Barnack Stone
The stone, sometimes called "Barnack rag", was a valuable building stone first exploited by the Romans. Quarrying continued in Medieval times when the Abbeys at Peterborough, Crowland, Ramsey, Sawtry and Bury St. Edmunds all used Barnack stone, and the monasteries frequently argued over the rights to it. Blocks of stone were transported on sleds to the river Welland and loaded onto barges in which it travelled down the Nene and the fenland waterways. Most famously, stone from Barnack was used to build Peterborough and Ely Cathedrals. By the year AD 1500, all the useful stone had been removed, and the bare heaps of limestone rubble gradually became covered by the rich carpet of wild flowers, such as the pasque flower and pyramidal orchid, which can be seen today. The quarry area, now a National Nature Reserve, is known as "The Hills and Hollows" or "The Hills and Holes".
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Famous quotes containing the word stone:
“You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
—Bible: New Testament, 2 Corinthians 3:2-3.