STRATEGIC STONE

STUDY
A Building Stone Atlas of
KENT
Published October 2011

Derived from BGS digital geological mapping

at 1:625,000 scale, British Geological Survey
NERC. All rights reserved

Kent Bedrock Geology

Click on this link to visit Kents geology and its contribution to known building stones, stone structures and building stone
quarries (Opens in new window http://maps.bgs.ac.uk/buildingstone?County=Kent )
Kent Strategic Stone Study 1

Introduction
The indigenous Kent building stones are all of
sedimentary origin, and were predominantly
quarried from the Cretaceous rocks of the
county. They comprise mainly sandstones and
sandy limestones. Flint, chalk, tufa and
conglomerate have also been used in the past
as vernacular building stone.
The subtropical or tropical environments in
which these sediments were deposited ranged
from non-marine to marginal to open marine
conditions. The non-marine sediments were
laid down under fluvial, deltaic and estuarine
conditions, giving rise to substantial lateral
and vertical variability in the resultant clastic
sequences (sandstone, siltstone and
mudstone). The deposits of the marginal and
marine environments were predominantly
calcareous in nature.
Regional tectonism in the early Tertiary led to
uplift, folding and erosion of these sediments,
leaving an eroded west-north-west trending
anticline across the county - a feature known
geologically as the Wealden Anticline. Folding
of these strata was accompanied not only by
faulting but also by the formation of a number
of minor subsidiary folds, which has led to a
locally complex structural pattern.
Geographically, Kent includes the northern
part of the area referred to as The Weald,
bounded to the north by the chalk lands of
the North Downs. Within the Weald there
are distinct, low-lying clay areas known as The
Low Weald. These are separated by two areas
of higher ground a sandstone region at the
centre of the anticline, known as The High
Weald, and the Greensand Ridge (mainly
sandy limestone) further to the north.

In the 11C, the Norman invasion introduced

new building techniques and ideas. This was
followed by the construction of many large
ecclesiastical buildings and castles in Kent. At this
time, the lack of sufficient quantities of durable
local freestone suitable for dressing and
carving within the county, and the ready access
by sea to the more familiar limestones from
their homeland, such as Caen Stone, saw the
importation of stones by the Norman builders
into the south east of England for many new
large building schemes e.g. the use of Caen
Stone at Canterbury Cathedral.
The dissolution of the monasteries in the 16C
made substantial quantities of Caen Stone
available for re-use in subsequent building
construction, often alongside other vernacular
stones and local building materials including
timber, brick, tile and recycled material from
Roman structures, good examples being the
walls of St Augustines Abbey in Canterbury
and the north wall of the Church of St Mary,
Northgate, Canterbury. This has resulted in an
eclectic mix of construction materials in many of
the historic buildings of Kent.
Kents building stones have generally been
used within a short distance of the quarries
from which they were worked, with the major
exception of Kentish Ragstone, a durable sandy
limestone. In addition to its widespread use
locally, this building stone was transported in
substantial quantities by boat along the rivers
Medway and Thames to London, where it was
extensively used for building in the city and in
neighbouring counties from Roman times to the
19C.

The early use of the countys stone resources

by the Romans is evident, for example, in the
Saxon Shore Forts at Reculver and Richborough.

Kent Strategic Stone Study 2

LOWER CRETACEOUS
The oldest Kent building stones were sourced from
the Lower Cretaceous succession. This is divided into
two distinct lithological units. The lower unit is a thick
non-marine clastic succession comprising the Wealden
Group. The upper unit comprises marine sandstones and
limestones of the Lower Greensand Group. Both groups
contain rock units sufficiently hard and durable to have
yielded building stone.

Wealden Group
The changing depositional environments have produced
two distinct rock assemblages within this group, a lower
sandstone-dominated sequence and an upper, clay/
mudstone-dominated sequence.
The Wealden Group comprises the Ashdown, Wadhurst
Clay, Tunbridge Wells Sand and Weald Clay formations.
Each of these formations includes beds worked for building
stone in Kent. The principal building stones of this group are
the sandstones which are found in the south and west of
the county. These sandstones were quarried in numerous
relatively small-scale pits. Currently, however, there are no
working Wealden sandstone quarries in the county and
many of the old quarries are now largely unrecognisable
in the landscape. Bottom right image shows the use of
Wealden stone in a restored building in Tumbridge Wells.
The use of building stones from the Wealden Group in
Kent is evident in medieval churches, prestigious domestic
properties and municipal buildings, where they have been
commonly used as sandstone ashlar blocks. Elsewhere,
the sandstone has been used as smaller coursed blocks
or rubblestone, for example, as plinths to timber frame
buildings, in bridge construction, for paving or boundary
walling.

