480 , LOWER OOLITIC ROCKS OF ENGLAND : 
Freestone of good quality is now largely quarried, beneath a consider- 
able thickness of superincumbent strata, at Milton (see p. 307) ; and for- 
merly atone was obtained at Pudlecote, near Charlbury. 
Here and there in the area to the north and north-east, as at Tad- 
marton, building-stone is obtained. At this locality it is a close-grained 
shelly oolite. At Shalstone, north of Shalstone Hill Farm, a hard white 
Bhelly limestone is said to yield " a beautiful building-stone."* At Olney 
and Bedford building-stone is also obtained. 
In Northamptonshire the Great Oolite Limestone yields stone that is 
locally used for building-purposes, but no freestone of great repute. 
White stone from Culworth quarry has been used for paving together 
with a black stone ('probably Middle Lias) from Byfield. . In the Manor 
Houses the halls have been paved with these two rocks ; alternately set in 
squares. Morton remarked that " Both of these may be wrought to a 
considerable Degree of Smoothness, so as nearly to approach a Polish. 'f 
At Blisworth an oolitic limestone belonging to the Great Oolite, is sawed 
up and faced, for flooring, window-sills, chimney-pieces. &c.J 
At Denton, south-east of Northampton, white and blue beds of lime- 
stone have been quarried. At Gretton near Uppingham, the limestone 
has been used for pitching. Good freestone, as remarked by Prof. Judd, 
has been obtained at Oundle and Geddingtoii Chase. (See p. 411.) 
In parts of Lincolnshire the Great Oolite Limestone yields material for 
rough walling, &c. 
Forest Marble. 
The shelly and oolitic limestones of this formation are extensively 
quarried for building-stone, wall-stone, paving-purposes, pedestals for 
ricks, &c. Slabs or stone-planks 3 to 5 inches thick, from 3 to 4 feet in 
length, and 18 inches to 4 feet in width, are obtained in places. These slabs, 
as a rule, cannot be neatly squared ; but they have been used for floors 
of kitchens, courts, and yards, for stiles, as rough coping for walls, or 
as pitching for stables. 
The principal quarries have been already mentioned ; among them the 
more important are those of Bothenhampton, Long Burton, North Cheri- 
ton, Windmill Hill above Charletou Horethorne, Bratton, Wanstrow, &c. 
The Forest Marble is largely quarried at Frome, where it is known 
as the Frome Stone (see p. 349), also near Oirencester, Norton Brize, 
Kirtlington, Bicester, &c. Beds of similar nge have been quarried at 
Lillingston Lovell (p. 378). 
Cornbrash. 
As a rule the Cornbrash is too much broken up to yield building-blocks ; 
but it ie quarried in places for building-purposes and for stone-fences. 
The stone as a rule breaks up somewhat irregularly and does not yield 
a good " face." 
It has been used for building, at Radipole near Weymoutli, where the 
nnweathered beds yield a tough bluish shelly limestone; also at East 
Coker near YeoTil, near Templecombe, Upton Noble, &c. 
Eeference may here be made to the Caen Stone, of Normandy, which 
in old times was extensively used in this country. It is a fine-grained 
limestone, with few oolitic grains, and contains about 13 per cent, of 
silica, i It has been employed, mostly for inside-work, in the construction 
of portions of the Temple Church, and of the cathedrals of Canterbury, 
Rochester, Winchester, and Salisbury ; it was also used in the east 
facade of Buckingham Palace, and for internal work in the present Houses 
of Parliament. 
* Green, Geology of Banbury. p. 20. 
t John Morton, Nat. Hist Northauts, 1705, pp. 108, 126, 484. 
t Sharp, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxvi. p. 378. 
J. Bravender.in Hunt's Mineral Statistics for 1858, Part 2 (1860), p. 155. 
|| See analysis iu Mem. Geol. Surr., vol. ii., Part 2, p. 692. 
