Bargate_stone

Bargate stone

Bargate stone

Highly durable form of sandstone used for building


Bargate stone is a highly durable form of sandstone. It owes its yellow, butter or honey colouring to a high iron content.[1] In some contexts it may be considered to be a form of ironstone[citation needed]. However, in the context of stone buildings local to the extraction of Bargate Stone, the term 'ironstone' is often used to refer to a darker stone, also extracted from the Greensand, which rusts to a brown colour.[2]

Church of St Mary and All Saints, Dunsfold

Sources

This stone was quarried for centuries in the Bargate Member of the Greensand Ridge, particularly where it is widest in south west Surrey, England. It occurs near the surface and was quarried in the hillsides near Godalming. Medieval quarries are still visible in Godalming, at the foot of Holloway Hill.[1]

Bargate stone is rare in current use due to its short supply.[2] Bath stone, Yorkstone and other similar coloured stone is sometimes used as alternatives, or to complement it[citation needed].

Petrography

Bargate stone is typically a mix of sandy bioclastic limestone and bioclastic sandstone. The intergranular cements comprise ferroan carbonate.[3]

Use

Bargate Stone is found in many buildings in Surrey, approximately 250 of which are listed, and in two churches in London.[4] It is endemic to older buildings near the Greensand Ridge where it is found. Its 20th century use tended towards coursed use of Bargate sandstone with bricks, or concrete, sometimes with ashlar dressings or mortar rendering.[5]

Examples

Early medieval

Guildford Castle keep

16th Century

Tillingbourne Cottage, Wotton, Surrey[12]

17th Century

Cosford Mill, Thursley[13]

18th Century

The tower on the top of Leith Hill

19th Century

20th Century

See also


Notes and references

Notes
  1. Tower parapet only
  2. By Joseph Peacock
  3. by architect Benjamin Ferrey - Bargate here described not as sandstone but ragstone
  4. By Lutyens
  5. By Lutyens
  6. By Henry Woodyer as architect's home, now school
  7. By Henry Woodyer, formerly a church
  8. William Bassett Smith and Thomas Graham Jackson
  9. By J D Coleridge, for Robert EA Murray and later for Sir John Jarvis
  10. Mostly made of Doulton stone
  11. By Frederick Walters, dressings in Bath stone, many religious reredos including angels and the Virgin Mary
References
  1. "Bargate Stone in the Guildford Area". Guildford Society. 23 October 2017.
  2. "Repair and maintenance of stone buildings" (PDF). Spelthorne Borough Council.
  3. Lott, Graham; Cameron, Don. "The building stones of South East England : Mineralogy and provenance" (PDF). British Geological Survey. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 May 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  4. Advanced Search by text 'Bargate' less Bargate Farmhouse and Street/Lane/Bargate meaning road
  5. The Castle Keep, Castle Hill (Guildford) Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1377881)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  6. Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxted Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1189608)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  7. Charterhouse School, Main Building Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1190288)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
    Charterhouse School, Old Museum House Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1190406)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 24 October 2013.

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