These sandstones crop out in the south of the county,

notably around Penshurst, where some of the material
is cross-bedded and ferruginous. A 5ft to 20ft bed
of massive sandstone, the Top Ashdown Sandstone,
has been identified locally (Shepherd-Thorn et al).
However, the non-marine depositional setting has
resulted in considerable lateral variations in lithology,
and these variations are reflected in the stone-types
used in the buildings in the areas close to the Ashdown
Formation outcrop. The parish church of St. John the
Baptist in the village of Penshurst - which sits on the
Ashdown sandstone - is constructed of ashlar blocks
of predominantly buff sandstone, much of which is
weathered pale grey.
The rhythmic, parallel laminated structure in the stone
work is much in evidence, and colour variations from
off-white to light orange-brown can occur within each
ashlar block. Some of the off-white sandstone is notably
fine-grained.

Wadhurst Clay Formation

The Ashdown Formation is overlain by a predominantly
argillaceous (clay/mudstone) sequence, the Wadhurst
Clay, which also contains beds of siltstone/sandstone,
limestone and ironstone, which have provided building
stone locally. A number of thin calcareous sandstone beds
were used as local building stone in the Tenterden area.
The ironstone beds which formed the basis of the famed
Wealden iron industry were largely worked from the
basal part of this formation, but there is no evidence that
they were used to any great extent as building stones.

Ashdown Formation
The Wealden sandstones assigned to this formation are
typically fine-grained light-coloured (off-white to orange),
with distinctive rhythmic laminations in places. The
principal sandstones come from the upper part of the
Ashdown Formation.

Joan Blows
Kent Strategic Stone Study 3

Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation

The overlying Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation was the
primary source of Wealden sandstone in Kent, with many
lithological characteristics similar to the sandstones of the
Ashdown Formation. The sandstones are generally fine
to medium-grained, often cross-bedded and flaggy in
places.
To the west of Tunbridge Wells, the formation is divided
into two sandstone units separated by a clay layer known
as the Grinstead Clay. This clay layer is divided informally
into upper and lower parts by the development of
a thin cross-bedded, fine-grained sandstone, known
as the Cuckfield Stone (named after a village in West
Sussex). Numerous small building stone quarries,
producing Wealden sandstone for local use, operated
near Goudhurst. The variety of colours and textures
can be seen in individual buildings from different phases
of construction, for example in the medieval St Marys
Church in Goudhurst , where the colour variations
and laminations in some of the beds provide distinctive
features. The 19C construction of Scotney House in the
grounds of Scotney Castle used sandstone from quarries
within the estate. The colour, texture and weathering
patterns within the ashlar blocks are widely evident in
the buildings fabric. Staplehurst church makes extensive
use of Tunbridge Wells Sandstone in parts of its external
fabric (St Georges Chapel, the Tower etc).

Joan Blows

ARDINGLY SANDSTONE MEMBER

A massive, hard sandstone bed, more uniform in
appearance, occurs towards the top of the Lower
Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation and is known as the
Ardingly Sandstone. This sandstone, which is mediumgrained in the Tunbridge Wells area but finer-grained
to the west, produces prominent topographic features,
notably around Royal Tunbridge Wells (for example the
High Rocks and Toad Rock). Quarries in the formation are
known around the town, and Ardingly Sandstone is used
quite widely within the centre of Tunbridge Wells.

Joan Blows
Joan Blows

The variety of the sandstones used in the construction of

many buildings in Kent, can be seen in the following images.
Top image of a part timber frame and stone building at
Penshurst. Middle image of sandstone plinth to timber
frame Wealden building Chiddingstone , and Queens Mews
Hawkhurst.
Kent Strategic Stone Study 4

Right image shows the Regency terrace near

Calverley Park. It provides a good example of the use
of typical Wealden sandstone. The sandstone in this
terrace appears particularly uniform both in colour
and texture, although the houses are now blackened
as a result of atmospheric pollution.
Below image is of Scotney House- built in the 19C
from stone quarried from the Scotney Castle estate.
The only quarry currently producing Wealden
sandstone is located outside the county in West
Sussex, at West Hoathly.

