DORSET BUILDING STONE
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  • Secular buildings
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Chalk

Series Stage Ma Traditional Group Formation Member Use
Upper Cretaceous Maastrichtian 72.1
Campanian 83.6 Dorset
Upper Chalk Chalk White Chalk Studland Chalk Flint, Lime
Portsdown Chalk
Culver Chalk Spetisbury Chalk
Tarrant Chalk
Newhaven Chalk
Santonian 86.3 Spurious Chalk Rock
South East Devon
Coniacian 89.8 Seaford Chalk
Lewes Nodular Chalk
Turonian 93.9  
Middle Chalk New Pit Chalk Clunch, Lime, Flint
Holywell Nodular Chalk
Cenomanian 101.0 Lower Chalk Plenus Marls
Grey Chalk Beer Head Limestone Zig Zag Chalk Beer Stone, Clunch, Lime
West Melbury Marly Chalk  
Glauconitic Marl
Lower Cretaceous Albian Selborne Upper Greensand

© GR 2020

​Chalk – Late Cretaceous limestone
The geological unit The Chalk Group is up to 300 metres (1000’) thick in Dorset but less than 100m in SE Devon due to erosion of most of the sequence.  The traditional divisions were Lower Chalk (Cenomanian), Middle Chalk (Turonian) and Upper Chalk (Coniacian to Maastrichtian).  The Chalk Group slowly accumulated over 34 million years (100 to 66 my).
Picture
Riverside cottages in Litton Cheney. The furthest is built of Chalk, the nearest is Forest Marble. Photo: JT
Chalk is a generally soft white marine lime mudstone.  The dominant component is microscopic planktonic calcareous algae debris (coccoliths), invisible to a hand lens or standard microscope.  Sometimes, sand-sized bioclastic debris (bivalve & echinoderm) reaches a high proportion and a hard “gritty” rock develops.  At times planktonic organisms and sponges contributed silica to the sea bed which lead to the formation of flint (qv).
Picture
Lower Chalk.The lowest, the Grey Chalk, has crystals of glauconite and some sand grains. It is used in several buildings, including The Old Bell in Cerne Abbas. Photo: JT
Picture
New Inn, Cerne Abbas. A block of Cenomanian Chalk showing a characteristic fossil, in the corner of the New Inn, Cerne Abbas. Photo: JT
The quarry on Giant Hill, Cerne Abbas, reaches up to the flint-rich Seaford Chalk Formation (middle of the White Chalk Subgroup, formerly Upper Chalk), but only the Cerne Abbas North Barn, with large flint nodules, is clearly from this Formation.
Picture
Barn interior at Shroton (Iwerne Courtney). Chalk is often used for the interior walls in barns, as it is can be kept clean and healthy for the animals. Photo: JT.
Picture
The Shroton estate. The wall round the Shroton estate is built of Chalk, Upper Greensand and Corallian limestone. Photo: JT
Picture
These cottages in Sydling St. Nicholas are built of banded flint and Chalk. Photo: JT
Note: The stone used for building in Cerne Abbas and Sydling St. Nicholas could have been re-used from the Abbey, or could have come straight from the quarry on Giant Hill. My instinct is that the early buildings in the Abbey used Cypris Freestones from Poxwell, and that later building used the various Chalks from Giant Hill. This is based on the order in which the stone was used in buildings such as the Old Bell in Cerne Abbas, and the dates of individual buildings given in the architectural history.
Picture
North Barn in Cerne Abbas was built of large blocks of Middle Chalk from the quarry on Giant's Hill. Photo: JT
Picture
Middle Chalk. Detail of the Middle Chalk in North Barn, Cerne Abbas. Photo: JT
Picture
Cattistock. A group of cottages with Chalk walls on an Upper Greensand plinth. Photo: JT
Villages in the Chalk downlands often have a Parish Quarry in the Chalk and, where a stream has cut down to the Zig-Zag Formation (Grey Chalk Subgroup, formerly upper Lower Chalk), this has been successfully used for building in cut blocks known locally as Clunch. The Zig Zag Chalk has a greyish look in a building as it contains scattered grains of quartz sand, glauconite and clay minerals (comprising a marl). In some blocks there are phosphatic nodules and characteristic Cenomanian fossils.
Picture
Farmyard wall. This farmyard wall in Iwerne Courtney is built of Chalk, Upper Greensand and Flint. Photo: JT
Picture
Long Bredy. The barn wall at Baglake Farm, at the eastern end of Litton Cheney, is built of Chalk from the parish quarry, and Corallian limestone from the farm quarry. Photo: JT
Stone from the White Chalk Group tends to be soft and is often rendered.  However, it was often used for interior walls, both in domestic and farm buildings.  All the Chalk was used to make cob, but this was also often rendered.  Chalk pits were often for production of lime mortar and whitewash (rather than for spreading on the chalky land). Text: WGT & JT. Photos: JT
 Feb 2017

