Kingston Lacy House
NGR: ST977013, Lat: 50.811409, Long: -2.0333040. Lead author: PJB.
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for more details. This web entry is under revision.
for more details. This web entry is under revision.
All photos and images below are by kind permission of the National Trust unless otherwise stated
Part 1: The Exterior of Kingston Lacy.
Image 1
Chilmark/Wardour Upper (oolitic) Building Stone was used from 1663-7 at Kingston Hall in part structurally as well as for decoratively sculpted coats of arms. However, only when Charles Barry clad the brick building in Chilmark i.e.Wardour Lower (quartz sandy/glauconitic) Main Building stone in the 1830’s did we see it almost replicate Kingston Maurward's Portland Limestone clad example. The William Bankes’s now neo-classical Italianate palladio of stone also used Portland Whit Bed as tilted back slab facings to the new North front ground floor walling, containing oyster shell, set on new plinths. This same stone was used for the new garden terrace.
Part 2. The Building Stones of Kingston Lacy.
Portland Whit Bed: Strong cementation and ideal porosity make the Whit bed a long lasting and ideal white building stone. It is a variously bioclastic granular oolite, so is strengthened by broken shell and porosity is limited to interconnected cavities that dry out safely. Spheroidal grains are of small < 2mm superficial ooids, larger interclasts and aggregate grains. It is mined today on the Isle of Portland.
Wardour Upper Building Stone: This stone was worked out in the Nineteenth century but was very similar in all respects to Portland Base bed i.e. a relatively shell free oolitic/ooidal freestone and so ideal as a sculptor’s stone but susceptible to weathering out-doors.
Wardour Lower Main Building Stone: Commonly named Chilmark and aka as MBS this stone is also a strongly cemented granular limestone and with an ideal almost frost free porosity. It is not oolitic but a fine-grained quartz sand and glauconite limestone that is both strong and will take mouldings.
Hardness of grainstones, strength of cementation, colouring of minerals and grain coatings too, can be variable in any of these building stones and even from the same quarry. (For more fine detail on textures please see 4) & 5) in References below.)
Wardour Upper Building Stone: This stone was worked out in the Nineteenth century but was very similar in all respects to Portland Base bed i.e. a relatively shell free oolitic/ooidal freestone and so ideal as a sculptor’s stone but susceptible to weathering out-doors.
Wardour Lower Main Building Stone: Commonly named Chilmark and aka as MBS this stone is also a strongly cemented granular limestone and with an ideal almost frost free porosity. It is not oolitic but a fine-grained quartz sand and glauconite limestone that is both strong and will take mouldings.
Hardness of grainstones, strength of cementation, colouring of minerals and grain coatings too, can be variable in any of these building stones and even from the same quarry. (For more fine detail on textures please see 4) & 5) in References below.)
Scaled Close-ups; 20 x 20mm showing commonly visible variations in bioclastic texture and grain size of these three stones. (For better texture, cementation and porosity of matrix – please see rock thin-sections below.)
PB DSC 1396 - WL/MBS - Wardour Lower/Main Building Stone. Prov. Dean Harris. GT colour adjusted.
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PB DSC 1406 - WU/OBS - Wardour Upper/Oolitic Building Stone. Prov. John Needham. GT colour adjusted.
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PB DSC 1405 - Base of Whit Bed. Prov. Dean Harris. GT colour adjusted.
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Rock Thin-sections; cementation and potential porosity are revealed - in PPL by intergranular black spacings and cementation by the pastel colouring of intergranular sparite. (For more on textures please see References below.)
a) PPL/XPL Wardour Lower/Main Building Stone aka (MBS) Mike Le Bas, University of Leicester. No 120261 Canon 0321/0322 x 2.5 obj @ 3 -121 Scale 0.1mm. . PJB
b) PPL/XPL Wardour Upper/Oolitic Building Stone, W.G.Townson No UQC2 (revised.) Canon 0772/0771 x 2.5 obj @ 3 -121 Scale 0.1mm. PJB
c) PPL/XPL Portland Freestone, Whit Bed 1.2m below top. M.R. House PL Ltd.No15 Canon 0238/0240 x 2.5 obj @ 12-119 Scale 0.1mm (not shown but as above.) See also M.R. House 'Geology of the Dorset Coast Plate 12 for lower mag. PPL view. N.B . (Scale line omitted because it spoils the image quality.) PJB
Part 3: Garden Stone
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There are 29 known Aswan granite obelisks remaining and this Google images photo(1 and 2) illustrates the risks involved in extraction of such great weights. William Bankes imported and re-erected one of two abandoned Aswan statuary granite obelisks found abandoned on the Isle of Philae. He had the best one jointed with part of the second and set all above a matching stepped plinth retrieved from further down the Nile.
