A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



owing to its uneven composition, rendering it unsuitable for any but the 

 plainest work. It was in use from before the Conquest down to the sixteenth 

 century and later, but was chiefly employed by the eleventh- and fifteenth- 

 century builders, being displaced in the interval by Caen and other imported 

 stones. Pulborough, Arundel, and Lyminster churches, and Arundel Castle, 

 afford good examples of its use. A rare instance of carving in this stone is 

 to be seen in a rude bas-relief upon the head of an eleventh-century window 

 in the south wall of Tangmere church. 



Various sandstones of paler colour, finer grain, and lighter colouring, are 

 quarried in northern, central, and eastern Sussex. Thus, at Henley Wood, 

 to the north of Midhurst, and elsewhere in the hilly country of the district, 

 an excellent, hard, and very durable stone of grey, greenish, and purple colours 

 was employed in the eleventh-century work at Linchmere church, in work 

 of the same period at Easebourne, and in many other churches and domestic 

 buildings of that locality, including parts of Cowdray House. 



Another, softer, and of a streaky yellow colour, is quarried near Horsham. 

 It is a good deal used in Horsham parish church and the churches and 

 houses of the neighbourhood. 



Horsted Keynes gives its name to another sandstone, harder and of a 

 more even texture than the last. It is of various colours, yellow, buff, and 

 grey, and is dug from the hills. Horsted Keynes, Ardingly, and West 

 Hoathly churches and the great Elizabethan house at Wakehurst are examples 

 of its use. It is possible to work finer details in this stone than in most of 

 the Sussex sandstones, as witness a fourteenth-century carved corbel at West 

 Hoathly church. 



A yellow sandstone of somewhat uneven quality is associated with Hastings. 

 It has furnished the principal material for the two ancient churches and the 

 castle, and was employed in the building of Battle, Westfield, Sedlescombe, 

 Penhurst, Crowhurst, Ashburnham, Brightling, and Etchingham churches, 

 being dug from many places in the hills round Hastings. It has weathered 

 well for the most part, but, as in the Hastings churches, St. Clement's and 

 All Saints', the sea air and smoke from coal-fires have caused disintegration. 



A coarser-grained sandstone, of various colours, is quarried near East 

 Grinstead, and appears in all the neighbouring churches and houses. Hart- 

 field and Withyham churches are good instances of its employment. 



In the country to the south and south-east of Tunbridge Wells, as far as 

 to Hailsham and Battle, where iron ore had been melted from the time of the 

 Romans, the stone quarried from the hills is largely impregnated with iron, 

 and we find ironstone used for rubble and quoinings in the churches of 

 Lamberhurst, Ticehurst, Wadhurst,Rotherfield, Mayfield, Maresfield, Buxted, 

 Framfield, Little Horsted, Warbleton, Hellingly, Heathfield, Herstmon- 

 ceux, Burwash, Brightling, Dallington, Penhurst, Ashburnham, Battle, Cats- 

 field, &c. The stone is of a dark brown colour, with red, orange, and purple 

 tones, and while hard and durable in plain work, is unsuitable for any but the 

 simplest mouldings and ornaments. It is sometimes found used, with evident 

 design, in bands, alternating with a lighter stone (such as a greenish firestone 

 or Caen), as in a composite respond and two beautiful mid-twelfth-century 

 windows in Hellingly church, and in an internal arch, slightly later in date, 

 in Arlington church. Conglomerate, or ' pudding-stone,' found in various 



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