INDUSTRIES 



Robert de Bremele writes '* to Master John of 

 Oxford :— 



I am sending you one shipload of marble by 

 William Justise, whom you may pay for freight 5 J 

 marks and 10 shillings, and if God prospers us I 

 will send you a shiplo.id before Whitsunday, and a 

 third if I can find a ship to carry the said stone. 

 You may expect me {sciatis adventum meuni) in 

 Whit- week and not before because the season 

 is now at hand in which, if I am absent, your 

 business cannot be carried out well {non bene possint 

 expedir'i). 



On another occasion it is possible that some 

 remonstrance had been addressed to Purbeck re- 

 garding slackness at the quarries, for Richard le 

 Wy te of the quarry at Purbeck writes ^' to Robert 

 de Beverley that the bearer, Peter de Sarcesye, had 

 expedited the king's work at the quarry as much 

 as he could, and had purchased and brought two 

 shiploads of stone. The most valuable supplies 

 from Corfe consisted no doubt of the well-known 

 marble, but we also hear of a freestone. This 

 may have been the stone in modern times called 

 Purbeck-Portland. But the matter is uncertain, 

 as the Corfe merchants supplied apparently more 

 than one variety of stone. In a Westminster 

 fabric account for the years 6 & 7 Edward I we 

 read : — " 



To Edward of Corf on the same day (Morrow of 

 Palm Sunday) for 1300^ stones from the island {petie 

 de huuld), for the stone and freight ^^5 y. \d. To the 

 same for 16 yards {yirgis) and 2 feet of hard Corf 

 stone {dure petre de Corf) 22s. . . . To Robert of 

 Corf" on the day aforesaid for 55 yards of Corf stone, 

 for the stone and freight £^ 1 7/. 6d. For discharging 

 it 2s. 6d. 



The term ' stone from the island ' is undesir- 

 ably ambiguous, as the phrase may refer to 

 stone from the well-known quarries ^'^ of the 

 Isle of Wight, and even the Isle of Portland 

 is possibly not excluded. Yet as the merchant 

 is a Corfe man the expression may embody 

 an early use of the term ' island ' as applied 



'" Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 467, No. i. 



" Westm. Misc. Press. 6, B. 3, P. 22, ir. The 

 quarry here referred to seems to have been on the 

 land of the Claviles. 



" Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 467, No. 7 (6). Sir J. C. 

 Robinson kindly suggests that the ' hard stone ' here 

 mentioned m.iy be the local ' burr,' an extremely 

 durable building stone used to a very great extent at 

 Corfe Castle, as well as in the tower of the fifteenth- 

 century church at Swanage. 



" Probably the Robert le Blund who supplied 

 marble for the Eleanor crosses. 



"" The stone from these was used to a very large 

 extent, both at Winchester and at Christchurch 

 Twyneham. When Winchester Castle was being 

 repaired early in the third decade of the thir- 

 teenth centuiy, much of the stone employed was 

 ' petra de Insula' (see Accts. Exch. K. R. bdle. 491, 

 No. 13). 



to Purbeck. The determination of the point 

 must, however, be left to the judicious 

 reader. 



Not only was stone and marble bought at 

 Corfe for the king's works at Westminster, but 

 even for new building or the repair of already 

 existing structures at Corfe Castle stone was 

 sometimes ^ but not invariably purchased in 

 the neighbourhood. Yet on one occasion at least 

 an attempt made by the constable of Corfe Castle 

 to obtain stone cheaply at the expense of his 

 neighbours provided work for the lawyers. The 

 officer in question, Elias de Rabayne, during his 

 tenure of office was indeed peculiarly unfortun- 

 ate in quarrelling with the Purbeck landowners. 

 One of them, William de Clavile, complained -^ 

 that on the Tuesday after All Hallows, 5 Ed- 

 ward I (1277), the constable had caused five of his 

 oaks to be cut down and carried to Corfe 

 Castle, and furthermore in the Easter week 

 following had ordered one John Doget to open 

 up a quarry within the close (c/ausuram) of the 

 aforesaid William at Holne, from which stone 

 had been raised against the landowner's will. 

 Clavile complained to the king, and an injunction 

 was served on the constable ordering him to 

 cease his infringement of Clavile's rights and to 

 offer compensation for the wrong, but this the 

 aggressor ignored. 



The constable in answer declared that his 

 predecessors who had held the castle and warren 

 of Corfe had been wont both to cut down trees 

 and make quarries and thence carry stones for 

 the repair of the castle of Corfe when necessity 

 required. He had simply followed precedent 

 in the matter, and furthermore he had taken 

 a part of the stone ^' in order that he might 

 send it to the Tower of London in obedience 

 to the king's writ. He demands that inquisi- 

 tion should be made thereupon. Richard de 

 Colleshulle the sheriff, however, deposed that 

 the constable had no right to take the stone 

 and timber or meddle in the work of repair- 

 ing the castle, since viewers were appointed to 

 see to the business, to whom he as sheriff made 

 the necessary payments for the expense of 

 materials. 



•» See Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 460, No. 27 ; bdle. 

 461, No. 5. 



" Assize R. 205. 



" The only stone found at Holne is apparently a 

 reddish grit or sandstone, and this appears at Corfe to a 

 small extent only in the Butevant Tower and adjacent 

 walls. Elias does not apparently say that he had 

 actually sent any to the Tower, and it is doubtful 

 whether his statement was literally true even as it 

 stands. He might have possibly at some time received 

 a royal order to procure and send 'freestone' to the 

 Tower, but it is hardly likely that the rough stone 

 of Holne would be brought the long journey from 

 Purbeck when Kentish rag and Reigate stone were 

 so easily obtainable. See also the sherifTs statement 

 above. 



333 



