BUILDING STONES. 
475 
material is estiamated at- Id. per superficial foot. It has been applied to 
the south front of Westminster Abbey, to portions of Buckingham Palace, 
Magdalen College, Oxford, &c. 
Statistics of the production of building-stone from underground- 
workings in the counties of Somerset, Gloucester, and Wilts, are 
published in the Reports of the Inspectors of Mines. These statistics are 
admittedly incomplete, and it is therefore beat to omit them. As an 
example of the value of the stone at the different localities, including 
Great and Inferior Oolite, it may be stated that for the year 1887 the 
following statistics are given : 

Tons of Stone. 
Value at Mine. 

Gloucestershire 
1,254 
620 
Wiltshire 
107,610 
64,566 
Somersetshire 
2,748 
1,648 
INFERIOK OOLITE SERIES. 
Northampton Sand. 
The tferruginous and calcareous sandstones of the Northampton Sand 
have been quarried in many places for building-stone, the material much 
resembling that of the Middle Lias quarried at Hornton, on Edge Hill. 
It has been extensively used in Northamptonshire and Rutlandshire. 
Soft sandstone known as Oven-stone, from its frequent use in former 
days in the construction of ovens, was obtained in the neighbourhood of 
Chipping Norton and Steeple Aston.* (See p. 163.) 
Helmedon was long celebrated for its freestone quarries, but the stone, 
which was used in the mansions of Stowe and Woburn, is not now 
worked. Similar stone was obtained at Thorpe Mandeville, near Byn'eld, 
and also at Eydon.f 
The principal quarries now open are those of Duston and Harleston, 
where the stone is known as Duston freestone and Harleston stone. 
Coping, paving, and building-blocks, and tombstones are prepared. 
Some of the soft (yellow or red) beds of Duston are used for rubbing 
hearths or door-steps. At Harleston the stone is used for pitching ard 
edging-stones. At Desborough, Cottingham near Rockingham, and near 
Uppingham, and other places stone has been quarried. 
Inferior Oolite, fyc, 
The Inferior Oolite of Somersetshire and Gloucestershire furnishes 
very many important building-stones. 
The Ham Hill stone quarried to the west of Teovil, is a brown lime- 
stone, mainly composed of comminuted shells of Pecten, Ostrea, &c., 
cemented together by ferruginous matter. It occurs in the upper part 
of the Midford Sand. (See p. 72.) An analysis mentioned by Charles 
Moore, showed 14 per cent, of metallic iron.J The stone is very much 
false-bedded, and the thickest layers are seldom more than two feet. 
The mass of the stone-beds is from 50 to 60 feet thick. The stone has 
been worked since the time of the Roman occupation, for some Roman 
coffins are made of it. It has proved a very durable material in the 
* Memoirs of William Smith, pp. 3, 61. 
f John Morton, Nat. Hist. Northants, 1705, pp. 126, &c. ; and George Baker, 
Hist, and Antiq. of Northampton, 1822-30, vol. i. pp. 440, &c. 
$ Moore, Proc. Somerset Arch. Soc., vol. xiii. p. 143. 
