A HISTORY OF DORSET 



famous all over England as the head quarters of that to one of these quarries may be referred an 



the marble industry, but the particulars recover- entry on the roll of Pleas of the Crown for the 



able as to the quarries themselves, their manner year 52 Henry III,'° that Walter le Vel and 



of working, or their possessors, are scant Hugh le Mochele were crushed {oppress!) in the 



and disappointing. A few incidental facts can quarry of Peter de Clavile, where they were 



be gleaned from the remaining records of the Isle digging stone with a certain pick" {besca) valued 



of Purbeck or the fuller series of fabric rolls of at 6cl. The verdict was ' misadventure.' 



great royal works, while a comparison of the six- The Purbeck marble and stone conveyed to 



teenth-century marblers' code with the customs of Westminster for the abbey and the king's palace 



Portland may suggest some general conclusions. seem as a rule to have been bought '* from mer- 



A claim, we believe, has occasionally been chants or such quarry-owners as Peter and 

 asserted by the quarriers of Purbeck to enter William de Clavile. It is well known, how- 

 any uncultivated land in search of stone on the ever, that quarries both for chalk and stone 

 authority of a traditional but non-existent charter, were occasionally opened up in manors belong- 

 but such a right has never been legally estab- ing to the crown or leased during the progress 

 lished, as in the old mining fields of the Forest of of royal works, and in one of the earliest 

 Dean, or Derbyshire. It is more probable that detailed accounts now extant of the works at 

 the regular practice was to obtain the licence of St. Peter's, Westminster, we hear of stone from 

 the owner, or in the case of royal demesne of the ' the king's quarry,' " but its position is not stated.'* 

 constable of Corfe Castle, though encroachment In the greater number of cases, however, when 

 may have occasionally been winked at or con- Corfe marble or stone is mentioned, some note of 

 doned on account of the lucrative dues paid for purchase is added, and royal officers were 

 the right of carr)'ing the stone. Indeed, it may stationed in the Isle of Purbeck to super- 

 be suspected that most of the quarries, even in intend the buying and to ensure that the 

 the thirteenth century, were private enterprises king was fairly dealt with. For instance, about 

 undertaken either on behalf of the lord of a 1257,'' ;f35 ^^ P^''^ ^° Nicholas Red and 

 manor or else by quarriers working in partnership his fellows, ' viewers of the purchases of the king's 

 and holding a lease or licence from the crown, marble at Purbeck for the king's works at West- 

 Some of the more valuable of the ancient quarries minster.' A few of the letters sent by the king's 

 lay in the parish of Worth Matravers near Quarr, representatives at Purbeck with consignments are 

 which indeed took its name from them.* These still extant. They are brief and businesslike, 

 disused workings extend in a westerly direction 



through Haycroft and Downshay.' It is possible also been exposed. The marble of this quarry varied in 



colour, green, bluish-grey, and occasionally red from the 



" The marble strata and the beds beneath them are presence ofiron. It generally weathered brown outside, 



also clearly seen at Peveril Point, where, as Mr. A. '"Assize R. 202, m. 23, under hundred of Row- 



Strahan notes, ' the coast crosses the strike of a number barrow, 



of small folds at right angles.' 11 < Besca ' is generally translated ' spade,' but here 



' At Woodyhide between Afflmgton and Downshay ^ pij.^ ^^ < (.g^.gi . ^^^^^ j^ ^^ intended. 



considerable quantities of Purbeck marble were dug u < j^ marmore empto apud Corfe ad operationes 



even in the last century. Mr. Woodward, in his ecclesiae Westmonasterii'; Pipe R. 41 Hen. Ill, m. 8. 



Jurassic Rods 0/ Britain, gives the following section of cf also Pipe R. 42 Hen. Ill, m. 12. As to stone 



a marble pit open in 1884, and situated 150 yds. north < i„ g nnviUs libere petre et dure de Chorfemptis ad 



of Coome Farm and half-a-mile east of Langton :— i^j^jj,^ pro petra et frecto et discirgatione ^+8 1 is. 6J.' ; 



ft. in. Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 467, No. 7 (4), 67 Edw. I ; 



rr >, Ljf_ui f° ^~3 cf. Westm. Misc. Press 6, B. 3, P. 2 2, TT. 



Two broken-up bands of marble • "l « , . 1, , t7 l i^ n u ji 'J xt 



'^ [o +-3 " Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 467, No. I. 



Flaggy marble much weathered: » It is possible that this quarry was at Purbeck, but it 



Paludina on joints .^...08 is equally likely that it lay somewhere on the slopes 



Shales with ' race ' and thin flaggy of the North Downs, whence enormous quantities of 



limestone 40 stone were procured for the royal works at West- 



Paludina marble, much broken by min;ter and elsewhere. Towards the end of the four- 

 joints, and occurring in inter- teenth century we hear of a quarry taken on lease at 



rupted masses 03 Chaldon in Surrey. Stone from Chaldon was also 



Clays and calcareous shales with being used .i century before ; cf. Mr. M. S. Giuseppi, 



'race' ; 6 F.S.A., ' S;ons Quarries,' in r.C.//. 5Brr^V, ii, 278^ ; 



Brown limestone, blue-hearted ..04 Scott, Gkaningsfrom IVestmimter Abbef (2nd ed.1, App. 



Paludina marble 06 258 ; Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 467, No. 7 (4). It 



Shaly parting 01 may be remembered also that there is a Chaldon in 



Paludina marble, irregular bed . . o 3 Dorset, and Mr. A. Strahan states that 'A small ex- 

 Calcareous shales with ' race ' and posure of Upper and Middle Purbeck strata marks the 

 thin limestone bands ....16 axis of the Chaldon anticline, and some old limestone 



Paludina marble 07 quarries in them are said to have been opened for 



Paludina marble 14 stone for Burton Church.' Op. cit. 1 06. 



Beneath this last bed, another of Paludina marble had " Pipe R. 42 Hen. Ill, m. 1 2. 