Joan Blows

Joan Blows

Kent Strategic Stone Study 5

Weald Clay Formation

The uppermost formation within the Wealden Group
succession of Kent, the Weald Clay Formation, contains
several discontinuous beds of fossiliferous freshwater
limestone. The Wealden limestones which have been
most widely used are characterised with the presence of
numerous fossils of a large freshwater gastropod, Paludina
Viviparus flaviorum. These limestones have been given
a variety of local names including the Large and Small
Paludina limestones and occur in beds up to 30cm thick.
In Kent, one of these fossiliferous limestones is widely
known as the Bethersden Marble (the term marble being
used as the stone is capable of taking a polish), and has
been used extensively for decorative work, paving and
building stone.
Although this building stone is named after the village of
Bethersden, the limestone has been dug from various
locations across the county. Some Wealden limestones
have also been called Winkle Stone because the small
gastropods present are similar in character to the modern
periwinkle shell.

Joan Blows

Wealden limestones have been used as external paving

and kerbstones in the village of Biddenden, but their
texture can best be seen in the flooring and internal
decorative work in Canterbury Cathedral, and in churches
such as St Margarets in Bethersden. The moulding around
the rim of the Norman font of St John the Baptist in
Harrietsham provides a good example of finely carved
Bethersden Marble.
Top right image shows the use of Wealden limestone in
paving, kerbing and channel blocks in Biddenden.
Good examples of the external use of Wealden
Limestone, showing it to be a durable building stone,
are provided by the 15C church towers at Tenterden
and Biddenden, where it has been successfully used for
as well as for coursed walling stone. The Norman
Herring Bone stonework at Staplehurst church was
constructed using slabs of Small Paludina limestone.
quoins

Bottom right image is of Biddenden Church Tower,

showing external use of Bethersden Marble, and its
end-on use as quoins.
Joan Blows
Kent Strategic Stone Study 6

The Dering Arms at Pluckley Station (right image)

provides an example of the use of Bethersden Marble
(which crops out to the south of the village), with
Ragstone blocks. Potter (2002, 2004) has noted the local
use of these Wealden (Viviparus) limestones in the fabrics
of churches in the Romney Marsh area e.g. at Hornes
Place and Newchurch.

Lower Greensand Group

The Lower Greensand Group succession of the Weald
Basin comprises the Atherfield Clay, Hythe, Sandgate
and Folkestone formations. The deposits of this group
include clays, sandstones and sandy limestones, which
were deposited under shallow marine conditions. The
sediments commonly contain the green iron-silicate
mineral, glauconite, which is sometimes visible as individual
grains in the sands and limestones and sometimes gives a
greenish hue to the stones. Weathering of the glauconite
can occur, giving rise to an orange brown coating or
staining. In Kent, neither the Atherfield Clay Formation nor
the Sandgate Formation appear to have rock units that
were suitable for the production of building stone.
The principal building stone, from the Hythe Formation, is
a hard sandy limestone, known as Kentish Ragstone, which
forms the marked ridge along the northern edge of The
Weald (The Greensand Ridge).

Hythe Formation
The Hythe Formation consists of interbedded layers
of hard, well-cemented, sandy and glauconitic limestone
(Ragstone) and softer, poorly cemented layers of
argillaceous sandstone or calcareous sandstone (Hassock).
However, this simple division into Ragstone and
Hassock alone is insufficient to portray the considerable
lithological variations that can occur within the formation
both vertically and laterally, as a wide spectrum of
stones are seen between these two end members.
The individual beds of Ragstone suitable for building
purposes are relatively thin, being up to 90cm in thickness
generally. A measure of the considerable variation in the
characteristics of the Ragstone can be seen across the
county. Ragstone is a common term used to describe
many building limestones across England and the term
appears to have a number of different meanings.

