Church building fabrics on Romney Marsh and the Marshland Fringe: a geological perspective

Abstract

Romney Marsh is a region where few historic buildings now remain in the modern landscape. Tbis paper examines the only group of historic monuments on the marsh in which stone was the principal medium, and where it was employed on a major scale-the parish church.A fieldwork programme determined the types of stone present in eighteen churches on Romney and Walland Marsh, and a further eighteen in the immediate upland hinterland. Tbe objectives of the study were to establish the types and provenance of the principal stones used in church building in the region, and using these data to examine the pattern of historic quarrying and supply from the Anglo-Saxon period to later medieval times.Building stone supply was shown to vary according to several factors, including the geographical location of each building site, the date of construction, and the relation to known or surmised communication routes. Tbe study pointed to an increasingly sophisticated quarrying industry, relying initially mainly on opportunist collection of beach boulders up to the thirteenth century, before sources of hewn stone for ashlar began to be increasingly exploited. Tbe coast was the major resource at all times, and it is tentatively suggested that the removal of foreshore stone contributed to long-shore drift, and thus indirectly to dramatic coastal changes in the region. Most material was of local origin, although rare, high quality imports were also utilised.

Medieval Adaptation, Settlement and Economy of a Coastal Wetland

“…Most of this is likely to have come from fairly local outcrops situated to the east and west of the marsh. Outcrops in the Hythe/Folkestone and Hastings/Rye areas appear to have been most exploited, stone probably being brought in via the port of New Romney or Lydd, either 'intentionally', as in the case of the querns and whetstones, or 'unintentionally' as ballast (Pearson and Potter 2002). Although the worked stone would have been put to use for grinding foodstuffs and sharpening, the majority of the stone may simply have been collected to create floors, paths or sill walls.…”

“…The presence of a large number of water-worn cobbles and small boulders of Folkestone stone suggests the beach was a source of much of the material. Similar sources appear to have been exploited for the churches of the Marsh (Pearson and Potter 2002).…”

Stone emplacement in early Scottish churches: evidence of Early Christian craftsmanship

“…Furthermore, the degrees to which the stone in the wall fabric was worked (in post-Roman times) in England give a good indication of any particular wall's age (Potter 1998). Whole or broken, large, marine beach cobbles incorporated into a wall provide a fairly reliable indication of Anglo-Saxon workmanship (eg Pearson & Potter 2002;Potter 2005a). In general, the same rules appear to apply in Scotland.…”

“…It is evident that Anglo-Saxon builders relied extensively on very local stone in the construction of their churches (eg Potter 1999;2001;Pearson & Potter 2002). If their counterparts in Scotland worked similarly with local materials, generally the rocks available for selection would be restricted to indurated and hard Palaeozoic and precambrian sediments, igneous rocks like basalt and granite, or metamorphic gneisses and schists.…”