Excursion Report - Building stones of Northamptonshire

June 9th 2007

Leader: Dr Diana Sutherland

As for almost all our 2007 excursions, the weather was kind to us and we had a super summer’s day for our outing to Northamptonshire to see examples of the use of building stone in that county. We were led by Diana Sutherland, and this trip was by way of a corollary to the one she led for us in July 2004, so successful was that day. The 10-strong party was small but keen and we began by assembling at Bennie’s Pitsford Quarry, a working Northampton Sand ironstone (Middle Jurassic) pit. Younger Rutland Formation beds overlay the ironstone, with a significant gap between the two which represents the missing Grantham and Lincolnshire Limestone formations. The faces were small but with Diana’s expert guidance we were able to see the details of the succession. From Bennie’s we drove a short distance and parked in order to rationalise cars for the restricted locality we were to see next, an historic conserved quarry at Duston Wildes, also in the ironstone with overlying Rutland Formation. For many years it was believed that the white sands now attributed to the Rutland, were in fact Grantham Formation, but palynological evidence now suggests otherwise. Despite the rather overgrown aspect of the quarry, the party readily ventured into the undergrowth to view the faces.

Clockwise from top left: Bennie’s Quarry, Pitsford; Duston Wildes Quarry; at the Fox & Hounds, Harlestone; The Wheatsheaf at Dallington, built of two different types of ironstone All photos © Andrew Swift

With lunchtime now upon us we retreated to the Fox & Hounds at Harlestone to eat. The pub was nouveau olde English posh, and reflected the proximity of Althorpe, the Spencer (viz. Princess Diana) ancestral home and the burgeoning tourist industry associated with it. But, despite that, and us feeling a mite uncomfortable in our field gear, we enjoyed a most affable lunch and good food. Thus restored, we were ready for the first post-lunch item, which was a delightful walk through Harlestone village environs and countryside, ending up at the picturesque ironstone church. In the churchyard were many interesting gravestones and memorials, including, most appropriately for our day’s subject, stonemasons tombs. Our next port of call was Dallington village and this was chosen to show how a typical ironstone village was swallowed up by urban sprawl, in this case the town of Northampton. We went to the old village centre and saw mellow ironstone almshouses and other old buildings, also the rustic ironstone church with its rubble-built tower.

To end our excursion we drove to another settlement almost engulfed by Northampton, but thankfully Kingsthorpe still retained much of the atmosphere of a village. We looked first at the abandoned and melancholy shell of Kingsthorpe Hall, most unusually built of stone from the Rutland Formation. Locally a harder sandstone occurs in this formation, and that was what was used for the hall. Many of the blocks showed excellent examples of rootlets. From the Hall we walked the short distance into Kingsthorpe centre and were shown how another local facies, this time of the Northampton Sand ironstone, had been used in many of the buildings, including the church. It took the form of a type of concretionary development, although the true origin may be more obscure, perhaps connected to bioturbation. But in any case it made a most attractive stone with a rusty ironstone groundmass with paler elongate ‘concretions’. Sadly, that concluded the locations for the day so we expressed our grateful thanks to Diana for a splendid tour. As per usual, scouts reported the presence of a nearby pub, ironstone-built of course, so a good percentage of the party retired thence. Purely for exploratory and scientific reasons naturally.

Andrew Swift