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Question
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I know that Chilmark stone was used in the building of Salisbury Cathedral but can you tell me what other well known buildings are built of it?
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Question asked on
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26 December 2004
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Answer
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Chilmark stone was used in both the cathedral at Old Sarum and the new one at Salisbury. Before that it is believed to have been used for packing around the upright stones at Stonehenge, for houses on an Iron Age site at Fifield Bavant, and for the Roman villa at East Grimstead and the Roman farm at Rockbourne. In medieval times it was used in several Wiltshire parish churches and later in Longford Castle (Britford), Fonthill Abbey (Fonthill Gifford), Westminster Abbey, Chichester Cathedral Spire, Lulworth and Wardour Castles, Wilton Abbey, and the tithe barn at Tisbury.
The stone comes from the parishes of Chilmark, Tisbury, and Teffont Evias, and is an outcrop of Portland stone, which occurs in the south-east of Chilmark parish and extends into the other two. By the early 19th century the canal network had brought down transportation costs for other stone quarried close to a canal, such as Box stone, and Chilmark stone was no longer competitive. It revived in the late 19th century and Salisbury Post Office was built with Chilmark stone in 1905. In 1936 the quarry and mines were bought by the Air Department and used as underground stores for most of the rest of the 20th century.
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Bibliography
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Chilmark Quarries, by Chilmark Women's Institute. 1970s
