Page 24 - Oundle Life December 2021

RECYCLED STONE
Holy building reincarnated for a civic after life
Are you familiar with the word ‘spolia’? – it’s the Latin word for ‘spoils’ and in architectural parlance is a label applied to stone which has been taken from one building for reuse in another – perhaps as decoration or folly. That said, spolia was not only taken for decorative purposes, some pre-loved stone
structures with no apparent religious purpose. Both of the above examples are more
commonly occurring when in close proximity to tumble-down castles or monasteries whose ownership may have been, at one time or another, sufficiently unclear as to render its
was pilfered from abandoned and dilapidated buildings and structures to save the time and money required to quarry and dress new stone.
Spolia is
the Latin word used to describe reused stone
stone ‘available’ to all who ‘ran’ with the opportunity – pun very much intended. However, there are many more examples where stone from one building was sold – in a more orthodox trading agreement – to construct another building.
We get to roam this earth for such a short time. With good luck and rude health, we may enjoy 80 years before
Randomly occurring examples of
this practice are evident in boundary
walls in villages and towns where
some of the stone might appear to be
of a type or colour that betrays its true value – making it highly unlikely that its first use was quite so mundane. In such examples, key give- aways might be finely cut ashlar stone blocks in garden walls, or highly decorative window tracery or religious symbology embedded in
moving on to enjoy our next adventure. And so, to some extent we regard the many older buildings around us as ‘everlasting’ – they were here when we arrived and they are likely to be here long after we’ve gone. We don’t imagine that their stone may already be on its second,
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All Saints pianting by George Clarke c. 1850. This is incongruous because the church as depicted
had not existed for 25 years. Images scanned from Pevsner’s Buildings of England: Northamptonshire.