Joan Blows
Here, it refers to a sandy limestone, which presents an
irregular, rough or ragged surface when hand cut and
dressed. Sometimes the coarse shell debris also weathers
out to form a rough surface.
Kentish Ragstone is typically a medium-grey limestone,
occasionally with associated nodular or bedded chert
layers. Variations in the proportions of quartz grains,
glauconite and carbonate cement/matrix have
contributed to the differing workability and weathering
characteristics of the stone. Quarrymen gave numerous
local names to the individual stone beds, or lanes, but
these old names have now fallen into disuse. The various
bed names are believed to have identified stones suitable
locally for different building purposes ashlar, rubblestone,
paving etc. Although the generic term Ragstone denotes
the relative difficulty in working the material to produce
dressed stone, historic examples of more high-quality
dressed stone and tracery are evident throughout the
county. However, Ragstone is more commonly seen as
rubblestone walling, either coursed or uncoursed. It is the
only Kent stone which has been widely transported for
use outside the county boundaries,
Examples of the Roman use of Kentish Ragstone can
be seen in the foundations of their triumphal arch at
Richborough (Rutupiae 85 AD), and in the 3C, in the
jambs of the city gates in Canterbury (Durovernum
Cantiacorum). In the 11C and 12C, cherty Kentish
Ragstone rubblestone was used extensively in both
Rochester Castle and in the cathedral. It was extensively
used from the 12th to 16C for church construction in
London and Essex, as well as in Kent.

Kent Strategic Stone Study 7

The use of Ragstone went into decline during the 17C

as other materials (brick, Portland or Bath stone for
example), became more fashionable and readily available.
Nonetheless, quarrying continued, and extraction from
underground mines in the Maidstone area is well-known.
By the late 20C, however, Ragstone was used very little
for building purposes.

Ragstones durability is evident in many surviving medieval

buildings, for example the 14C Westgate Towers in
Canterbury, top right image.
Kentish Ragstone has also been used in the construction
of Knole House near Sevenoaks, below image.
Finer-textured Ragstone (particularly greenish or dark
bluish-grey varieties) has also been used in string courses,
plinths and tracery work, but is sometimes less durable in
such situations.

Joan Blows

Joan Blows
Kent Strategic Stone Study 8

 Joan Blows

Joan Blows

The Hythe Formation has been quarried across the

county. At the eastern end of the outcrop in the
Folkestone-Hythe area, the stone is generally pale grey
without coarse quartz grains and is shelly in places
(although darker beds occur, notably the dark green sandy
limestone in the vicinity of Hythe and Sellindge). The use
of well-selected and well-worked stone can be seen to
provide a durable and pleasing finish even in an exposed
location, as in the defensive Napoleonic retaining wall at
Battery Point, along the seafront at Sandgate.
The top left image of the Hermitage, a mid 19C
dwelling, at Sandgate, provides a fine example of high
quality coursed Ragstone. The restored medieval barn
(middle image) at Westenhanger Castle is a high quality
construction of coursed Ragstone. In the east of the
county, Ragstone was historically taken for building stone
from the foreshore outcrops, evidenced by the presence
of modern marine borings in some dressed stone blocks.
Ragstone rubble walling was often used in conjunction
with dressings of Jurassic limestone imported from
outside the county, as can be seen in the 19C Payne
Smith School in Canterbury. (top right image)

Joan Blows

The skill needed to produce high-quality Ragstone is

evident in the 18C Sevenoaks School, where the mortar
is galleted with stone fragments, image below.
Around Westerham and westwards towards Surrey,
the beds comprise non-calcareous sandstone. In this
part of the county, not only was the stone quarried
from the surface, it was also mined in the area around
Hosey Common for building purposes. Hythe Formation
sandstone was used at Hosey Common. In recent years,
there has been a perceived shortage of suitable Ragstone
for building purposes, leading to the import of substitutes
from further afield. Careful selection of stone blocks
based upon their petrographic characteristics, together
with the use of appropriate methods of extraction
and working of the stone, can be used, however, to
identify suitable Ragstone resources for new work and
restoration. There is currently just one working Ragstone
quarry in the county, Hermitage Quarry near Maidstone.
This quarry mainly produces crushed rock aggregate, but
is also able to supply rubblestone and dimension stone
for masonry work.

The Maidstone/Borough Green area contained the

greatest concentration of quarries, many of which worked
beds of good quality building stone. The Ragstone from
these quarries was generally medium grey with some
chert and locally small brown phosphatic nodules.
Further west in the county, the Hythe Beds become more
distinctly sandy and the stone tends to become more
greenish-brown/orange-brown in colour as it weathers. A
chert band, known locally as the Sevenoaks Stone, occurs
at the top of the Ragstone sequence in the vicinity of the
town itself.

