Ledger stones take the form of an inscribed stone slab, usually laid into the floor of a church to commemorate or mark the place of the burial of an important deceased person. Ledger stones may also be found as slabs forming the tops of chest tombs. An inscription is usually incised into the stone within a ledger line running around the edge of the stone. Such inscription may continue within the central area of the stone, which may be decorated with
relief-sculpted or incised coats of arms, or other appropriate decorative items such as skulls, hour-glasses, etc. Stones with
inset brasses first appeared in the 13th century. , 1676 , recording burials in 1711 and 1758
Stones with cameo lettering in a cartouche This is a regional style of lettering that occurs in
Breconshire and in
Lincoln and in
Humberside in the United Kingdom. The style where the lettering and
armorial are raised in
cameo and the lettering set in a border or
cartouche may indicate a local workshop. These slabs occur during a period from about 1630 to 1740. In Breconshire, these slabs might be connected to the Brute family of stonemasons who lived at Llanbedr Ystrad Yw,
Breconshire. Similarly lettered ledger slabs of black marble occur in
Lincoln Cathedral and in
St Martin's churchyard Lincoln, possibly indicating a local workshop. Neave illustrates another ledger slab of this type of 1718 in
Holy Trinity Church, Hull, and indicates that other examples exist in the
East Riding of Yorkshire.
Tournai and Black Belgian marbles (1668/1701). Heren van Overasselt Rocks from the Tournai area date from the
Carboniferous Period and have been used to define the
Tournaisian Age, a subdivision of the Carboniferous lasting from 359 to 345 million years ago. Tournai stone is a dark limestone which takes a polish and was used particularly in the
Romanesque period for sculpted items such as
Tournai fonts. It is sometimes called Tournai marble, though this is geologically inaccurate. These marbles are found over a large area of central Belgium and normally have white inclusions and fossils in them, but there is also the
Nero Belgio which is almost jet black in appearance and come from quarries that are still operating at
Golzinne and
Mazy. It is noticeable that an almost jet black marble, similar to
Nero Belgio occurs as ledger slabs in the latter part of the 18th and early 19th centuries, an example being
Dean Kaye's memorial in
Lincoln Cathedral. Many other black ledger stones of the 17th to 19th centuries have white flecking, which may also suggest that they come from Belgian sources. Neave notes references in the Hull port books in the 17th and 18th centuries to the importation of ledger stones, and draws comparisons between those in churches in Humberside and those in St Bavokerk's church in
Haarlem.
Sussex Marble or Petworth Marble Sussex Marble is a
fossiliferous freshwater
limestone material which is prevalent in the
Weald Clay of parts of
Kent,
East Sussex and
West Sussex in
South East England. It is also called "Petworth Marble", "Bethersden Marble" or "Laughton Stone" in relation to villages where it was quarried, and another alternative name is "winklestone". It is referred to as "marble" as it polishes very well, although it is not a true marble, geologically speaking, as it has not been subject to metamorphism. The
matrix is made up of the shells of freshwater
gastropods and
viviparus winkles, similar to but larger than those making
Purbeck Marble. There are a number of fonts made from this material and it was also used for ledger slabs in the medieval period and as a matrix stone for
monumental brasses. It is very possible that it continued to be used for later ledger slabs.
Alabaster , Northamptonshire, monument to Richard and Isabel Tresham, 1433
Alabaster is well known for its use for church monuments with
tomb effigies, but also on occasions for ledger slabs. These occur in the East Midland counties of Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, with four outlying examples in Lincolnshire. Examples date mainly from the 14th and 15th centuries, with incised figures. An exceptional example of an alabaster ledger slab is that of Richard and Isabel Tresham in
Geddington Church in
Northamptonshire (shown at left), dated 1433. The sword in the slab is inlaid with a blueish-greenish stone as is also Isabel's headdress. Richard is shown with a dog beneath his feet, and below the couple are their six children, five daughters and a son.
Swithland Slate Swithland slate was widely used for ledger and gravestones in many areas of the East Midlands from the mid-18th century until the 1890s when the last quarries closed. Unlike the
black marbles it resists the weather better and can be used both inside churches and outside in graveyards. Swithland lies to the north of
Leicester and most of the quarrying activity took place in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the principal slate quarries were at Swithland Wood, The Brand, Groby and Woodhouse Eaves. The two landowners with slate resources on their estates were the Herrick family of Beaumanor Hall,
Old Woodhouse and the
Earl of Stamford at Groby and Swithland It is noted that the Hind family were leasing the
Groby quarry from 1766 and their name often occurs on ledgerstones and gravestones. Their distinctive decorative carving makes it easy to recognise work coming from their workshop. Their work can be recognised in
Leicestershire and adjacent areas of
Staffordshire. Swithland slate was also transported into south-west Lincolnshire by the
Grantham Canal and occurs in churches and churchyards around
Grantham.
Swithland Slate Ledger stones File:St Peter, Thornton - Ledger slab (geograph 3132390).jpg|St Peter's,
Thornton, Leicestershire – Ledger slab in Swithland slate of 1791, signed Hind. File:St Peter, Thornton - Ledger slab (geograph 3132392).jpg|St Peter's, Thornton – Ledger slab in Swithland slate, late 18th century File:Slate tomb-slab, St Wulframs churchyard (1)- Levi Preston (geograph 4731136).jpg|Slate tomb-slab,
St Wulfram's Church, Grantham, Lincolnshire. Swithland slate by George Holt File:Slate tomb-slab, St Wulframs churchyard (2)- John Amos (geograph 4731604).jpg|Swithland slate tomb-slab, St Wulfram's churchyard Grantham, by Collingwood 1842 ==Use in Britain==