Berkshire Building Stone Atlas
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Strategic Stone Study A Building Stone Atlas of Berkshire (including West Berkshire, Reading, Wokingham, Bracknell Forest, Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead) Published November 2017 Contents College House (C18th) in Lambourn High Street (see page 8) Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................... 1 Berkshire Bedrock Geology Map ..................................................................................................................... 2 Berkshire Superficial Geology Map ................................................................................................................. 3 Stratigraphic Table ............................................................................................................................................4 The use of stone in Berkshire’s buildings .................................................................................................... 5-14 Background and historical context ........................................................................................................................................................................... 5 The Berkshire and Marlborough Downs .................................................................................................................................................................. 7 The Thames Valley ........................................................................................................................................................................................................8 The Thames Basin Heaths ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 The Chiltern Hills ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Stones in walls ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 12 Berkshire’s indigenous building stones .................................................................................................... 15-19 Upper Cretaceous........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 15 Quaternary .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 17 Imported building stones ......................................................................................................................... 20-25 Windsor Castle ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 25 Glossary .......................................................................................................................................................... 26 Acknowledgements and References ....................................................................................................... 27-28 Introduction Berkshire lies to the west of London. Its landscape and scenery under the 1974 government reorganisation, parts of historic varies from chalk downlands in the north and west to lower- Berkshire (e.g. parts of Wantage Rural District, now Vale of lying, gently undulating Palaeogene and younger strata in the White Horse District), became incorporated into Oxfordshire south and east of the county. The oldest rocks exposed at the and building stones that occur in that areas are described in surface belong in large part to the Upper Cretaceous Chalk the Atlas covering that county. In this Atlas Berkshire is regarded Group, the upper parts of which (the White Chalk Subgroup) as the county area that contains the Boroughs or Unitary contain much flint. This chalk outcrop slopes gently away to the Authorities of: West Berkshire, Reading, Wokingham, Bracknell south. It is mainly overlain by sands and clays of Tertiary age Forest, Windsor and Maidenhead, and Slough. (which occur south of a line from Hungerford via Reading to Windsor) and younger superficial deposits of Quaternary age Building stones in this Atlas are split into Indigenous and (which have a widespread occurrence throughout the county). Imported types and treated in stratigraphic order. To assist the The chronology and distribution of these rocks and sediment reader in navigating around the document, entries in the and the building stones that are sourced from them are stratigraphic table and description pages are interactively summarised in the maps and stratigraphic chart in the linked (indicated by a small coloured triangle in the upper right following pages. corner of the relevant pages). Overall, Berkshire has few locally-sourced building stones. The use of stone in Berkshire is based on the relevant National Currently there are no building stone quarries operating in the Character Areas. Character Areas are very relevant to the county. Historically, flints from the Upper Cretaceous White vernacular built heritage as they are defined by a combination Chalk Subgroup, or reworked into younger Quaternary deposits of local landscape, history, cultural and economic activity, (such as ‘Clay-with-Flints’), have been extensively used for geodiversity and biodiversity (https://gov.uk/government/ building. Other Palaeogene or Quaternary aged building stones publications/national-character-area-profiles-data-for-local-de- are represented mainly by quartz-cemented sandstones cision-making). (Sarsen Stone) and iron-rich conglomerates (Ferricrete, puddingstones). Tufa was employed very locally as a building stone in West Berkshire. The limited availability of indigenous building stone in Berkshire has resulted in the extensive use of imported stones in the county. Importation commenced from at least the Saxon period. Such imported stones have been sourced from various parts of England and further afield. For example, extensive quantities of Caen Stone were imported from France for use in Reading Abbey. Kentish Ragstone from Kent was much used in the C14th - C16th construction phases of Windsor Castle. Importation of stone sourced outside of Berkshire increased dramatically from the C17th with improved transportation and a wide range of stones were used as ornamental dressings to mansions, civic buildings, churches and chapels. The rapid growth in population in the C19th led to the construction of a comparatively large number of new Anglican and Roman Catholic churches and Non-conformist chapels. Imported stone, including Bath Stone, was extensively used for dressings and decorative effect in churches of the Victorian High Gothic, often in conjunction with flint and brick. The county of Berkshire has had a complicated history of government and administrative boundary changes. From 1974 Slough was incorporated into Berkshire from Buckinghamshire and became a Unitary Authority on 1st April 1998. In addition, Berkshire Strategic Stone Study 1 Berkshire Bedrock Geology Map N N Maidenhead Slough Lambourn Wargrave Waltham St Hurley Lawrence Fawley MaidenheadWindsor Wickham Reading Slough Lambourn Theale Wargrave Wokingham Bracknell HungerfordChieveley Windsor Newbury Waltham St Wickham ReadingStratford MortimerLawrence Theale Bracknell Hungerford Wokingham Newbury Ascot Stratford Mortimer 0 10 20 Km 0 10 20 km Berkshire BedrockBerkshire Geology Bedrock Geology BUILDING STONE SOURCES BUILDING STONE SOURCES LONDON CLAY FORMATION - CLAY, SILT AND SAND LONDON CLAY FORMATIONBRACKLESHAM - CLAY, SI GROULT ANDP - SAND, SAND GRAVEL, CLAY, SILT LAMBETH GROUP - CLAY, SILT AND SAND BRACKLESHAM GROUP - SAND, GRAVEL, CLAY AND SILT WHITE CHALK SUBGROUP CHALK GROUP - CHALK LAMBETH GROUP - CLAYGRE, SIYL TCHALK AND SUBGROUP SAND WHITE CHALK SUBGROUPUPPER GREENSAND FORMATION - SANDSTONE CHALK GROUP - CHALK GREY CHALK SUBGROUP UPPER GREENSAND FORMATION - SANDSTONE Derived from BGS digital geological mapping at 1:50,000 scale, British Geological Survey © NERC. All rights reserved Berkshire Strategic Stone Study 2 Berkshire Superficial Geology Map N Hurley N Fawley Slough Lambourn Wargrave Maidenhead Windsor Chieveley Waltham St Wickham Reading Lawrence Theale Bracknell Hungerford WokinghamHurley Fawley Newbury Ascot Stratford Mortimer Slough Lambourn Wargrave Maidenhead Chieveley Windsor Waltham St Wickham Reading Lawrence Theale 0 10 20 Km Bracknell Hungerford Wokingham Newbury Ascot Stratford Mortimer 0 10 20 Km Berkshire Superficial Geology Berkshire Superficial BUILDINGGeology STONE SOURCES BUILDING STONE SOURCESALLUVIUM - CLAY, SILT, SANDS AND GRAVELS BRICKEARTH; PEAT; CLAYS; SILT AND SAND ALLUVIUM - CLAY, SILT, SANDSHEAD AND - SANDS, GRA GRVELSAVELS, SILT AND CLAY BRICKEARTH - PEAT, CLAYS,RIVER SIL TTERRACES AND SAND - SANDS, GRAVELS, SILT AND CLAY HEAD - SANDS, GRAVELS, SITULFTA AND CLAY CLAY-WITH-FLINTS - SANDS, GRAVELS, CLAY, SILT RIVER TERRACES - SANDS, GRAVELS, SILT AND CLAY TUFA CLAY-WITH-FLINTS - SANDS, GRAVELS, CLAY AND SILT Derived from BGS digital geological