Joan Blows
Kent Strategic Stone Study 9

Folkestone Formation
The Folkestone Formation typically consists of medium
to coarse-grained sandstone, but bands of ferruginous
sandstone or ironstone occur (particularly around the
Borough Green area) and cherts have been noted in
the outcrops of the Sevenoaks area. The names Ightham
Stone and Oldbury Stone have been given to the durable
building stones won from the hard siliceous deposits
within the Folkestone Formation in the vicinity of the
villages of Ightham and Oldbury. Their use has given a very
distinctive character to buildings in the Oldbury village
area.
Ferruginous, hard sandstone bands occur at several
levels within the Folkestone Formation, and these were
commonly used in the past for setts, by laying the stones
end-on with the bedding planes vertical e.g. at Limpsfield
and Westerham.

This hard ferruginous sandstone has also been used

as rubblestone (alongside Ragstone, brick and tile) in
houses found in the villages of the WrothamBorough
Green area, notably in Wrotham Heath and Trottiscliffe.
Towards the eastern end of the county, from Stanford to
Folkestone, a facies change resulted in the deposition of
a grey, coarse- grained, glauconitic, calcareous sandstone.
This has been used historically, for example at the 12C
Church of St Mary and St Eanswythe in Folkestone
(image below).
This lithology has been known as Folkestone Stone,
although the same term has also been loosely used
to describe Ragstone from the Hythe Formation
which was also quarried from the Folkestone area. The
Folkestone Stone from the Folkestone Formation can
be distinguished by the presence of coarse sub-rounded
quartz grains within the sandstone. Elsewhere in the town,
high quality ashlar of the local sandstone is a prominant
feature of many buildings of the late 19C and early 20C.

Joan Blows
Kent Strategic Stone Study 10

Doggers

UPPER CRETACEOUS

Hard, carbonate-cemented sandstone concretions or

doggers occurring within the formation at Sandling
Junction near Hythe were used locally for walling stone.

Chalk a micritic limestone of biogenic origin

dominates the Upper Cretaceous succession of Kent.

Selborne Group
The Selborne Group includes the Gault and the Upper
Greensand formations. Blocks of concretionary sandstone
from the base of the Gault were used with dressed flints
in the old Fisher Gate at Sandwich. Over much of Kent,
the glauconitic sandstones that normally characterise the
Upper Greensand Formation are not well developed.
Despite the considerable importance of this sandstone
unit elsewhere in south east England as a source of
building stone, there are no known sources in the Kent
area.

Chalk Group
The Chalk Group crops out extensively throughout the
North Downs and includes horizons of relatively hard
stone, but it was not widely used as an external building
stone due to its poor durability. It was, however, used in
medieval times as rubblestone wall cores, for internal
masonry walls and as block work in vaulted ceilings, the
latter including those at Westgate Tower in Canterbury,
St Marys Church in Minster, in Thanet and St Peter and
St Pauls church in Eyethorne. It was particularly useful
in this latter context as it is a soft stone, easy to work
into shaped blocks, and of relatively low density. Chalk
has also been infrequently used externally with success,
for example as ashlared chalk blocks in a former 18C
malthouse at Boxley, below image.

Joan Blows
Kent Strategic Stone Study 11

Flint
Nodular and tabular layers of flint (cryptocrystalline
silica) are found within the Chalk. Extensive remnant flint
deposits are also commonly found in the Pleistocene
gravels and beach gravels of the area. Flint has been
extensively used since Roman times for building in areas
close to the North Downs and the coast. It forms an
extremely durable building stone and it is used in various
contexts either in its as-found form of irregular nodules
with a weathered white cortex, or as knapped (dressed)
and coursed flints displaying a typical black vitreous
finish as can be seen from the top right image of Lower
Hardres church. It has also been used for plinths to
medieval timber framed buildings in Canterbury, as can be
seen in the middle right image

Joan Blows

Different periods of construction within one building are

often revealed by changes in the patterns of flint use. St
Pauls Church, Canterbury, bottom right image, shows this
change in patterns of flint use.
The finest coursed, knapped flint work sometimes
incorporates the use of galletting, with small flint slivers
inserted in the mortar between the blocks which
increases the strength and durability of the mortar. Flint
wall construction normally necessitates the use of dressed
dimension stone or brick to form quoins, and window
and door surrounds. In addition to the local Kentish
Ragstone, various imported Jurassic limestones have
been use for this purpose, including Middle Jurassic Bath
Stone, Cotswold limestones and Weldon and Clipsham
stones (both Lincolnshire Limestone Formation). Flint is
also extensively used for rubblestone fill in wall-cores e.g.
Richborough Castle.

