Our New Building Stones Researcher
The Building Stones team is pleased to be joined by professional researcher Jenni Waugh. Jenni will be working on the Building Stones project for one afternoon a fortnight helping to fill in some of the gaps in our database and follow up leads on specific buildings or quarries from volunteers unable to make it to The Hive.
Although researching in archives can be slow, and the bits of information are often not easy to find, there have been some promising leads as a result of research by volunteers. Using a source in The Hive, volunteer Maggie discovered that the stone used for the original Worcester Bridge came from Farnol Moor Quarry owned by a Mrs Wollascot from Shropshire. Although we haven’t located the quarry yet, further research by Maggie suggests it is located near Bridgnorth. Maggie also discovered that when repairing the bridge in the 1930s the stone specified was from Darley Dale in Derbyshire. The current owners of the quarries have provided us with lots of information about their stone and we are now hoping to match this to the stone left in the bridge.
Other information found in the archives has identified that Earl Somers donated the stone for Hollybush Chapel from his Eastnor Estate free of royalty and that the farmers of the district gave their services in hauling it. It has also come to light that the former Lea and Perrins Chemist shop, on Bellevue Road in Great Malvern, used Cradley Stone to face the fronts of the houses.
Update Nov 2015: Jenni will be running an introduction to the new Herefordshire Archives (HARC), together with Rhys Griffith, the Senior Archivist, on 30/11/2015. For more details see the event listing. She will be available to help volunteers with their research at HARC in the New Year.
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Our New Building Stones Researcher
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