Stonework of St Mary's

However, it seems that there was a great deal of local availability of this stone because of it having been used by the Romans to face the ancient city wall. In some places, where the wall had collapsed, malm stone was freely available and was collected by stone yard employees. As for the use of Quarr, Lavant and Caen stone, these were off-cuts of high quality building stone that had been thrown to one-side as having no alternative use.
As regards Bembridge and mixen, these were poor quality stone that were both quarried from points close to the sea and therefore easily conveyed to Chichester . While Bembridge stone was quarried on the Isle of Wight , mixen originates from a reef immediately off Selsey.


The Stone Work of St Mary's Church		David Bone at St Mary's April 24th 2010
1210 - 2010: Celebrating 800 years of St Mary's Church, Chidham,
On Saturday 24 May David Bone led a fascinating walk around St Mary's church. An expert on stone and its use in ecclesiastical buildings, David identified the origin of much of the building material used in the construction of St Mary's church. Concentratring only upon the outside of the church, David began by pointing out the obvious: the make-up of the church wall is rubble. In simple terms, it is a mixture of debris. However, this he did not regard as unusual, medieval stonemasons working with whatever they had at hand.
To explain further, David indicated that it resulted from a system whereby a local Chichester city stone yard would send out cartloads of rubble on request. What was sent out was what they had available. Sometimes it might be stonework from a long abandoned Roman site or a more recent building under demolition. At other times it might be fresh stone supplied from a nearby quarry or simply flint collected off the Downs . Finally, it might even be small blocks of fresh high quality building material that had already been worked upon and so cut down in size that it had no other suitable use.
Of stone identified in the rubble wall, David noted that it was predominantly of flint; some of this originating from the Downs while some might have been collected from the local foreshore. Inter-mixed with the flint were a variety of other stones that reflected what had been held in the original Chichester stone yard. In particular, he identified examples of Lavant, Caen , Quarr, Bembridge and Malm stone together with mixen. Malm stone, quarried on the north side of the Downs , seemed a rather unusual choice both because of the quarry and the tendency of this stone to easily crumble.
However, it seems that there was a great deal of local availability of this stone because of it having been used by the Romans to face the ancient city wall. In some places, where the wall had collapsed, malm stone was freely available and was collected by stone yard employees. As for the use of Quarr, Lavant and Caen stone, these were off-cuts of high quality building stone that had been thrown to one-side as having no alternative use. As regards Bembridge and mixen, these were poor quality stone that were both quarried from points close to the sea and therefore easily conveyed to Chichester . While Bembridge stone was quarried on the Isle of Wight , mixen originates from a reef immediately off Selsey.
David paid much attention to the ashlar stones supporting the single-light windows on the south side of the nave together with that used in the corner angles. Primarily he identified the stonework here to be the high quality Caen stone (imported from France ) and more local Lavant stone. It was probably off-cuts from larger ashlar blocks that had been used in the rubble wall. Caen stone, creamy yellow in colour, was widely used throughout southern England because it has few discernible flaws. Lavant stone, a term first employed by David, refers to stone quarried from a site immediately northwest of Lavant, in the dry Chilgrove valley. It was one of the few decent building stones to be found in Sussex and was mainly quarried during the period 1050 to 1250.
In rounding off the walk, David drew attention to the blocked door at the west end of the church. The stone used to fill this ancient door was Bognor Rock. He also noted examples of Purbeck and Bembridge stone in this area of the church. Philip MacDougall Many thanks to Philip for the write up.

The Stone Work of St Mary's Church