Monument record 2722/1 - Yarwell Medieval to Modern Limestone Quarries

Yarwell quarries were a source of Lincolnshire Limestone. The quarries were probably most active during the 18th and 19th centuries when a number of stonemasons are recorded at yarwell. Thereafter the stone was mostly used for ballast.

{1} The village of Yarwell has always been mainly agricultural but a good bed of Lower Lincolnshire Limestone outcrops in the parish; the large number of stonemasons living here in the C18th and C19th probably indicates the period during which the quarries were most active. Of these masons William Sanderson, who died in 1803, is distinguished by his headstone carved with masonic emblems. In the present century the stone has been dug only for ballast.

{2} Lincolnshire Limestone has for centuries provided some of the country's finest building stone. The Lower Lincolnshire Limestone is the local building stone of more than 20 villages on or close to the outcrop (as well as being the source of Northamptonshire's Collyweston slates). Yarwell is one of these villages.Lincolnshire Limestone is missing from the geological succession to the south-east; it just reaches the Nene Valley near Fotheringhay, and again near Nassington, widening at Yarwell and Wansford.

<1> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1984, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.171 Yarwell (checked) (Series). SNN77384.

<2> Sutherland D.S., 2003, Northamptonshire Stone, p.71-2 (checked) (Book). SNN104515.

Record last edited

May 2 2025 2:00PM