An exterior view of the Devon Haytor Granite Quarries (pl. 2) (1825)

Hoskins, W. G. Devon. London: Collins, 1954. Chapter XIV. pp 264 - 265.GraniteThe granite of Dartmoor was not used as a building stone, except I n the use of boulders for the rubble-masonry of medieval farmsteads, until the 15th century. […]. Dressed granite was used in the 14th century for quoins and butresses, but not until the 15th century in window tracery and arcades. […].In the great rebuilding of farmhouses and manor houses that began in Elizabeth's reign and lasted for nearly a century, moorstone was widely used all around the Moor and for miles beyond. Such buildings of dressed blocks, survive in great numbers in all the parishes of the moorland fringe. The innumerable other uses to which the moorstone was put […] have been fully described in Mr. Worth's admirable papers on "The Moorstone Age." All this came from surface blocks. Quarrying for granite was almost unknown on Dartmoor earlier than the opening years of the 19th century, when the Heytor and Foggintor (Walkhampton) quarries were opened up. During this century the Devon and Cornish granites were considerably in demand for large building constructions, but the modern development of concrete has reduced this demand severely, and the granite is now quarried chiefly for pavement-stones, kerbs, setts, roadstones, and monumental purposes. A notable building to be constructed entirely of granite was Lutyens's masterpiece of Castle Drogo, at Drewsteignton (1911 - 30).[Text may be taken from a different source or edition than that listed as the source by Somers Cocks.]

Aquatint

224x350mm