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resource
n. a supply or source of aid or support; something resorted to in time of need.
English Limestones
- Ancaster Hard White
- Beer
- Blue Lias
- Chicksgrove
- Clipsham
- Doulting
- Elm Park
- Guiting
- Ham
- Hartham Park
- Portland
- Stretton Honey
- Stretton White
- Stokeground Top Bed
- Stokeground Base Bed
Ancaster Hard White
A cream to Buff durable limestone used extensively on the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge.
Recent use: Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge
Beer
Chalk limestone, creamy white with a fine grain. Suitable for building, bridges, cladding and monumental work. From the village of Beer in Devon, to the west of Lyme Regis. Beer stone is one of the most widely used of the chalk limestones. It has a fine pore structure giving a consistency suited to carving. It is easy to work and retains very high detail and sharpness. Beer stone is used extensively in ecclesiastical work whether new build or restoration.
Recent use: Winchester Cathedral; Exeter Cathedral; Wells Cathedral.
Blue Lias
A dense stone, well-known to fossil hunters at Lyme Regis, but quarried near Somerton, Somerset. Suitable for building/walling, dimensional, flooring and monumental.
Chicksgrove
A cream coloured limestone from Tisbury, about 20km west of Salisbury, used extensively in the building and restoration industries, in particular the Salisbury Cathedral restoration programme.
Recent use: Salisbury Cathedral; Ightam Mote, Kent.
Clipsham
Cream and blue Lincolnshire limestone from Clipsham, Rutland.
The quarry is to the left of the road between Clipsham in Rutland about 1 mile from Clipsham to the north of Stamford. The maximum block size at the quarry is up to 1800mm height on bed but 900 - 1200mm is more normal.
The stone is an oolithic limestone from the Lincolnshire Limestone formation of middle Jurassic age. It is a creamy-brown coloured stone with many pieces of shell. Some blocks can contain a substantial amount of the harder blue stone.
Stone from the Clipsham quarries has a long traditionally used as building stone in the region and in Oxford.
Recent use: Palace of Westminster; British Museum; Ely Cathedral.
Doulting
Creamy brown, fine to coarse limestone, from Shepton Mallet, Somerset. Suitable for building and walling. Originally used in Wells Cathedral and Guildford Cathedral.
Recent use: Rotunda, Stow Gardens.
Elm Park
A pale cream stone mined in the Bath area.
Recent use: Sackler Library, Oxford; Falklands Memorial Chapel, Berkshire.
Guiting
A golden honey Oolitic Limestone from the North Cotswolds.
Ham
Honey-brown or grey-brown limestone, from Stoke-sub-Hamdon, Somerset. Suitable for general masonry and flooring.
The Ham Hill Stone Company quarry is located on the summit of Ham Hill, close to the village of Stoke-sub-Hamdon in Soemrset. Stone has been quarried on Ham Hill for more than 500 years with the present quarry being reopened in 1984. The quarry’s reserves have been measured at well over one million tonnes.
The stone is a medium to coarse grained shelly limestone and consists of a well cemented mass of shells, crystalline calcite and iron minerals which gives it a distinctive colour.
The Hard White is a creamy coloured stone of uniform texture with very little shell. The depth of this bed is around 3.0m with individual quarry blocks around 2000mm x 1000mm x 500mm on bed.
Overall, the stone should be suitable for use in most aspects of construction including flooring, lightly trafficked paving, load bearing masonry and cladding including areas where a long service life is needed or where high salt concentrations are expected.
Hartham Park
Another of the Bath stones, this is a pale buff colour with occasional blue flecks.
An Oolitic limestone originating from the Bath Oolite of the Great Oolite formation of Jurassic age, the stone is principally formed from micritic ooids in a micritic matrix with small shells, the stone is medium grained with no clay minerals present.
Being a true "ground" stone it has good weathering properties and exhibits a traditional "warm honey" Bath stone colour.
Portland
Stretton Honey
Stretton White
Stokeground Top Bed
A stone from Limpley Stoke, south of Bath. An oolitic limestone from the Great Oolite of middle Jurassic age. Stone from Stoke Ground is traditionally acknowledged as being less durable than stones such as Portland Whit Bed but it has been used extensively where a faster rate of weathering is acceptable or where its working qualities were required.
Stokeground Base Bed
A stone from Limpley Stoke, south of Bath. An oolitic limestone from the Great Oolite of middle Jurassic age. Stone from Stoke Ground is traditionally acknowledged as being less durable than stones such as Portland Whit Bed but it has been used extensively where a faster rate of weathering is acceptable or where its working qualities were required.
