INDUSTRIES 



All the stone quarries now open around 

 Northampton yield this stone. The Nursery 

 Pit, Kingsthorpe (this stone only) ; New Duston 

 and Harlestone (other kinds of stone also) ; Bass's 

 Pit, close to the Race Course in Kingsley Road, 

 also yielded this calcareous stone, but the quarry 

 is now closed. Incidentally it may be men- 

 tioned that this is a purely local stone. It is 

 found in no other parts of the county. The 

 Meats Ashby oolitic freestone is probably a 

 contemporary deposit. 



Barnack Rag.' — The oldest well-known 

 building stone of the county of Northampton 

 is the Barnack Rag, constituting a portion of 

 the Lincolnshire Oolite series. The old stone 

 quarries at Barnack, south-east of Stamford, 

 according to Bridges were at one time the 

 largest of any inland place in the kingdom. At 

 the present time no stone is got, and the site of 

 the once-famous quarries to the south of Barnack 

 now constitutes a large area of broken ground 

 known as ' Hills and Holes.' ' 



The Barnack Rag is a coarsely-bedded, coarse- 

 grained freestone, oolitic in part, but mostly 

 composed of rounded or concretionary-coated 

 shells or shell fragments, or pieces of coral, 

 cemented together by carbonate of lime, though 

 it varies in character. The beds may be 3 ft. 

 or 4 ft. thick, and blocks of 30 cubic ft. and 

 upwards, weighing two or three tons, have been 

 obtained. At Barnack the Rag beds were low 

 down in the Lincolnshire limestone, but similar 

 though inferior 'Rag' beds occur at other 

 horizons in the limestone series at other places ; 

 the peculiar deposit being due, probably, to local 

 circumstances, as is evidenced by the unusual 

 abundance of fossils in them. 



Stanion Freestone. — In point of age, prob- 

 ably the extensive now disused quarries to the 

 east of Stanion, known as Lord Cardigan's Pits, 

 come next to Barnack. The best of the Stanion 

 stone is very similar to VVeldon freestone, but 

 other parts are not so oolitic, but are more or less 

 earthy and compact limestones like the main 

 mass of the Lincolnshire Oolite. 



Weldon Freestone. — At the present time 

 Weldon freestone is the most noted stone of the 

 county, and the quarries are very old, as may be 

 judged by the extent of broken ground or ' Hills 

 and Holes ' where the older workings were near 

 to Weldon village. The quarries have never 

 been closed, so far as is known, some stone 

 having always been got, but on the opening of 

 the Kettering and Manton railway line in 1880 

 greater facilities were provided for getting the 

 stone away. Since 1888 they have been success- 

 fully exploited by Lord Winchilsea and his able 

 and courteous manager, Mr. John Rooke, to 



' Any hard, coarse-textured stone is called a Rag 

 or Ragstone. 



' Hilt. ofNorthants, ii, 489. 



whom the writer is indebted for much of the 

 information here given. 



Like the Barnack Rag, the Weldon freestone 

 belongs to the Lincolnshire Oolite formation. It 

 is a rather coarse-grained oolite of a pleasing 

 yellowish colour, inclining to red. The best 

 stone is very even in texture, comparatively soft, 

 and easily worked without water, though it 

 hardens rapidly on exposure to the atmosphere. 

 The concretionary oolitic granules and shell 

 fragments are bound together by carbonate of 

 lime in the form of sub-crystalline calcite, 

 according to Mr. George F. Harris, f.g.s.,'' 

 and this is more enduring than aragonite as a 

 cementing material. 



Good specimens of the rock, when separated 

 from the main mass, give out a metallic sound 

 when struck, ' ring like a bell ' as the quarrymen 

 say. Blocks are quarried up to 80 ft. cube or 

 more, but the average size is 16 ft. cube. The 

 stone is sawn out of the main mass in situ, in 

 open workings, but it has been worked under- 

 ground. 



An analysis of the stone made by Professor 

 Attfield, Ph.D., F.R.S., gave :— 



Per cent. 



Carbonate of lime - - - - 94-3 5 



„ „ magnesia - - - 3-55 



Iron (as peroxide) - - - - -61 



Alumina - - - - - -28 



Silica ------ -08 



Moisture, with traces of organic matter, 



manganese, etc. - - - - 1-13 



lOO'OO 



Specific gravity 2"42 to t'\t,. 



Weldon stone has been used in the construc- 

 tion of many buildings in Northamptonshire, 

 churches, mansions, and smaller building. 

 Amongst the more interesting may be men- 

 tioned the ruins of Lyveden and Kirby Hall, 

 the recently restored Rothwell Market House, 

 Rushton Hall, the Triangular Lodge, and Castle 

 Ashby. Whiston church is built almost wholly 

 of Weldon stone, and is practically in the same 

 condition now as when left by its builder, 

 Anthony Catesby, at the time when Henry V'lII 

 was pulling down the monasteries. Amongst 

 the more important buildings outside the county 

 where Weldon stone has recently been used 

 may be mentioned University Librarj', Cam- 

 bridge ; Eton College Chapel ; Lincoln Cathedral 

 Chapter-house ; Royal College of Music, Ken- 

 sington ; Rochester Cathedral ; Sidney-Sussex 

 College, Cambridge ; the Royal Infirmary, Shef- 

 field ; All Hallows' Church, London, and Merton 

 College, Oxford. 



Pipewell and Wakerley have yielded a stone 

 similar to Weldon. 



In addition to the regular freestone quarried at 

 Weldon there are irregular bands of rag or raa- 



' Author of Granite and our Granite Industry. 



301 



