Flints from the chalk are much used as building-material in Berkshire; they are employed fixed in concrete to form the core of walls, as at Reading Abbey, and as facing to walls with stone corners and window-frames. Shottesbrooke Church is faced with beautifully dressed little flints. In other churches the flints are not squared but in the rough state. At St Mary’s Church, Reading, there is building of a chess-board pattern, one set of squares being stone and the others formed of small dressed flints. Another example of this chequer-work is shown in the view of the church at White Waltham here given.
The hard sandstone which has been derived from the Eocene strata and is termed “sarsen” (see p. 40) is an important Berkshire building stone. There is a great deal of it in the walls all over Windsor Castle, several of the towers and walls being faced with sarsen.
White Waltham Church
In some of the Berkshire gravel beds there is a hard irony conglomerate, and this has been used as a building material. There is a good deal in the tower of St Giles Church, Reading, and in the parish church at Wokingham.
There are many building-materials used in the county which have been brought from other districts, but this chapter only deals with things found in Berkshire itself.
Chalk was formerly used to a large extent for chalking the soil, but the practice has now almost fallen into disuse, and in consequence one sees abandoned chalk pits all over the chalk district. The reasons for giving up chalking are the increase in the cost of labour and the decrease in the value of corn crops, together with the much larger use of artificial manures. The fertility of many farms now is nevertheless due to the liming and chalking of old days, and it is to be regretted that the practice has been abandoned to so great an extent.
13. The History of Berkshire.
It has already been mentioned that Berkshire probably came into existence as a county in the time of King Egbert, who brought the long struggle between the kingdoms of the Heptarchy to a close and established the ascendancy of Wessex over much of the south of England. It is probable that there was still a population living on the chalk downs and in occupation of the old forts, and the fertile Vale of White Horse was gradually coming under cultivation. In any case there was a royal residence at Wantage, where Alfred the Great was born in 849, and a religious foundation at Abingdon. There were also at least two towns, Reading and Wallingford.