A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



the chief centre of the supply for this purpose, 

 that raised at Orston, however, being considered 

 ' the finest in the kingdom.' 6 Gypsum was 

 at one time extensively dug in the village, 

 where, however, the works are temporarily in 

 abeyance, to a depth in some instances of 5 ft., 

 several 'plaster beds' having been found in 

 a well 30 ft. in depth. The gypsum quarries 

 of Messrs. Cafferata & Co. are situated at the 

 foot of Beacon Hill, the section visible here in 

 1905 being about 31 ft. 9 in., the mineral 

 occurring in the following forms : ' top white 

 rock,' ' riders,' ' middle white rock,' ' blue rock,' 

 ' bottom white rock.' This firm also own a 

 quarry at Hawton. The Vale of Belvoir and 

 Newark Plaster Co. work a total depth of about 

 6 1 ft.attheir Bowbridge Works. The plaster floors 

 and ceilings still to be seen in old houses in the 

 neighbourhood of Nottingham, says Mr. Steven- 

 son, testify to its frequent use. 7 



Plaster floors went out of fashion as the result 

 of the reduction in the price of floor boards by 

 the introduction of the planing machine and the 

 abolition of the duty on timber. 8 During the 

 1 8th century the gypsum of Beacon Hill, near 

 Newark, furnished ' stucco and curious orna- 

 ments for ceilings,' after being ' burnt upon the 

 kilns, ground to powder, and exported in tubs 

 and barrels.' 9 'Excellent plaster' from these 

 pits was 'run ' in 1794 at ()d. per square yard. 

 or bd. per strike. 10 The 'satin stone' of East 

 Bridgeford was largely manufactured at Derby 

 into ornaments. 11 At the Trent Plaster Works 

 at Newark, belonging to Mr. William Jacobs, 

 plaster to the amount of 100 tons was prepared 

 for the Paris Exhibition of i86i. 12 At the 

 present time, the gypsum which occurs in veins 

 at East Retford is largely used for garden work. 13 



The imagers or 'carvers' in alabaster were 

 active at least as early as the 1 4th century, when 

 Peter the Mason of Nottingham made a tabula 

 or reredos of alabaster which was placed upon 

 the high altar in the free chapel of St. George 

 at Windsor. This great reredos was carried 

 from Nottingham to Windsor in ten carts, each 

 drawn by eight horses, and the sculptor re- 

 ceived for his work the sum of 300 marks. 14 



6 White, Nofts. 453. In 1541 Nicholas Northe 

 of Orston was paid 8/. \d. for digging 20 tens of 

 plaster (gypsum), Rutland A/SS. (Hist MSS. Com.), 



3I7- 



' Stevenson, Bygone Nut's. 50. 



8 Rec. Son. Nott. iii, 500. 



''Brit. Dir. 1793, p. 57. 



10 Lowe, Agric. Notts. 5 I . 



" Curtis, Topog. Hist. Notts. 137. 



" White, Hist. Kotts. (1864), 386. 



3 Midland Naturalist, v, I 2. 



14 Stevenson, Rec. Boro. Nott. iii, 482 ; Issue R. (ed. 

 Devon), 193. For information respecting the medi- 

 aeval workers in alabaster the reader is referred to the 

 articles bv Mr. St. John Hope in Archaeologia, Hi (2), 

 679 et seq. ; and Arch. Journ. Ixi, 221 et seq. 



Nicholas Goodman, ' aleblasterer,' in 1478-9 

 paid 8^. for licence to traffic at Nottingham." 

 Nicholas Hill was an image-maker at this 

 date. On 31 October 1491 we find him suing 

 his salesman, William Bott, for an account of 

 the sales of fifty-eight heads of John the Baptist, 16 

 part in tabernacles and niches. 17 



Bott would appear to have acted as agent for 

 Hill, for in December 1491 we find him claim- 

 ing io</., owed and unjustly detained by the 

 former. 18 In this instance, the claim seems to 

 have been his charge for ' painting and gilding 

 3 alabaster salt-cellars, with 2 images,' 19 this 

 being an art which the image-maker frequently 

 combined with his craft. On 7 January 

 14945, Hill figures as defendant in a suit 

 brought against him by Robert Tull, husband- 

 man, who had been hired to carry 'divers 

 heads and images of St. John Baptist from 

 Nottingham to London,' for 3*. wages, of 

 which he had only received 2*., leaving I "id. 

 unpaid. 20 In this year, John Lyngard was an 

 image-maker whose name occurs in the Records 

 of Nottingham, that of Walter Hylton appear- 

 ing in I496. sl A workman of this date was 

 John Spencer, references to whose craft occur 

 in an action for detinue of household goods, the 

 complainant being one Emma Spencer, presum- 

 ably the widow, one allusion being to ' divers 

 images of alabaster,' in the original draft, ' Item 

 cum tabulis et aliis imaginibus de alablaster in 

 opella sua existentibus, pretii xxs.' 22 In 1499, 

 Thomas Grene of Beeston, plasterer, sued 

 Nicholas Hill for a head of John the Baptist, 

 value i6^. 23 



The best alabaster employed at Nottingham 

 in the Middle Ages was probably obtained from 

 Chellaston in Derbyshire, and as late as 1530 

 we hear of the claim of William Walsh for 

 1 8d. for the carriage of alabaster from Chellas- 

 ton to Nottingham. 24 The decline in the 



O 



amount of the mineral obtainable, however, 

 which set in after the 1 6th century, gave a con- 

 siderable impetus to the Nottinghamshire trade 

 in the raw material. Large supplies were 



" Stevenson, Rec. Boro. Nott. ii, 303. 



16 The trade in these objects, says Mr. Stevenson, 

 was a particularly brisk one. 



" Stevenson, Rec. Boro. Notts, iii, 19. 



"Ibid. 21. 13 Ibid. 



80 Ibid. 29. " Ibid, iv, 482. 



" Ibid, iii, 39. " Ibid. 499. 



14 The defendant in the suit in question was John 

 Nicholson, 'steynour,' and the sum quoted was 'for 

 the carriage of a wain-load (flaustratf) of alabaster 

 stone'; Rec. Boro. Nott. iii, 182. See also Y.C.H. 

 Derb. i, 366, for interesting evidence furnished by 

 early documents relative to a visit to England in 

 1414 of certain agents of the Abbot of Fecamp 

 charged with a mission to obtain Chellaston alabaster, 

 the actual purchase, however, being completed at 

 Nottingham, which seems to have been ' the business 

 headquarters of the Chellaston carvers ' ; op. cit. 



332 



