A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



as with the Marlstone, the area occupied by the 

 Northampton Sand outcrop (see i in. maps of 

 the Geological Survey) gives the area on which 

 Northampton Sand houses occur. The red rock 

 is too variable in quality, however, to be fit for 

 building wherever it is found, in fact it is more 

 often not fit than fit, though where not fit for 

 building it may be an excellent ironstone. 



Red and Yellow Freestones of the 

 Northampton Sand. — The top of the North- 

 ampton Sand nearly everywhere is a white sand, 

 and between this and the ironstone beds below 

 may be beds of a very variable character, and 

 some of these, in certain places, are sandstones 

 which can be worked as freestones, the colour 

 varying from nearly pure white, through yellow 

 and brown, to deep red, according to the amount 

 of iron contained in them. 



The Red and Yellow Freestone has been much 

 more abundantly used than the white, but without 

 the aid of a lens it is not always possible to dis- 

 criminate between the red oolitic stone and the 

 red sandstone. Many of the older buildings in 

 Northampton are built of this red sandstone, 

 they may be seen in Sheep Street, Silver Street, 

 St. Mary's Street, and elsewhere ; and the 

 darker, richer-looking stone is still quarried at 

 New Duston for the ornamental work of new 

 buildings, 



The New Duston quarries, of which there 

 are several, yield quite a variety of building 

 stones, which are distinguished by the quarry- 

 men by such terms as 'The Roylands,' ' White 

 Pendle,' ' The Yellow ' building stone, ' Best 

 Brown Hard,' « Rough Rag,' and ♦ Hard Blue.' 



Harlestone quarries are very old, and the stone 

 from them was of great repute in Morton's time 

 (17 1 2), but as at the New Duston pits, which are 

 quite near, various kinds of stone are obtained. 



It must be borne in mind that the Northamp- 

 ton Sand red and yellowish freestones are not 

 necessarily all sandstones : both limestones and 

 sandstones of not greatly different outward 

 appearance may come from the same quarry. 

 This is particularly noticeable at the once cele- 

 brated quarry at Mears Ashby, known in 

 Morton's time as ' High Delves,' but now only 

 by the name of ' Idle Pits,' apparently because 

 only opened up now and again for some special 

 work, the best yellow building stone lying rather 

 deep, under about 12 ft. of other material. The 

 yellow stone here is essentially an oolitic freestone, 

 and although it is sometimes very siliceous, an 

 excellent weatherstone, and good-looking, as may 

 be seen in the villages around, Sywell, Mears 

 Ashby, and Earls Barton. From the same 

 quarry, however, is obtained a good red sand- 

 stone freestone, as Morton informs us, that 

 ' never fails in the weather,' and was used 

 in all the water-mill heads from Billing to 

 Doddington.* 



White Freestone. — The uppermost beds of 

 the Northampton Sand, known as the Lower Es- 

 tuarine Beds, usually consist of an exceedingly fine, 

 white, light, purple or slightly ruddy sand, hard 

 and lumpy when dry, but crumbling to a powder 

 when wetted — a material which no one would 

 think of using for building purposes. It used to 

 be sold in Northampton for scouring, sanding 

 floors, etc. It is now used in various places to a 

 limited extent for mortar (preferably with some 

 sharper sand), and for mixing with plaster for 

 walls and ceilings ; but here and there the sand 

 is sufficiently indurated to furnish an easily- 

 worked and not bad-looking freestone. It 

 stands the weather pretty well, but is really too 

 soft and porous for a good building stone. The 

 Northampton Infirmary and a few buildings in 

 Northampton and Kingsthorpe were built of this 

 stone. Good examples are the Inland Revenue 

 Office in Bridge Street, and some houses in Sheep 

 Street, Northampton. All this stone came from a 

 quarry immediately north of Kingsthorpe. Appa- 

 rently a rather good stone from these beds has been 

 used at Cosgrove, in the southern portion of the 

 county, for some ashlar work in a light-coloured 

 freestone is to be seen in the rectory there, 

 though other parts of this house and the village 

 generally is built of not particularly good Great 

 Oolite limestone. Bridges,* under the head of 

 Cosgrove, says : ' To the south-west are quarries 

 of good freestone fit for building,' which may 

 refer to this, as it is somewhat difficult to think 

 that he would call the Great Oolite limestone of 

 that locality a freestone. 



Calcareous Beds of the Northampton 

 Sand — White Pendle. — To the north-east of 

 Northampton, towards Weston Favell and 

 Buttock's Booth, the lowest beds of the North- 

 ampton Sand are limestones containing coral, 

 with very little iron in them ; and over a much 

 larger area around Northampton, extending from 

 north-east to north-west, from the Billing Road, 

 Northampton, and Abington Park round to New 

 Duston and Harlestone and northwards as far as 

 Pitsford, between the true ironstone beds and the 

 true white or variegated sands, are some good 

 calcareous beds suitable for building purposes, 

 known as * Pendle ' or ' White Pendle.' Four 

 of the new churches in Northampton, St. Paul's, 

 St. Mary's (Far Cotton), St. Matthew's, and 

 Christ Church, have been largely built of this 

 stone. 



The stone is a white or yellowish limestone, 

 and always occurs in comparatively thin layers. 

 It is sometimes oolitic, but apparently consists 

 mostly of comminated shell fragments and cal- 

 careous debris. It was probably a coral mud. Al- 

 though the stone is usually built up as it lies in 

 the bed, that is, in thin slabs, it wears very well in 

 all positions and can be used for kerb-stones, and is 

 frequently used on end for rough wall copings. 



' Morton, Net. Hist. ofNortkants, 102. 



Hist. o/Northants, i, 285. 



300 



