A HISTORY OF SURREY 



TrZ^:''ll^^n^^^^^ instances of seventeenth and eight- 



'''''\:Tl^^:rL^ of Reigate, Gatton and Godstone in the 

 south-ea tern quarter of the county, a building stone has been dug from 

 a very early date, generally known as ' firestone,' and variously called 

 according t^o the pface where it is found. It is a calcareous sandstone, 

 green to^ale blue-grey or greenish white m colour and, though excel- 

 fent for internal use, is of uncertain durability when exposed to the 

 weather/ Nearly all the churches in the eastern and a good many in 

 ^ the western half of the county were 



largely built in this stone. For even- 

 ness of texture, fine grain and freedom 

 in working, few stones will compare 

 with it, but its absorbent character 

 causes the surface to burst or scale 

 after frosts ; and this has led to the 

 destruction of much of the external 

 stonework of Surrey churches and to 

 its replacement in restorations by that 

 unsympathetic material, Bath stone. 

 The internal work of the quire and 

 transepts of St, Mary Overie and the 

 churches of Beddington, Banstead, 

 Coulsdon Chipstead, Merstham,Cater- 

 ham, Warlingham, Oxted and Limps- 

 field are among the best examples of 

 the use of this stone. Although chiefly 

 employed for the dressings and coursed 

 masonry, it was also much used for 

 rubble walling. 



On the eastern border of the 

 ExAMPw OF THE Ornamental use of Clunch county rubble and dressed stone from 

 AND Firestone, c. 1190. the neighbourhood of Scaneshill — a 



hard brownish sandstone — have been used. Tatsfield church is partly 

 built with this material. Bargate stone is the chief building stone of the 

 south-western quarter of the county. It is a hard, compact, ferruginous 

 sandstone, of a brown colour and of excellent weathering qualities, chiefly 

 used for rubble and hammer-dressed walling, but sometimes, as in the 

 cases of the twelfth century towers of Witley and Godalming, for coursed 



• This stone was employed perhaps more than any other in the building of mediaeval London. We 

 find it in use in the remains of the Confessor's work in Westminster Abbey, and when Henry III. rebuilt 

 the Abbey church, the quarries at Godstone supplied the greater part of the stone. It has been supposed 

 that from this circumstance the name of the village, Godstone, arose, Wachelestede (Walkhamstead) being 

 its Domesday designation. The use of this stone, owring to its popularity with the masons, extended 

 into Middlesex, Kent and Sussex. Among many other Kentish buildings, the thirteenth century quire 

 and uansept of Rochester Cathedral are built of firestone. 



