Galleting, sometimes known as garreting or garneting, is an

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings o ...

technique in which spalls (small pieces of stone) are pushed into wet mortar joints during the construction of a

masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...

building. The term comes from the French word ''galet'', which means "pebble." In general, the word "galleting" refers to the practice while the word "gallet" refers to the spall. Galleting was mostly used in England, where it was common in

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshi ...

and the county of

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...

Description

Galleting is mainly used in stone masonry buildings constructed out of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start ...

. The technique varies depending on which of these materials is used. In sandstone buildings, the spalls are often a different type of sandstone than the one used in the wall, though sometimes they are pieces of the same stone. For example, carstone, also known as ironstone, is a type of sandstone that is commonly used for galleting. In sandstone buildings, the spalls are usually shaped into small cubes about half an inch in diameter and are flush with the stone. In flint buildings, the edges of thin slivers of flint are commonly pushed into the mortar, so that the surface of the wall is uneven and the edges of the flint spalls jut out from the wall. In some cases, these techniques are combined such that flint walls are galleted with sandstone spalls or vice versa, however it is uncommon. Although it is also uncommon, galleting has been used in brick masonry construction, where sandstone spalls are generally used over flint ones. More eclectic materials used as gallets include brick, tile, beach pebbles, glass, and oyster shells. In higher status buildings, galleting was superseded by square knapping the flints to produce flat, squared stones that produced a surface with little exposed mortar. It is unclear whether galleting performs a practical, structural function or is an aesthetic application. It is possible that galleting is used when the local stone is not an easily worked freestone, which means that the stone is more irregular and therefore requires thick mortar joints. In this case, gallets would serve as wedges to provide structural support to the stone and would shield the mortar from weather. It is also possible that galleting does not reinforce the mortar and was used purely for aesthetic reasons. Scholarship has also suggested that galleting was neither a structural nor an aesthetic practice, but rather a superstitious one in an attempt to protect a building from witches and other evil influences. However, Historic Scotland Technical Advice Note 1, regarding use of lime mortars, 1995, CLEARLY states "...numerous small pinning stones which contributed to the overall stability of the masonry, reduced the quantity of expensive lime required and minimised the effects of drying shrinkage in the mortar".

Location

In England, galleting can be found almost exclusively in the South East between the

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

and

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the eas ...

, where sandstone is common, and in the county of Norfolk, where flint is common. Retrieved 23 March 2012 Given that these locations are not contiguous, much has been debated about the origin and spread of the practice, with some attributing its geographical prevalence to the particularities of the stonemason trade. Most scholarship focuses on the use of galleting in England. However, there is evidence that it was used in rural Pennsylvania and Maryland as well as in Philadelphia, Vienna, Austria, the Azores, Paris, and Barcelona.

Period of use

There is some debate about when galleting was most commonly practiced. Some sources associate the technique with late medieval building construction, while others suggest that galleting was used mostly in the 17th and 18th centuries before declining in popularity over the course of the 19th century. Historical records indicate that parts of Windsor Castle (n.d.), Eton College (c. 1441), and the Tower of London (c. 1514) were galleted with flint or oyster shells. This suggests that galleting may have been first used in more prestigious buildings and was later adopted in less prestigious buildings once timber framing was supplanted by masonry construction.

Examples

* Sevenoaks School * Knole House *

Ightham Mote Ightham Mote (), Ightham, Kent is a medieval moated manor house. The architectural writer John Newman describes it as "the most complete small medieval manor house in the county". Ightham Mote and its gardens are owned by the National Trust ...

* Tigbourne Court * Norwich Guildhall *

Strangers' Hall Strangers' Hall is a museum of domestic history located in Norwich, Norfolk, UK. It is a Grade I listed building. The oldest parts of the building date back to the fourteenth century, although many additions have been made to the structure ...

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...

* The village of

Heacham Heacham is a large village in West Norfolk, England, overlooking The Wash. It lies between King's Lynn, to the south, and Hunstanton, about to the north. It has been a seaside resort for over a century and a half. History There is evidence of ...

in Norfolk boasts examples of a wide variety of types of galleting. * St James' Episcopal Church,

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

, PA (U.S.) * Hancock's Resolution, Anne Arundel County, MD (U.S.) * The greenhouse at

Bartram's Garden Bartram's Garden is a 50-acre public garden and National Historic Landmark in Southwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, situated on the banks of the Tidal Schuylkill River. It is a venue for art, an access to the tidal river and wetlands, an outdoor ...

, Philadelphia, PA (U.S.) * Bradford Friends Meeting House, West Bradford Township, Chester County, PA (U.S.) * Sully Stone Dairy, Sully Historic Site, Chantilly, Virginia (U.S.A.)

References

{{reflist Architectural elements Masonry