Joan Blows

TERTIARY
Paleogene

The Paleogene succession cropping out in Kent

comprises the Thanet Sand, the Upnor, the Woolwich, the
Reading, the Harwich, the London Clay and the Bagshot
formations. These formations are generally soft and poorly
consolidated, but do contain some harder cemented
horizons which were used locally for building purposes in
Kent.
Joan Blows
Kent Strategic Stone Study 12

Thanet Sand Formation

The 12C towers at Reculver church provide an example
of use of Thanet Sandstone, a laminated fine sandstone
which can still be seen as beds and doggers in the Thanet
Formation cliffs and on the foreshore nearby, image below.
The stone can be seen sporadically as individual slabby
blocks in east Kent, for example within the pre 12C city
wall in the Northgate area of Canterbury, top right image.
Sometimes, the isolated blocks show evidence of their
foreshore origin by virtue of the presence of marine
borings. The Roman fabric of Richborough Castle includes
Thanet sandstones, together with London Clay septaria,
Puddingstone, Upper Greensand, Kentish Ragstone,
Carrera Marble, Neidermendig lava and tufa.

Joan Blows

Lambeth Group
The Lambeth Group, comprising the Upnor, the
Woolwich and the Reading formations, is a variegated
succession of variably cemented, coarse-grained, pebbly
sandstones, which are occasionally glauconitic, ferruginous
or calcareous in character.

Joan Blows
Kent Strategic Stone Study 13

Upnor Formation
This formation principally comprises fine to mediumgrained, variegated glauconitic sands with blackened
flint pebbles. Close to the boundary with the overlying
Woolwich Formation is a hard, ferruginous sandstone,
the Winterbourne Ironstone, which has had a limited use
locally for building stone e.g. Boughton church (Potter
1999).

Bracklesham Group
Bagshot Formation
In Kent, this formation exists only as a small outcrop on
the Isle of Sheppey, where it principally comprises pale
coloured and variegated, loose sands with flint gravels. No
hard indurated bands are evident in the succession and it
is unlikely, therefore, that the formation was a significant
source of local building stone.

Woolwich & Reading Formations

Sarsen Stone
Isolated occurrences of a hard, quartz-cemented
sandstone known as Sarsen Stone provided a local source
of building material in the Medway area. These sandstones
represent only the remnants of a much more extensive,
largely un-cemented sandstone unit that covered much of
the area during the Paleogene. Examples of their use can
be seen in the Kits Coty and Whitehorse megaliths, near
Aylesford.

Thames Group

Joan Blows

London Clay Formation

This formation comprises a succession of sandy and silty,
glauconitic mudstones and clays, within which occur large
tabular and spheroidal calcareous concretions - Septarian
Nodules (or Concretions).

Septarian Nodules
These calcareous nodules are developed within the lower
part of the London Clay Formation, and were principally
quarried as a raw material for the manufacture of cement
(Roman cement), often from foreshore outcrops. They are
sometimes seen in the fabric of buildings built close to the
coast e.g. at Richborough Castle and the parish Church
at Herne in East Kent, where they have been used with a
variety of local stone types.
The top right image shows a close-up of Septaria nodules.
The bottom image of Herne Church shows their use and
also other local materials, including bands of knapped flints
and Thanet Sandstone.

Joan Blows
Kent Strategic Stone Study 14

PLEISTOCENE
Tufa
Tufa is a freshwater carbonate deposit formed around
springs. During the Pleistocene, the development of these
tufa deposits appears to have been extensive. There are
a number of locations in Kent, commonly associated with
springs at the margin of the Hythe Formation or Chalk
Group outcrops, where tufa deposits are still forming.
Many older deposits have been quarried away, however,
having served as sources of lime or occasionally building
stone.
They are characterised by their hard and durable
nature when lithified, and their highly porous structure
and therefore low density, makes them ideal for use as
wallstones and for vaulting in churches. It is believed
that supplies of tufa for building were exhausted by late
Norman times.
Blocks of pale-coloured, porous tufaceous limestone
can be seen forming the quoins and dressings of the
walls in the 12C tower of St Leonards at West Malling,
right images. Locally derived tufa blocks were also used
extensively in the construction of the Roman Lighthouse
(Pharos) at Dover.

Joan Blows

A number of churches in the Romney Marsh area have

some tufa blocks in their fabric (e.g. at Lympne, West
Hythe, Appledore and New Romney, some having been
reused from the Roman Fort at Lympne; Potter 2002,
2004), as have several Norman churches in the Maidstone
area.