Picture
Lamperts cottage in Sydling St. Nicholas is built of Chalk block, including some glauconitic Chalk, which suggests that it may have come from the quarry on Giant Hill in Cerne Abbas. Photo: JT
Picture
The Fox & Hounds. The Lower Chalk has been used for the walls of the Fox & Hounds inn in Cattistock. can you spot an interesting fossil? Photo: JT
Picture

© DORSET BUILDING STONE
and contributors
  • Home
    • About Us
    • Glossary
    • References and Sources
    • Work in Progress
  • Building stones
    • How we study building stones
    • Palaeogene >
      • Heathstone
      • Sarsens
    • Cretaceous >
      • Chalk
      • Flint
      • Upper Greensand
      • Chert
      • Wealden
      • Purbeck >
        • Upper Purbeck (Purbeck Marble)
        • Upper Purbeck (Broken Shell Lst. aka Burr)
        • Middle Purbeck (Upper Building Stones)
        • Lower Purbeck (Cypris Freestones)
    • Jurassic >
      • Lower Purbeck >
        • Cypris Freestones
      • Portland Stone - Dorset
      • Chert
      • Kimmeridge Bay Dolomitic Limestone
      • Corallian
      • Cornbrash
      • Forest Marble
      • Fuller's Earth Rock
      • Inferior Oolite
      • Bridport Sands
      • Junction Bed
      • Blue Lias
    • Dorset Bricks
    • Non-Dorset Stone >
      • Tertiary >
        • Bembridge Limestones - Isle Of Wight
      • Cretaceous >
        • Beer Stone - SE Devon
      • Jurassic >
        • Bath Stone - Somerset & Wilts
        • Blue Lias of Somerset
        • Doulting Stone - Somerset
        • Ham Hill Stone - Somerset
        • Portland Limestone – Wilts (Chilmark)
        • Normandy >
          • Pierre de Caen (Caen Stone)
        • Pas de Calais
      • Triassic: White Lias of SE Devon
      • Carboniferous >
        • Carboniferous Limestones: Polished Black
      • Devonian
    • Building Stone Trails >
      • Devon Trails
      • Somerset Trails
    • Stone Index >
      • Stone Index A-B >
        • Abbotsbury Ironstone
        • Bath Stone
        • Beer Stone
        • Bembridge Stone
        • Binstead Stone
        • Blue Lias Stone
        • Bridport Sandstone
        • Broken Shell Limestone
        • Burr
        • Burton Limestone
      • Stone Index C-E >
        • Caen Stone
        • Carstone
        • Chert
        • Chilmark Lower Building Stone
        • Chilmark Main Building Stone
        • Chilmark Stone
        • Chilmark Upper Buiding Stone
        • Clavellata Beds
        • Cliff Stone
        • Clunch
        • Corallian
        • Cornbrash
        • Cypris Freestone
      • Stone Index F-O >
        • Featherbed Limestone
        • Featherstone
        • Forest Marble
        • Flint
        • Fuller's Earth Rock
        • Grey Chalk
        • Ham Hill Stone
        • Heathstone
        • Inferior Oolite
        • Ironstone
        • Lower Chalk
        • Lower Lias
        • Melbury Sandstone
        • Middle Chalk
        • Middle Lias
        • New Vein
        • Osmington Oolite
      • Stone Index P-T >
        • Portland Cherty Beds
        • Portland Cherty Series
        • Portland Stone
        • Purbeck Marble
        • Purbeck Stone
        • Quarr Stone
        • Rag
        • Sarsen Stone
        • Shaftesbury Sandstone
        • Sherborne Stone
        • Tisbury Stone
        • Todber Freestone
        • Trigonia Beds
      • Stone Index U-Z >
        • Upper Chalk
        • Wardour Lower Building Stone
        • Wardour Main Building Stone
        • Weald Clay
        • White Chalk
        • White Lias
        • Yeovil Stone
  • Churches
    • A-Z of Churches
