I’d like to thank John Severs who got in touch after my appeal a few weeks ago to know more about stone markings I had seen on a 19th Century property near Chop Gate. I likened them to a repeating arrow pattern, like a feather or the skeleton of a fish.

John has a book entitled "Life in the Moorlands of North-East Yorkshire" written in 1972 by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby. There was a section on this specific type of masonry along with some photographs. The description reads: “The forms of finish are herringboning, scutching, slew axing, diamond hammering, batting, draughting used for margins, and the Victorian rock-faced (natural and deep rock) employed for instance on railway bridges. Herringbone, the earliest finish, and scutching, popular in the nineteenth to the early twentieth century are especially characteristic. The former inspired by the shape of the backbone and bones of a herring or kipper, developed two forms, a plain ribless (the rib being the backbone) generally used on farm buildings and simple dwellings, and the draughted finely axed, showing a neat rib, running horizontally across the centre of the wallstone, and employed on mansions and yeoman’s dwellings.”

(Image: Sarah Walker)

The farm I visited had the stones without the higher-status ‘rib’ described above, and yet they were elegant in their varying shades of brown, sand and gold. There’s no explanation as to why these particular patterns were used, but being near to the coast, fishing played a large part in the lives of North York Moors folk which might explain the design.

(Image: Sarah Walker)

Herringbone dates back to Ancient Egyptian and Roman times when it was seen on jewellery and in block paved roads, then later used in flooring, brickwork and textiles. But why did the moorland stonemasons carve the pattern into their stones? Was it for a practical reason, or was it simply pride for a traditional technique of centuries past that made each stone look like a piece of art? I have heard that the surface would be scored to ensure the binding mortar would have a better purchase on the surface, however I don’t know if that is true.

Regular reader Clare Proctor happened to be speaking to a couple of people who were very familiar with moorland stonemasonry. They were a builder and an architect who have spent all their working lives on the North York Moors. She wrote: “They tell me that the patterns are purely there because the stonemason was creating a flush face. The higher the status of the building the higher the quality of dressing the stone. So a grand house would have quite smooth stone but a shepherd's hut would have just lumps of undressed stone. It's sandstone so it's quite easy to work. Ian Thompson and Peter Rayment were my sources of wisdom!”

(Image: Sarah Walker)

Despite the information, I am still unsure as to whether the herringbone pattern has a practical purpose or is simply decorative. So do tell if you know!

Reader Sarah Mason also got in touch about stone masonry, but this time referring to Australia where she used to live: “Bricks made by convicts were marked by arrows,” she wrote and directed me to the Museum of History New South Wales, based in Sydney.

Thanks to a programme of rapid urban development instigated by Major General Lachlan Macquarie, who was governor of the penal colony from 1810 to 1821, there was huge demand for bricks which were handmade by the convicts held there.

Prisoners would dig up clay to mix with water and sand and they would work it until it was soft enough to push into wooden moulds. The excess was scraped off, the brick pushed out and once dry, it would be fired in a kiln. In gangs of eight, the convicts were expected to produce 3,000 bricks like this every day.

After a number of thefts, a marking system using arrows was introduced to distinguish the Government-owned bricks made by the convicts from those made for private individuals. According to the July 28, 1928 edition of the Sydney Herald: "The Government bricks were not marked with the broad arrow until very lately; the men belonging to the gang are allowed to make bricks for other individuals in their own time, but they are not allowed to use the Government clay." 

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