Joan Blows
Kent Strategic Stone Study 15

Ferricrete
In the Stour Valley, beds of locally-developed pebbly
conglomerate from the river terraces were occasionally
worked and used as a local building stone. Where these
are iron-cemented, the term ferricrete is adopted.
Ferricrete walling can be seen for example in the 14C
construction of the Stour Valley churches of All Saints in
Westbere and Holy Cross Church in Hoath. It can also
been seen in the parish church of Sturry just to the east
of Canterbury, image below.
Coarse-grained, ferruginous cemented gravel blocks and
quoin stones have also been described in the fabric of
two churches at Appledore and Kenardington in the
Romney Marsh area (Potter 2002, 2004).

Weathered Flint, Beach Cobbles & Ships

Ballast
Many of the flint cobbles used in buildings in Kent
show the brown weathered coatings of flints sourced
from the Tertiary and later deposits. Beach Cobbles are
occasionally seen in smaller buildings along the coast
whilst sandstone boulders from the Hythe Formation
have been recorded in several churches in the Romney
Marsh area (Potter 2002, 2004). A variety of more exotic
stones (igneous and metamorphic) are also seen in the
fabric of the churches in the area, and these are likely to
have been derived from off-loaded ships ballast (Potter
2002, 2004).

Imported Stones
There has been widespread use of building stones
imported from France, notably the Caen Stone. This was
much used by the Normans, for example in Canterbury
for the construction of the Cathedral and St Augustines
Abbey. Stone was imported also from the Boulonnais, and
from the area of Poitiers.

Joan Blows
Kent Strategic Stone Study 16

Glossary
Ashlar: Stone masonry comprising blocks with carefully
worked beds and joints, finely jointed (generally under
6mm) and set in horizontal courses. Stones within each
course are of the same height, though successive courses
may be of different heights. Ashlar is often wrongly used
as a synonym for facing stone.
Calcareous: A rock which contains significant (10-50%)
calcium carbonate principally in the form of a cement or
matrix.
Carbonate: A general term used for sedimentary
rocks consisting of 50 per cent or more of either calcite
(calcium carbonate) or dolomite (magnesium carbonate).

Fossiliferous: Bearing or containing fossils.

Freestone: Term used by masons to describe a rock
that can be cut and shaped in any direction without
splitting or failing.
Interbedded: Occurs when beds (layers or rock) of a
particular lithology lie between or alternate with beds of
a different lithology. For example, sedimentary rocks may
be interbedded if there were sea level variations in their
sedimentary depositional environment.
Ironstone: Sedimentary rock which is composed of
more than 50% iron-bearing minerals.

Cement: The materials which bind the grains and/or

fossil components together to form a rock.

Limestone: A sedimentary rock consisting mainly

of calcium carbonate (Ca CO3) grains such as ooids,
shell and coral fragments and lime mud. Often highly
fossiliferous.

Chalk: A very fine-grained white limestone composed

principally of microscopic skeletal remnants known as
coccoliths.

Lithology: The description of a rock based on its

mineralogical composition and grain-size e.g. sandstone,
limestone, mudstone etc.

Conglomerate: A sedimentary rock made up of

rounded pebbles (>2mm), cobbles and boulders of rock
in a finer-grained matrix.

Mudstone: A fine-grained sedimentary rock composed

of a mixture of clay and silt-sized particles.

Dressings: To say a building is constructed of brick with

stone dressings means that worked stone frames the
corners and openings of the structure.
Facies: A term describing the principal characteristics of
a sedimentary rock that help describe its mode of genesis
e.g. dune sandstone facies, marine mudstone facies.
Ferruginous: Containing iron minerals usually in the
form of an iron oxide which gives the rock a rusty stain.
Flaggy: A finely laminated, sedimentary rock that splits
into thin sheets when exposed to weathering.
Flint (or Chert): Hard, resistant beds or nodules
composed of cryptocrystalline silica. The use of the term
flint is restricted to nodules and beds that occur only in
Chalk (Upper Cretaceous) rocks.

Outcrop: Area where a rock unit is exposed at the

ground surface.
Phosphatic: Containing phosphate minerals, either
dispersed as cements or in the form of nodules.
Quartz: The crystalline form of silica - silicon dioxide
SiO2.

