KING OF THE PURBECK STONE AGE
Born Trevelen Haysom in Dorset, his parents were Walter and Emily and he had siblings. He was always known as ‘Trev’.
His father, Walter, was a tenth-generation stone mason working in Purbeck Marble. The family had begun working in this industry in 1698.
Walter owned a quarry called St Adhelm’s. It was in the village of Langton Maltravers in Dorset.
Walter was a noted stone mason, working on many historic restorations. His greatest achievement was restoring the Temple Church in London which was bombed during the Blitz, when the ceiling collapsed, destroying the interior.
Walter also restored the tombs of the Knights Templars within the church.
Purbeck marble is a misnomer. It is actually limestone, but it can be polished up to a sheen, to make it look like marble. It comes out of the ground in flat sheets, thus becoming easier for a mason to work with.
It was in great demand during the Middle Ages for great cathedrals, castles and other buildings. King Henry 3rd used it for the restoration of Westminster Abbey in 1245.
Purbeck marble is also used in the cathedrals of Canterbury, Durham, Salisbury, Lincoln and St David’s (amongst many others) and later buildings like Hampton Court.
It was still extremely popular in Victorian times. An example of its use is in Manchester Town Hall. The masons that worked on this were all trained in Dorset, many of them with the Haysom firm. Walter used to say, “They all went away and, if they were any good, they stayed away. If not, they came back.”
People who worked with the stone were known as ‘Marblers’.
Cutting the stone was an extremely difficult and skillful job. The Haysoms did it by hand until 1877, when they started using steam saws.
In 1907, they moved to powered saws and it was only in 1945, post-war, that they used diamond tipped saws for cutting.
As a little boy, Trev used to play in the working quarries. There was no health and safety. The only advice he got from his father was, “Keep out of the way.”
When he was old enough, Trev worked for his father on Saturday mornings.
His hobbies were bird watching and fishing. Trev used to rescue seabirds that had been caught in oil spills and would help them recover.
Trev went to grammar school in Swanage but didn’t enjoy it very much. Nevertheless, he finished with the highest ‘O’ Level results in his year group.
From there, Trev went to Weymouth College to train as a stone mason. He finished the course with the highest City and Guilds grades.
From there, he began his apprenticeship – with his own father. Most of the work they did was in the restoration of Chichester Cathedral.
After he qualified, Trev briefly moved to Oxford where he lectured in masonry at the Polytechnic. Soon afterwards, he returned to the family firm.
Trev only had one further spell away from home. He was in Swanage when a ship bound for Los Angeles came into the harbour. Two disgruntled seamen were set ashore. Trev instantly volunteered to fill one of the spaces – and he was off to America.
He returned a few months later with a girlfriend in tow, a widow called Wendy. The relationship did not last long.
When he rejoined the firm, his father renamed it as ‘W.J. Haysom and Son’. It is still called that today although Walter has long since gone.
In 1974, Trev was having a drink in a pub with an old school friend (he always kept close contact with his old mates).
He noticed a new barmaid. Trev commented to his friend how attractive she was. One week later, he was dating her.
She was Sue, a schoolteacher who did extra evening work in the pub.
Trev and Sue were married in 1974. They went on to have three children, two girls, Julia and Alexia, and a boy called Mark.
For their honeymoon, the couple spent three days touring the churches of Devon. Trev took a notebook with him and recorded all the uses of Purbeck Marble and the restoration work that needed doing.
They finished at Exeter Cathedral. Trev was so busy writing things down that when Sue said she wanted lunch, she was told there was no time.
In 1976, Trev carved a new Anglo-Saxon style cross which was put up in the village of Studland, close to St Nicholas’ Church.
However, most of his work was done on restoration, including Westminster Abbey and Windsor Castle. He believed he had worked on most of the cathedrals in the UK, although he was most proud of his contribution to Dover Castle.
Trev also did lots of work on the west end of Portsmouth Cathedral, creating the font, altar, and the altar dais.
Trev took over the running of the company from his father in the early 1980s.
As he grew up, Trev’s son Mark also joined the company, following the exact route his father had taken – Weymouth College and then apprenticeship with the family firm. Mark was the twelfth generation of the family in the business.
Trev’s daughters did not join the firm. Julia became an artist and teacher, Alexia a doctor. However, by now, Trev’s wife Sue, was running all the accounts and office work.
Trev bought out another company nearby and consequently obtained a second quarry. His son, Mark was put in charge of it, still under the auspice of ‘Haysom Purbeck Stone’.
Trev was the Warden of the ‘Company of Purbeck Marblers and Stonecutters’. He ensured that he kept alive the medieval tradition each Shrove Tuesday, of paying a pound of pepper to maintain access to Poole Harbour.
Throughout his quarrying career, Trev found many interesting things. He started his own museum which is colloquially known as ‘Trev’s Shed’. In it, there are many fossils, some medieval tools and some part finished medieval carvings. Dinosaur footprints line the walls.
Any find Trev made was instantly referred to geologists. Consequently, a fossilized tooth he found belonging to a previously unknown mammal, has led to the creature being named ‘Dorsetodon Haysomi’.
Trev was regarded as the national authority on this kind of marble. He was nicknamed the ‘King of the Purbeck Stone Age’. He advised conservators, architects, academics and students in both new construction and restoration.
He was also a comfortable broadcaster, appearing on the television programmes ‘Countryfile’ and ‘Coast’. He also appeared on Radio Four’s ‘Open Country’.
Additionally, Trev gave many lectures and talks on stone.
Bournemouth University made him an Honorary Doctor of Technology. His family joked he should have been awarded the honorary Doctor of Medieval Technology as he didn’t own a watch, a bankcard or a mobile phone, and had no idea how to turn on a computer.
Trev retired after sixty years in the business, handing the reins over to Mark.
He promptly wrote a book entitled ‘Purbeck Stone’, which is a mixture of history, practical uses and stories from his career. It sold out immediately as does every subsequent reprint.
Trev spent his retirement fishing at sea in his small boat, leading birdwatching expeditions or helping various nature organisations complete seabird surveys.
He also decided to ‘rewild’ an eight-acre piece of land that he had bought in the 1980s. He planted fruit trees, dug two ponds, built an owl tower and created a bat hibernaculum. He spent some of his time here, every single day.
On his final visit to the site, the morning he went to the hospital (where he died shortly afterwards), Trev was delighted to discover two species of orchids growing there, that he had never seen before.
RIP -Restoring Impressive Purbeckmarble
