Bargate stone

File:St Mary and All Saints, Dunsfold.jpg

Church of St Mary and All Saints, Dunsfold

Bargate stone is a highly durable form of sandstone. It owes its yellow, butter or honey colouring to a high iron content.<ref name="guildfordsociety.org.uk">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In some contexts it may be considered to be a form of ironstoneTemplate: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.<ref name="spelthorne.gov.uk">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref name="guildfordsociety.org.uk"/>

Bargate stone is rare in current use due to its short supply.<ref name="spelthorne.gov.uk"/> Bath stone, Yorkstone and other similar coloured stone is sometimes used as alternatives, or to complement itTemplate:Citation needed.

Petrography

Bargate stone is typically a mix of sandy bioclastic limestone and bioclastic sandstone. The intergranular cements comprise ferroan carbonate.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Use

Bargate Stone is found in many buildings in Surrey, approximately 250 of which are listed, and in two churches in London.<ref>Advanced Search by text 'Bargate' less Bargate Farmhouse and Street/Lane/Bargate meaning road</ref> 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.<ref name=pinewoods>Pinewoods Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>

Examples

Early medieval

File:Guildford Castle - geograph.org.uk - 1441343.jpg

Guildford Castle keep

• The Keep at Guildford Castle.<ref>The Castle Keep, Castle Hill (Guildford) Template:National Heritage List for England</ref> It was a credit to the strength of Bargate that it was chosen for the main structure, standing on top of the natural chalk and Bargate stone bedrock, made it available by quarrying in the locality.
• Godalming Parish Church, Grade I listed assisted by Saxon features.
• Church of St. Mary and All Saints, Dunsfold
• St Nicholas's Church Compton, Guildford (Bargate rubble used, mortar-rendered)<ref>St Nicholas's Church, Compton Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>
• Church of St. Mary the Virgin (12th-century tower only), Oxted in Tandridge District, east Surrey<ref>Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxted Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>
• St Mary's Church, (relevantly mostly in clunch from its own Quarry Street) Guildford<ref>Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>
• St James's Church, Abinger<ref>Template:National Heritage List for England</ref><ref group="n">Tower parapet only</ref>
• All Saints Church, Witley, Surrey<ref>All Saints, Witley Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>

16th Century

Tillingbourne Cottage, Wotton, Surrey<ref>Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>

17th Century

Cosford Mill, Thursley<ref>Cosford Mill Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>

18th Century

File:Leith hill tower.JPG

The tower on the top of Leith Hill

• Leith Hill Tower<ref>Leith Hill Tower Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>

19th Century

• St Catherine's School/Drama Studio, Guildford<ref>St Catherine's 'School' Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>
• St Stephen's Church, Gloucester Road, London (York stone parpoints and dressings in Bath stone)<ref group="n">By Joseph Peacock</ref><ref>St Stephen's Church, Kensington Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>
• St Nicholas's Church, Guildford<ref>St Nicholas's Church, Guildford Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>
• St Michael's Church, York Town, Camberley<ref>St Michaels Church, Camberley Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>
• The Shah Jahan Mosque, completed in 1889 along with similar-coloured Bath stone, but a limestone not a sandstone
• Charterhouse School (completed 1872)<ref>Charterhouse School, Main Building Template:National Heritage List for England
  Charterhouse School, Old Museum House Template:National Heritage List for England</ref><ref group="n">By Sir Edwin Lutyens</ref>
• St Stephen's Church, Rochester Row, Westminster<ref>Template:National Heritage List for England</ref><ref group="n">by architect Benjamin Ferrey - Bargate here described not as sandstone but ragstone</ref><ref>St Stephen's Church Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>
• Booker's Tower<ref>Template:NHLE</ref>
• Munstead Wood<ref group="n">By Lutyens</ref><ref>Munstead Wood Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>
• Chinthurst Hill<ref group="n">By Lutyens</ref><ref>Chinthurst Hill Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>
• Grafham Grange School, Bramley<ref group="n">By Henry Woodyer as architect's home, now school</ref><ref>Grafham GrangeTemplate:National Heritage List for England</ref>
• St James' Court, Farnham<ref group="n">By Henry Woodyer, formerly a church</ref><ref>St James' CourtTemplate:National Heritage List for England</ref>
• St Johns Church, Caterham<ref group="n">William Bassett Smith and Thomas Graham Jackson</ref><ref>St John's Church, CaterhamTemplate:National Heritage List for England</ref>

20th Century

• The Pergola, Vann Park and Garden, Hambledon<ref>Pergola Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>
• Pinewoods, Oxshott<ref name=pinewoods/>
• Tigbourne Court, Wormley (blocks with thin horizontal bands of tiles)
• Hascombe Court, Hascombe<ref>Hascombe Court Template:National Heritage List for England</ref><ref group="n">By J D Coleridge, for Robert EA Murray and later for Sir John Jarvis</ref>
• Platform of war memorial, Bramshott, Hampshire<ref group="n">Mostly made of Doulton stone</ref><ref>War memorial platform, Bramshott Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>
• St Tarcisius Church, Camberley — the War Memorial Church to the British Catholic army officers who died in World War I. North Lady Chapel has triple arches and a stone reredos depicting the Virgin and Child and angels<ref>Pergola Template:National Heritage List for England</ref> Bath stone dressings<ref group="n">By Frederick Walters, dressings in Bath stone, many religious reredos including angels and the Virgin Mary</ref>
• Orchards by Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll, Bramley<ref>Orchards (park and garden) Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>

See also

• Reigate Stone quarried from the Upper Greensand Formation in east Surrey

Notes and references

Notes

References