Allhallows parish church: galletted stonework

Introduction

The photograph on this page of Allhallows parish church: galletted stonework by Stefan Czapski as part of the Geograph project.

The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk

Allhallows parish church: galletted stonework

Image: © Stefan Czapski Taken: 9 Mar 2011

This is a close-up of part of the north wall of the chancel. The stonework is of very humble quality, but nonetheless the jointing has been decorated by galletting - pressing chips of flint into the mortar. I can never look at this kind of work without imagining it being done by children, as if they were using currants to decorate a gingerbread man. How widespread the use of galletting is in Britain is a question I'm still trying to answer. Examples are easy to find in older buildings in the Weald of Surrey and Sussex, and I had rather assumed the tradition was confined to south-east England. But then, very recently, a member of the Geograph community made a remarkable discovery in the USA - a galletted 18th century house on the outskirts of Philadelphia http://www.blipfoto.com/entry/1422526.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0

Image Location

coordinates on a map icon
Latitude
51.467125
Longitude
0.642175