Tournai ‘marble’ (s.p.b.) is not the only sedimentary limestone rock masquerading, by the skill of stonemasons, as a metamorphic rock (true marble, often imported from quarries in Italy). Purbeck ‘marble’ is a limestone rock quarried on the ‘Isle’ of Purbeck on the south coast in Dorset(shire), this rock also ‘takes a polish’ and was often used in the 13th and 14th centuries as a mainly decorative embellishment. The picture above shows a view west of the chancel of Beverley Minster with the organ pipes topped screen in the middle distance and the nave beyond. Here the black and veined Purbeck marble was used to create the columns for the clerestory and triforium, this contrasting with the mellow cream colour of the limestone used to construct the bulk of the building and in the part of the Minster built in the Early English fashion of the early 13th century.
Purbeck marble was incorporated into the medieval re-building schemes of many cathedrals – Ely, Norwich, Salisbury, Canterbury, Westminster Abbey and Lincoln. At Lincoln Purbeck marble was used to dramatic effect in the cluster columns of the nave.
As with Tournai ‘marble’ it seems quite likely that Purbeck ‘marble’ features were prepared at the quarry site to the dimensions specified by the master mason before being transported. However the marbling may have been done on the building site. Whichever may be the case the stone would have certainly been transported by water as far as was possible. In the case of Beverley this would have been from the Dorset coast, around the coast to the Humber, up the River Hull on the tide and along the then tidal Beverley Beck. In the case of Lincoln it would have been round th coast to the Wash and up the River Witham to Brayford Pool. However an alternative may have been up the Humber and the River Trent to the Roman-built canal linking to Brayford Pool.