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Image 1
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Image 2
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Image 3
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Image 4
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Gifted to William Bankes in 1822, the complete Statuary Aswan Granite Sarcophagus(4) is 8ft long and note the plinth, below head, was originally brightly polished and heavily engraved with hieroglyphics. (note the reverse Lewis lamp holes in the lid.) Statuary red Aswan Granite is coarse grained with + - 3-5 cm iron rich - so pink to red - orthoclase feldspars akin to U.K. Shap granite.
Image 5
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Image 6
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The much weathered Rosso Veronese lions now reveal exaggerated stylolites, algal texture decay and the colouring is masked by today’s organic cover. In their home climate they would still display an evident structural solidity as is well seen represented by features inside the House. The very organically-coated tortoise mounted vases and plinths to the garden staircase are also of a Rosso Verona marble.
Image 7
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Image 8
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Image 9
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The matching pair of well heads on the lawn (7,9); one a much weathered clean limestone, are of ‘Istrian marble’ and were originally a pure white, highly polished limestone as translucent as Apuan white marble. However, spalling of this polished facing at Kingston has almost entirely been weathered away, leaving a rather coarse limestone finish to the elaborately carved faces and emblems. (See the middle close-up photo(8) for remaining marbled white finish.) This stone was incidentally the main building stone of Venice and sourced from almost directly across the Adriatic from Eastern Europe.
References:
1) Kingston Lacy – The National Trust (1994).
2) Caroe, M. B. “Kingston Lacy, Dorset: an architectural case history.” ASCHB Transactions 10 (1984).
3) References to William Rayner artificial stone are available via various websites.
4) A Colour Atlas of sedimentary Rocks – Adams et al.
5) A Colour Atlas of Carbonate Sediments and Rocks Under the Microscope – Adams et al. 6) http://dorsetbuildingstone.weebly.com/portland-limestone-ndash-wilts-chilmark.html
7) http://dorsetbuildingstone.weebly.com/portland-stone---dorset.html
8) Monica T. Price & Lisa Cooke - The Corsi Collection of Decorative Stones - website http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/corsi/
9) Price, Monica, Decorative Stone - The Complete Sourcebook. Thames & Hudson Remaindered New & Used via Amazon. Also USA edition; with title reversed in paperback.
10) Rogers, Patrick: The Beauty of Stone - The Westminster Cathedral Marbles. Only from the Cathedral shop.
11) Dorset Building Stone – website: http://dorsetbuildingstone.weebly.com
1) Kingston Lacy – The National Trust (1994).
2) Caroe, M. B. “Kingston Lacy, Dorset: an architectural case history.” ASCHB Transactions 10 (1984).
3) References to William Rayner artificial stone are available via various websites.
4) A Colour Atlas of sedimentary Rocks – Adams et al.
5) A Colour Atlas of Carbonate Sediments and Rocks Under the Microscope – Adams et al. 6) http://dorsetbuildingstone.weebly.com/portland-limestone-ndash-wilts-chilmark.html
7) http://dorsetbuildingstone.weebly.com/portland-stone---dorset.html
8) Monica T. Price & Lisa Cooke - The Corsi Collection of Decorative Stones - website http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/corsi/
9) Price, Monica, Decorative Stone - The Complete Sourcebook. Thames & Hudson Remaindered New & Used via Amazon. Also USA edition; with title reversed in paperback.
10) Rogers, Patrick: The Beauty of Stone - The Westminster Cathedral Marbles. Only from the Cathedral shop.
11) Dorset Building Stone – website: http://dorsetbuildingstone.weebly.com
