Hertfordshire puddingstone

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A fragment from a quern of probable Roman date made from Hertfordshire puddingstone. The rock contains many oval shaped grey and white pebbles of varying sizes in a quartz (silica) matrix. Quern (FindID 553103).jpg
A fragment from a quern of probable Roman date made from Hertfordshire puddingstone. The rock contains many oval shaped grey and white pebbles of varying sizes in a quartz (silica) matrix.

Hertfordshire puddingstone is a conglomerate sedimentary rock composed of rounded flint pebbles cemented together by a younger matrix of silica quartz. The distinctive rock is largely confined to the English counties of Buckinghamshire [1] and Hertfordshire but small amounts occur throughout the London Basin. [2] It is quite commonly found in fields in and around Chesham, where pieces can be seen as boundary stones and in rockeries. Despite a superficial similarity to concrete, it is an entirely natural silcrete. A fracture runs across both the pebbles and the sandy matrix as both have equal strength unlike concrete where the pebbles remain whole and a fracture occurs only in the matrix. Like other puddingstones, it derives its name from the manner in which the embedded flints resemble the plums in a pudding. [2] [3] It forms the local base of the Upnor Formation of the Lambeth Group (lower Eocene, 56-55 million years ago).

Contents

Geological origin

A polished section of Hertfordshire puddingstone Polished Section of Hertfordshire Puddingstone, Hertford Museum (geograph 3874623).jpg
A polished section of Hertfordshire puddingstone
Samples of Hertfordshire puddingstone at Hertford Museum Hertfordshire puddingstone at Hertford Museum - 01.jpg
Samples of Hertfordshire puddingstone at Hertford Museum

The flints were eroded from the surrounding chalk beds some 56 million years ago in the Eocene epoch and were transported by water action to beaches, where they were rounded by wave erosion and graded by size. A lowering of sea levels and general drying during a brief arid period known as the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum drew out silica from surrounding rocks into the water immersing the flint pebbles. Further drying precipitated the silica which hardened around the pebbles, trapping them in the matrix.

Puddingstone is rarely found in situ in the strata but its hardness has preserved loose rocks and boulders commonly found in river beds, and less frequently exposed at the surface. [3] [4] A well-researched outcrop lies at Colliers End near Ware. [2] Another large piece lies at the bottom of the trout lake in Fisheries Road, Hemel Hempstead. This was discovered by contractors deepening the lake in 1975. It is 30 ft x 20 ft by 3–4 feet thick. [5]

Oxides of iron were also trapped in the silica matrix, giving rise to many different hues when the puddingstone is examined closely. From a greater distance, puddingstone is generally brown or ginger in colour, although pink is possible. The density of flint inclusions shows notable variation between specimens. [2] [3]

Rock similar to the sand matrix of Hertfordshire Puddingstone, and with similar silica cement, but lacking the pebbles, occurs further west in Southern England, and is called Sarsen stone. [6] Most of the stones at Stonehenge and Avebury are sarsens.

Uses

The silica is very hard, providing the stone with a variety of applications. Large pieces of puddingstone are found at the base of the walls of St Mary's Church, Chesham. It has also been used as an auxiliary building material supplementing flintstone buildings such as St Mary's Church, Stocking Pelham, St Lawrence's Church, Bovingdon, and the parish church at Sarratt; as a decorative feature or waymark in Hertfordshire villages, such as at Watton-at-Stone; or, during Roman times, for grinding corn. A fragment of a quern-stone made from puddingstone was found by archaeologist Dominic Shelley on the site of a Romano-British farmstead in Great Eversden, Cambridgeshire. [7] Some puddingstones are used as landmarks on greens and commons such as at The Lee, Ashley Green and Cholesbury near Chesham and at Sarratt, Herts.

