Another stone is also employed, and one far better suited for building, because it can be obtained in blocks of almost any size, and carved with the utmost delicacy.  This is oolite, the stone of which the Bell Tower is built.  From Norman times it was used in the more important parts of the Abbey, as is shown in the foundations of the great tower now exposed to view, and in Abbot Reginald’s gateway.  But the oolite stone could not be got much nearer than Broadway, and what was used by the monks in all probability came from the hill above that village.  In numerous old houses this stone is made use of, but in almost all it must have come indirectly, having once formed part of the structure of the monastic buildings, or perhaps of the castle which for a short time flanked the bridge on the Bengeworth side of the river.

In the seventeenth century bricks came into fashion, and good clay for their manufacture was amply provided by the neighbourhood.  To the end of the century belongs Dresden House in High Street, a fine example of the style of William the Third’s time, built by a wealthy lawyer, who came to settle here, from the northern part of the county.  Tower House in Bridge Street, probably of later date, is beautiful in its proportions and mouldings, the prominent lead spouts adding much to the general design.  Unfortunately to this fashion for formality and brick-work, at a later period superseded by a covering of plaster, we must attribute the demolition of the older fronts, generally of timber, and often gabled and projecting, which gave such a pleasant irregularity to our old streets.  Though formal and lacking in artistic qualities these Georgian screens have a certain historical value in showing that our little town was prosperous through the century, and able to support a decided air of respectability.  But not without reason do we deplore the change.

The eighteenth century saw the beginning of the great development of machinery, and in these Georgian house fronts, the productions of a mechanical age, we see the deterioration of popular architecture.  Every line is rigid and without human feeling:  the style, where any exists, is exotic, not national or local; classical, not vernacular.  It is a learned importation, not a popular growth.  The mason has dwindled into an unreasoning tool in the hands of the architect; hence the lack of personality, the absence of charm; and only in rare instances has the architect proved himself capable of supplying those qualities of design and proportion which to some slight degree compensate for the loss of interest on the part of the craftsman.