Building Stone from the East Midlands Quarries: Sources, Transportation and Usage

Abstract

QUARRIES IN THE EAST MIDLANDS supplied building stone to a large number of the cathedrals, castles, monastic buildings and parish churches both in the region and further afield. Stone from Nottinghamshire was mostly used locally but the Lincolnshire Limestone quarries, which included Barnack, supplied a large number of buildings in East Anglia and the south. The documentary evidence is lacking in most cases and in this paper building accounts and place-name studies are examined to identify the sites of the medieval quarries, to demonstrate the widespread use of the stone, and to discover the means by which it was transported.