Description: Near the southeastern boundary of the Fredericton Golf Course and about 60 m south of a sharp bend in Phyllis Creek there are the remains of a former sandstone quarry on part of the former Andrew Rainsford estate. The quarry is a hillside cut with the golf courses "8th Green" in the foreground. The dimensions are approximately 66 by 30 by 7.5 meters. The south and southeast walls are prominent with nearly vertical joint planes striking northeast. The sandstone is greyish-brown, feldspathic and quartzose arenite to pebble arenite. It is typically cross-bedded and medium-grained with finer grained as well as pebbly strata with pebbles up to 1.2 cm in diameter present locally. Pebble fragments are angular to subrounded. Mineralogical and textural maturity is generally low. The upper three feet of the exposed quarry wall is flaggy but below this horizontal partings are greater than 6 inches in spacing. Bedding is relatively flat. These sedimentary rocks are part of the Late Carboniferous, Minto Formation, of the Pictou Group (St. Peter and Fyffe 2005).
The location coincides with that described by Isabel Louise Hill (1968) as being on the property of Lawrence Bradshaw Rainsford, the eleventh child of Andrew Rainsford. The property had originally been granted to Stephen Jarvis and was purchased by Captain John Jenkins and Rainsford. Rainsford, in July 1819, sold a portion of the property and reserved a hauling road or right-of-way to the river for the convenience of quarry operations. The quarry is reported to have operated from the 1820s to 1840s (Martin 1990, Volume I). The stone is similar to that used in some of the oldest buildings in Fredericton. Much of the stone for Christ Church Cathedral probably came from Bradshaw Rainsford's quarry. A Cathedral official has indicated that although stone for the buttresses and weathering stone came from Grindstone Island (see Grindstone Island Sandstone), the remainder of the stone used in the building came from the former Rainsford quarry. The stone used in the construction of the old Officers & Soldiers Barracks in downtown Fredericton is most probably Rainsford stone.
Government House, in Fredericton, the official residence New Brunswick's Lieutenant Governor is one of several Fredericton buildings made of sandstone from the immediate area. Rocks in the Fredericton area are primarily grey and red brown, cross bedded and horizontal bedded feldspathic and quartzose sandstone and polymictic conglomerate with lesser amounts of massive to laminated mudstone and shale of the Late Carboniferous Minto Formation.
Martin (1990) indicates one of the main Fredericton stone supplier before the 1850s was the Rainsford quarry formerly situated alongside Phyllis Creek and the 8th hole at the Fredericton Golf Club, about 800 m northeast of the intersection of Highways # 640 and 102.
Martin (1990) States.." In 1816 Lawrence Bradshaw Rainsford built a wooden home on what is now Golf Club Road in Fredericton. Three years later he sold a portion of his land, reserving a right of way for hauling stone from a quarry on his property to the Saint John River. It was a lucrative move. Over the next few decades, many tons of stone left Rainsford quarry by cart for the river, were loaded onto scows and floated downstream to construct such local buildings as Government House, Soldiers Barracks, Officers Quarters, Guard House, Christ Church Cathedral, and Christ Church Parish Church.
Encouraged by Rainsford's success, a neighbour named William Odell opened a stone quarry on his property. When operations began is uncertain. A deed dated 1 May 1841, however, shows Odell leasing land along Hanwell Road to Henry Hill and Patrick McGauvran for per year on the condition that they "cause to be opened and worked without delay the Stone Quarry...in the best and most advantageous manner". Considering the combined stone volumes that would have been required for Christ Church Cathedral, Christ Church Parish Church and Officers Quarters (all built in the 1840 and 1850s) contractors likely supplemented Rainsford stone with Odell and perhaps other stone to fulfill masonry demands. |