In folklore

Hertfordshire puddingstone outside the Cock and Rabbit public house at The Lee, near Chesham Hertfordshire Puddingstone, Lee, Buckinghamshire - geograph.org.uk - 1492773.jpg
Hertfordshire puddingstone outside the Cock and Rabbit public house at The Lee, near Chesham

Hertfordshire puddingstone was credited in local folklore with several supernatural powers, including being a protective charm against witchcraft. Parish records from the village of Aldenham relate that in 1662 a woman suspected of having been a witch was buried with a piece of it laid on top of her coffin to prevent her from escaping after burial. In living memory a piece of puddingstone was given to a bride and groom, possibly as a fertility symbol. [8] [ better source needed ] Its supposed magical powers gave it the names of woe stone.It was also called grow stone or breeding stone because of a related belief that it could multiply itself. [5] In Chesham, they were known as everlasting stones.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flint</span> Cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz

Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cholesbury</span> Human settlement in England

Cholesbury is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Cholesbury-cum-St. Leonards, in Buckinghamshire, England, on the border with Hertfordshire. It is situated in the Chiltern Hills, about 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Wendover, 5 mi (8.0 km) north of Chesham and 5 mi (8.0 km) from Berkhamsted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawridge</span> Human settlement in England

Hawridge is a small village in the Chilterns in the county of Buckinghamshire, England and bordering the county boundary with Hertfordshire. It is 3 miles (4.8 km) from Chesham, 4 miles (6.4 km) from both Tring and Berkhamsted. Hawridge is one of four villages making up Cholesbury-cum-St Leonards, a civil parish within Chiltern District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latimer, Buckinghamshire</span> Human settlement in England

Latimer is a village that sits on the border between Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, England. In 2013, the civil parish of Latimer was renamed, Latimer and Ley Hill. The parish, forming part of the Buckinghamshire district of Chiltern, includes the villages of Latimer, Ley Hill and Tyler's Hill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarsen</span> Type of sandstone block found in southern England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geology of Hertfordshire</span>

The geology of Hertfordshire describes the rocks of the English county of Hertfordshire which are a northern part of the great shallow syncline known as the London Basin. The beds dip in a south-easterly direction towards the syncline's lowest point roughly under the River Thames. The most important formations are the Cretaceous chalks, which are exposed as the high ground in the north and west of the county, and the Cenozoic rocks made up of the Paleocene age Reading beds and Eocene age London Clay that occupies the remaining southern part.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conglomerate (geology)</span> Coarse-grained sedimentary rock composed mostly of rounded to sub-angular fragments

Conglomerate is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed of a substantial fraction of rounded to subangular gravel-size clasts. A conglomerate typically contains a matrix of finer-grained sediments, such as sand, silt, or clay, which fills the interstices between the clasts. The clasts and matrix are typically cemented by calcium carbonate, iron oxide, silica, or hardened clay.

Chorleywood is both a village and a civil parish in the Three Rivers District, Hertfordshire, on the border with Buckinghamshire, approximately 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Charing Cross. The village is adjacent to the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is part of the London commuter belt included in the government-defined Greater London Urban Area. Chorleywood was historically part of the parish of Rickmansworth, becoming a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1845 and a separate civil parish in 1898. The population of the parish was 11,286 at the 2011 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Watton-at-Stone</span> Human settlement in England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lambeth Group</span>

The Lambeth Group is a stratigraphic group, a set of geological rock strata in the London and Hampshire Basins of southern England. It comprises a complex of vertically and laterally varying gravels, sands, silts and clays deposited between 56-55 million years before present during the Ypresian age. It is found throughout the London Basin with a thickness between 10m and 30m, and the Hampshire Basin with a thickness between 50m and less than 25m. Although this sequence only crops out in these basins, the fact that it underlies 25% of London at a depth of less than 30m means the formation is of engineering interest for tunnelling and foundations.

In geology, the Bagshot Beds are a series of sands and clays of shallow-water origin, some being fresh-water, some marine. They belong to the upper Eocene formation of the London and Hampshire basins, in England and derive their name from Bagshot Heath in Surrey. They are also well developed in Hampshire, Berkshire and the Isle of Wight. The following divisions are generally accepted:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anstey, Hertfordshire</span> Human settlement in England

Anstey is a village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England, about 15 miles (24 km) northeast of Stevenage. According to the 2001 census the population of the parish was 338, reducing to 299 at the 2011 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roxbury Conglomerate</span>