Quoin: The external angle of a building. The dressed

alternate header and stretcher stones at the corners of
buildings.
Rubble: Rough, undressed or roughly dressed building
stones typically laid uncoursed (random rubble) or
brought to courses at intervals. In squared rubble, the
stones are dressed roughly square, and typically laid in
courses (coursed squared rubble).

Kent Strategic Stone Study 17

Sandstone: A sedimentary rock composed of sandsized grains (i.e. generally visible to the eye, but less than 2
mm in size).
Sedimentary rock: A rock that is commonly formed
by the binding together (lithification) of sediment particles
(e.g. sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, limestone).
Siliceous: A rock which has a significant silica content
(non-granular) usually in the form of an intergranular
cement e.g. siliceous limestone, siliceous sandstone.
Siltstone: A sedimentary rock composed of silt-sized
grains (i.e. only just visible to the eye).
Tracery: An architectural term used primarily to
describe the stonework elements that support the glass
in a Gothic window. The term probably derives from the
tracing floors on which the complex patterns of late
Gothic windows were laid out.
Tufa: A thin, surficial, soft (when fresh), spongy,
incrustation around the mouth of springs, seams and
streams carrying calcium carbonate in solution. (Often
enveloping plant material).

Kent Strategic Stone Study 18

Acknowledgements
This study, written by Joan Blows, is part of Kents contribution to the Strategic Stone Study, sponsored by English Heritage.
Edited by Graham Lott, British Geological Survey
Stephen Parry, British Geological Survey
Designed by Tarnia McAlester, English Heritage
We are grateful for advice from the following:
Don Cameron, British Geological Survey
Graham Lott, British Geological Survey
Stephen Parry, British Geological Survey

Further Reading
Allen, P (1975) Wealden of the Weald: a new model. Proc. Geol. Assoc. vol. 86 pt 4. 389-437.
Berg, M & Jones, H (2009) Norman Churches in the Canterbury diocese. The History Press. 207pp.
Blagg, T. F. C Building stone in Roman Britain. In, Stone, Quarrying and building in England AD 43 1525 51-82 ed. David
Parsons. 33-50.
Brenchley, Patrick J & Rawson, Peter F. eds (2006) The Geology of England and Wales.
Curl, J.S (2003) Encyclopaedia of Architectural Terms. Donhead.
Downer, G (2009) The stones of St Augustines Abbey. Kent RIGS Group 25pp.
Highley, D. E (1975) The economic geology of the Weald. Proc. Geol. Assoc. vol. 86 pt 4. 559-569.
Kearey, P (2001) Dictionary of Geology. Penguin Books.
Kirkaldy, J. F (1975) William Topley and The Geology of the Weald. Proc. Geol Assoc. vol. 86 pt. 4.373-388.
Lott, G & Cameron, D (2005) The building stones of South east England; mineralogy and provenance. In 10th Euroseminar
on Microscopy Applied to Building Materials, Paisley, Scotland 21-25 June 2005.
Middlemiss, F. A (1975) Studies in the sedimentation of the Lower Greensand of the Weald: a review and commentary.
Proc. Geol. Assoc .vol. 86 pt.4. 457-473.
Pearson, A (2002) Stone supply to the Saxon shore forts at Reculver, Richborough, Dover and Lympne. Archaeologia
Cantiana. vol. CXXII 197-219.
Potter, J. F (2005) Field Meeting: Romney Marsh its churches and geology, 22 May 2004. Proc .Geol. Assoc. vol.116 pt.2
161-175.
Stocker, M (2007) Kentish Ragstone. Publ. Malcolm Stocker. 71pp.
Tatton-Brown, T. W. T (1990) Building stone in Canterbury c.1075-1525 in, Stone, Quarrying and building in England AD
43 1525 51-82 ed. David Parsons. 51-82.
Tatton-Brown, T (1994) Kent Churches Some new Architectural Notes (contd.) Churches in and around Canterbury.
Archaeologia Cantiana. vol. CXIV. 189-235.

Kent Strategic Stone Study 19

Toghill, P (2010) The Geology of Britain - An Introduction. Airlife.

Vigar, John E (2001) Kent Churches. Dovecote Press 160pp.
Worssam, B. C & T. W. T (1990) The stone of the Reculver columns and cross. Stone, Quarrying and building in England AD
43 1525 ed. David Parsons.
Worssam, B.C & Tatton-Brown, T (1993) Kentish Rag and other Kent building stones. Archaeologia Cantiana. vol. CXll.
93-125.

Kent Strategic Stone Study 20