viewof a visit from 

 the king to hunt in the forest, 761. was paid 

 for 9,500 stone slates, and their carriage from 

 ' Colyn Weston ' to the castle cost 28;. bd. at 

 3J. the thousand. 



A similar roll *' dealing with the repairs at 

 Rockingham and Benefield New Lodge between 

 Candlemas, 12-14 Richard II, shows that 

 4,500 ' sclatstones ' were bought for tiling at 

 6j. %d. the thousand, and their carriage from 

 'Weston juxta Stanford' cost 13;. 6^. In the 

 next century *■* we have an entry in a Peter- 

 borough account-book in the twelfth year of 

 Abbot Richard [Ashton] (1459?), ' P^'^* 'o 

 William Fyscherre of Eston for half a thousand 

 slates 3;. ; also lod. for twenty large slates 

 [grossis sc/attis).' And a few years later,*' in the 

 year 37 Henry VI, slates were bought of 

 William Rede, apparently at Kirby. Carriage 

 is at least charged for a third part from ' Kircby 

 felde,' at the rate of 2s. In the account ** of 

 Griffin ap Richard, bailiff of Collyweston 

 (24 Hen. VII — I Hen. VIII), the issues of the 

 quarry ' saltstones ' (sic) are returned at ;^i 6s. 8d. 

 A similar entry is made for the next year. A 

 generation*' later the issues of the quarries at 

 Collyweston, in the accounts for 37-38 Henry 

 VIII, are returned at £\ 55. 6d., which had 

 been received for ' slatestones ' sold to divers 



' Ibid, i, 293. '" S. P. Dom. Mary, ix, 57. 



" y. C. H. Northants, i, 182, 192. 

 " Accts. Exch. K.R. Afi. (P.R.O.). 

 " Ibid. A-V- " Vesp. A. xxiv, fol. 17. 



" Ibid. fol. 683. 



'* Mins. Accts. Exch. Northants, 24 Hen VII ; 

 I Hen. VIII, No. 4, and 1-2 Hen. VIII, No. 26. 

 " Ibid. 37-38 Hen. VIII. No. 58. 



296 



