by Eric Robinson

A century ago many small museums across the country possessed collections of the building stones commonly in use in our towns and cities. Often, the collection was in the open air and freely accessible to the public. An outstanding example was the Geological Terrace at the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum at East Cliff, Bournemouth.

The collection amounted to 200 examples of squared pillars standing roughly a metre tall. They were provided by quarries who were rewarded with a mention in the 60-page catalogue sold by the museum. The text in the catalogue was written by Norman Sylvester, curator of the museum for 25 years up to 1957. The entries are sometimes quaintly worded, but are valuable for their comments on the sources of the stones.

After World War II the stones went into storage. But now they have been brought back out into the open. They are in the main avenue of approach to the Talbot Campus of Bournemouth University at Fern Barrow.

Professor Matthew Bennett, head of environmental and geographical sciences, planned the redeployment of the stones in a close-spaced double ranking, safely mounted by masons Dean & Dyball. In due course it is intended to put up an explanatory board, part funded by the Curry Fund of the Geologists Association.

Sadly, the original metal nameplates mounted on the stones have been lost and most of the best-known Dorset rock types that once formed part of the collection have gone missing. Nevertheless, the remaining 170 stones include many varieties of granites from the South West, a wide range of Pennine gritstones and several Scottish whinstones.

I was surprised to see the Northumbrian millstone grit from Bearl Quarry, in Stocksfield, included in the collection. It was the building stone used for two Saxon churches at nearby Bywell. Norman Sylvester\'s catalogue entry says of it: "This freestone has been used principally for the manyfacture [sic] of grindstones for heavy industries, such as ship builders, engineers and ironfounders, and for glass bevelling and grindingÖ"

This new re-siting of the Russell-Cotes stones has to be welcomed as providing free access to actual specimens of stones which are still the mainstay of our built heritage - a rare privilege these days. The sadness must be the demise of many of the quarries.