    • East Dorset >
      • Almer
      • Bournemouth >
        • Talbot Village
      • Canford Magna Chapel
      • Corfe Mullen
      • Christchurch Priory
      • Cranborne
      • Edmondsham
      • Gussage All Saints
      • Gussage St. Andrew
      • Hampreston
      • Kinson
      • Knowlton
      • Morden
      • Pamphill
      • Poole St.James
      • Poole, the Spire Church
      • Shapwick
      • Sturminster Marshall
      • Tarrant Crawford
      • Tarrant Keyneston
      • West Parley
      • Wimborne St.Giles
      • Wimborne Minster Exterior Tour
      • Wimborne Minster Interior
      • Wimborne Minster: Purbeck Marble and Decorative Stone
    • Central Dorset >
      • Bloxworth
      • Bradford Peverell
      • Cerne Abbas
      • Hilton
      • Lytchett Matravers
      • Stratton
      • The Piddle Valley >
        • Affpuddle
        • Alton Pancras
        • Bere Regis
        • Piddlehinton
        • Piddletrenthide
        • Puddletown
        • Tolpuddle
      • Winterborne Tomson
    • North Dorset >
      • Batcombe
      • Belchalwell
      • Blandford Parish Church
      • Blandford St. Leonard's Chapel
      • Blandford St. Mary
      • Blandford Cemetery Chapels
      • Bradford Abbas
      • Chetnole
      • Child Okeford
      • Compton Abbas
      • Farnham
      • Folke
      • Gillingham
      • Hammoon
      • Hazelbury Bryan
      • Holnest
      • Ibberton
      • Iwerne Minster
      • Langton Long
      • Leigh
      • Mappowder
      • Margaret Marsh
      • Marnhull
      • Melbury Abbas
      • Melbury Bubb
      • Pimperne
      • Okeford Fitzpaine
      • Purse Caundle
      • Ryme Intrinseca
      • Shillingstone
      • Sixpenny Handley
      • Stockwood
      • Stourpaine
      • Tarrant Gunville
      • Tarrant Hinton
      • Tarrant Monkton
      • Tarrant Rushton
      • Todber
      • Winterborne Stickland
      • Winterborne Zelston
      • Woolland
      • Yetminster
    • South Dorset >
      • Abbotsbury
      • Bindon Abbey
      • Church Knowle
      • Coombe Keynes
      • East Holme
      • Kingston
      • Martinstown
      • Moreton
      • Portesham
      • Portland: Reforne
      • Steeple
      • Stinsford
      • Studland
      • Swanage
      • Upwey
      • Wareham St. Martin-on-the Walls
      • Wareham St.Mary >
        • St. Martin's-on-the-walls
      • Winterborne Came
      • Winterborne Steepleton
      • Wool
      • Worth Matravers
    • West Dorset >
      • Beaminster
      • Bothenhampton
      • Bradpole
      • Bridport
      • Broadwindsor
      • Burton Bradstock
      • Burstock
      • Catherston Leweston
      • Chelborough
      • Evershot
      • Eype
      • Loders
      • Monkton Wyld
      • Netherbury
      • North Poorton
      • Powerstock
      • St. Gabriel’s
      • Shipton Gorge
      • Lulworth Castle
      • Stoke Abbott
      • Symondsbury
      • Wootton Fitzpaine
      • Whitchurch Canonicorum
  • Quarries , Pits and Limekilns
    • Active Quarries
    • Abbotsbury area
    • Beacon Limestone Quarries
    • Inferior Oolite
    • North Dorset Corallian
    • Kimmeridge Bay
    • Portesham
    • Portland near Swanage
    • Purbeck near Swanage
    • Shaftesbury Sandstone
    • Uplyme Quarries
    • Upwey
    • Whiteway Hill Quarry
    • Winspit Quarry
    • Non-Dorset Quarries and Pits
  • Secular buildings
    • Athelhampton House
    • Blandford Town Hall
    • Cerne Abbas (village and Abbey)
    • Durweston Bridge
    • Ibberton Village
    • Kimmeridge Bay
    • Moignes Court
    • Non-Dorset Buildings
  • Search
  • Contact Us