The Choice of Local or Imported Building Stone in English Medieval Churches; A South Cambridgeshire Case Study

Abstract External building stone has been recorded in 124 medieval churches in a 1200 km 2 area in south Cambridgeshire, UK. Each component (e.g. walling, windows, doors) in each architectural part (e.g. tower, nave, aisles, chancel) of each church has been separately recorded, generating over 2000 records of construction or repair projects. Every project has been dated from documentary records or architectural style, allowing analysis of stone use in both space and time. The pre-Reformation churches of the area mostly have rubble walls of local Fieldstone and Clunch (Cretaceous Chalk), and imported Jurassic limestone from Barnack, 60 km to the northwest. Less common are ashlar walls of Clunch or Barnack. The medieval dressings clearly show the use of local Clunch in less exposed positions but of the weather-resistant imported Barnack stone for exposed locations. This use of Barnack was despite the transport costs for the circuitous inland waterway journey of about 110 km. The amount of imported Barnack stone in windows and doors is probably a good indicator of a church’s medieval wealth. Dressings of Clunch were much repaired or wholly replaced during the nineteenth century church ‘restorations.’ The replacement stone came mostly from the Jurassic Lincolnshire Limestone belt, not from Barnack but from other quarries along its outcrop from Weldon to Ancaster. The methodology of data collection, analysis and presentation in the Cambridgeshire study should prove useful for other heritage buildings nationally and internationally.