Strategic Stone Study A Building Stone Atlas of Buckinghamshire (including Milton Keynes) Published August 2018 Contents Danesfield House (Page 11) Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................... 1 Buckinghamshire Bedrock Geology Map ........................................................................................................ 2 Buckinghamshire Superficial Geology Map .................................................................................................... 3 Stratigraphic Table ........................................................................................................................................... 4 The use of stone in Buckinghamshire’s buildings ..................................................................................... 5-20 Background and historical context ........................................................................................................................................................................... 5 The Yardley to Wittlewood Ridge .............................................................................................................................................................................. 7 The Vale of Aylesbury .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 7 The Midvale Ridge ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 9 The Greensand Ridge .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 9 The Icknield Belt and Chalk Foothills ...................................................................................................................................................................... 10 The Chilterns ................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 11 The Thames Valley ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Witchert ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Chalk cob ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 13 Stones and fossils in walls ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Flint ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 17 Buckinghamshire’s indigenous building stones ...................................................................................... 20-31 Lower Jurassic ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 20 Middle Jurassic ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 21 Upper Jurassic ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 22 Lower Cretaceous ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 23 Upper Cretaceous....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 24 Palaeogene .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 28 Quaternary ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 29 Imported building stones ......................................................................................................................... 32-37 Glossary .......................................................................................................................................................... 38 Acknowledgements and References ............................................................................................................ 39 Introduction Despite its comparatively small size, Buckinghamshire has a are defined by a combination of local landscape, history, varied topographic character. This is a direct reflection of its cultural and economic activity, geodiversity and biodiversity underlying geology which principally ranges from Jurassic to (https://gov.uk/government/publications/national-charac- Cretaceous in age. The diverse geology comprises interbedded ter-area-profiles-data-for-local-decision-making). mudstones, limestones, chalks and sandstones, many of which have been exploited to provide building materials. Stone was Parts of the following National Character Areas extend into once quarried, on a relatively small scale at many locations. Buckinghamshire: Natural stone features prominently in a large number of the NCA 88 Beds and Cambs Claylands county’s surviving historic buildings and also in other stone NCA 90 Bedfordshire Greensand Ridge structures including canal walls, road and railway bridges, and NCA 91 Yardley - Wittlesford Ridge field and other boundary walls. Over large areas of the county, NCA 108 Upper Thames Clay Vales the bedrock succession is concealed by largely unconsolidated NCA 109 Midvale Ridge Quaternary and Recent sediments. NCA 110 Chilterns NCA 115 Thames Valley Historically, Buckinghamshire has drawn extensively on the building stone resources of neighbouring counties, which were However, the Beds and Cambs Claylands is a very large area readily transported and imported via the rivers and former that extends from the Fens to East Buckinghamshire; similarly, Roman roads. By the late C19th and early C20th a significant the Upper Thames Clay Vales extend from Bedfordshire to west proportion of the natural stone used in the developing infra- Wiltshire. In terms of describing the built heritage of Bucking- structures of Buckinghamshire’s larger population centres was hamshire in this Atlas, it is more meaningful to use the well-rec- also imported from sources much further afield, whether in the ognised term ‘The Vale of Aylesbury’ for the areas of those two UK or overseas. NCAs that cover the large clay vale of Buckinghamshire. Currently Buckinghamshire is made up of 6 local authorities. The area of the Beds and Cambs Claylands that lies within Occupying the north-east of the County is the unitary authority Buckinghamshire is located to the north and east of the county of Milton Keynes which encompasses Buckinghamshire’s and includes the settlements of Buckingham, Weston Under- largest and most populous town. The remainder of the County wood, Olney, the villages of Milton Keynes (such as Great falls under two tiers of administration, comprising Buckingham- Linford, Thornton, Whaddon, Old Woolverton), and the shire County Council and four District Councils. The latter are, Newport Pagnell area. The area of the Upper Thames Clay Vales from north to south, the Vale of Aylesbury District (covering the that covers part of Buckinghamshire lies to the west and south extensive low-lying area known as the Vale of Aylesbury and the of the county and stretches from Marsh Gibbon in the north Mid Vale Ridge), Wycombe District (covering the southwestern west to Cubblington in the east. This area includes the settle- part of the Chilterns as represented in the County), Chiltern ments of Haddenham, Aylesbury, Winslow, the Claydons and District (covering the eastern part of the Chilterns as represent- Ludgershall. The Mid Vale Ridge lies between the two areas of ed in the County) and South Buckinghamshire District. The clayland that form Aylesbury Vale. It extends from Whitchurch latter covers part of the Thames and Colne Valleys on the edge west into Oxfordshire and Wiltshire and includes the settle- of West London, and partly surrounds Slough. Slough itself was ments of Waddesdon, Long Crendon and Brill. historically part of Buckinghamshire