The Roxbury Conglomerate, also informally known as Roxbury puddingstone, is a name for a rock formation that forms the bedrock underlying most of Roxbury, Massachusetts, now part of the city of Boston. The bedrock formation extends well beyond the limits of Roxbury, underlying part or all of Quincy, Canton, Milton, Dorchester, Dedham, Jamaica Plain, Brighton, Brookline, Newton, Needham, and Dover. It is named for exposures in Roxbury, Boston area. It is the Rock of the Commonwealth in Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silcrete</span>

Silcrete is an indurated soil duricrust formed when surface soil, sand, and gravel are cemented by dissolved silica. The formation of silcrete is similar to that of calcrete, formed by calcium carbonate, and ferricrete, formed by iron oxide. It is a hard and resistant material, and though different in origin and nature, appears similar to quartzite. As a duricrust, there is potential for preservation of root structures as trace fossils.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puddingstone (rock)</span> Colorful conglomerate rock

Puddingstone, also known as either pudding stone or plum-pudding stone, is a popular name applied to a conglomerate that consists of distinctly rounded pebbles whose colours contrast sharply with the colour of the finer-grained, often sandy, matrix or cement surrounding them. The rounded pebbles and the sharp contrast in colour gives this type of conglomerate the appearance of a raisin or Christmas pudding. There are different types of puddingstone, with different composition, origin, and geographical distribution. Examples of different types of puddingstones include the Hertfordshire, Schunemunk, Roxbury, and St. Joseph Island puddingstones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarratt</span> Human settlement in England

Sarratt is both a village and a civil parish in Three Rivers District, Hertfordshire, England. It is situated 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Rickmansworth on high ground near the county boundary with Buckinghamshire. The chalk stream, the River Chess, rising just north of Chesham in the Chiltern Hills, passes through Sarratt Bottom in the valley to the west of the village to join the River Colne in Rickmansworth. The conditions offered by the river are perfect for the cultivation of watercress. Sarratt has the only commercially operating watercress farm in Hertfordshire. The valley to the east of Sarratt is dry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Totternhoe Stone</span> Hard chalk outcropping in England

Totternhoe Stone is a relatively hard chalk outcropping in the middle of the Lower Chalk in the Chiltern Hills in Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, England. Geologically, it is located in the upper part of the Cenomanian stage of the Cretaceous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Grove, Watford</span> English country house in Watford, United Kingdom

The Grove is a large hotel in Hertfordshire, England, with a 300–acre (1.2 km2) private park next to the River Gade and the Grand Union Canal. It touches on its north-west corner the M25 motorway and remains a small part in Watford. The estate is situated within three different settlements; most of the land and all of the mansion itself are in the civil parish of Sarratt, and also in the ecclesiastical parish of Langleybury, while the estate lies within the post town of Rickmansworth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Mary's Church, Chesham</span> Anglican church in Buckinghamshire, UK

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clothall</span> Human settlement in England

Clothall is a village and civil parish in the county of Hertfordshire, England, with a population of 358. It is situated 2.25 miles (3.62 km) south-east of Baldock, and is in the district of North Hertfordshire. At the 2011 Census the civil parish had a population of 150. The village contains the Church of St Mary the Virgin, which was built of flint and stone around 1350–70, though parts of the church are older, dating to the 12th century.

References

  1. "NOSTALGIA - Chiltern Puddingstones - What are they and where can you find them?". 8 November 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Lovell, Bryan; Jane Tubb. "Ancient Quarrying of Rare in situ Palaeogene Hertfordshire Puddingstone" (PDF). Mercian Geologist (2006 16 (3)): 185. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 April 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 Lovell, Bryan; Jane Tubb. "Hertfordshire Puddingstone". Hertfordshire Geological Society. Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
  4. Puddingstone song, Mike Excell singing the Puddingstone Song for Hertfordshire Geological Society, June 2009
  5. 1 2 Hands, Roger and Joan; Davis, Eve (1989). The Book of Boxmoor (1994 ed.). Barracuda Books. ISBN   0-86023-544-0. page 14
  6. Hertfordshire Puddingstone Archived 5 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine East Herts Geology Club, Dr. Steve Perkins , August 2005.
  7. Quern Tastic!, Shelley, Dominic
  8. Clinch, Ruth (2010). "Pudding Stone". Grovehill Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 23 November 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)