Butcher Row

May 1936

BUTCHER ROW AND ITS SURROUNDINGS (Continued.)

Excavations in the Cross are going on apace and are revealing an old quarry where stone was hewn. The formation of the stone is of a very irregular shape and some five or six hundred years ago the top stone had no doubt been quarried for the City walls, which were commenced near the Fire Station in 1404, as stated in a former article, but at Bishop Street some of the wall was not finished in 1432, for the Leet states that John Clarke gave permission to build the wall on his ground (near the present Co-operative stables) and 30 people witnessed his grant; but afterwards Mr. Clarke changed his mind and said the wall should not go that way. However, a Hall of 73 Townspeople was called together by William Byfield, Mayor, and amongst them was one of the Botoner family and John Olney, who kept the "Black Bull," in Smithford Street. This Hall of important persons demanded the land for the said wall.

The stone now being quarried is of a very hard nature, similar to stone which was left in our old Cemetery and was too hard for the mediaeval tools to work. In some places the rock has been left rising in hillock form and reveals a number of places where the softer stone has been got out in large pieces. In some places a large mis-shaped stone lies at the bottom where it was hewn, and one stone was found almost the shape of a coffin lid. In some places it has been quarried about 15 to 17 feet and afterwards filled in with the fine marl and soil. One reason why I think it was used for the City Wall is that no small pieces of stone are found in the rubble, as they were required for the centre of the walls and would all be gathered up for that purpose. These were cemented together by pouring lime in the crevices in liquid form, and to-day this lime is found much harder than the stone they used.

Several pieces of pottery of the fourteenth century have been found, also two stone hones for sharpening knives, but I expect to find very little else, if the fillings in of the quarry consist of the heavy material which is now being found. I had hoped to find an old roadway or some part of it, but in only one place is a small road found and although it compares in depth and width with this road beneath Harveys' the leather merchants, in Ironmonger Row, it is of so small an area that I cannot be certain it is the road. There is little doubt that the present road has been quarried, and no houses are to be found there of more than fifteenth century period. Examples of that period are England's boot shop, with its new front, and Franks, the opticians, with the figure carved out of the solid oak. No bridges existed, but the road made of wood running through the river, mentioned in a previous article.

The methods of quarrying in the mediaeval period was to drill holes in stone and place lime in, sealing the hole with a plug, and in due time the lime burst the stone; or they drove in wood wedges, pouring water over them to cause swelling and thus burst the stone. On the Park Side is to be seen the same action in brick work, where wood posts have been built close up to the bricks in Mr. Oldfield's factory.

More about the quarry next month.

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