Doulting Stone Quarry () is a

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...

Doulting Doulting is a village and civil parish east of Shepton Mallet, on the A361, in the Mendip district of Somerset, England. History The parish of Doulting was part of the Whitstone Hundred. The parish includes the village of Bodden, which was ...

, on the

Mendip Hills The Mendip Hills (commonly called the Mendips) is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running from Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel in the west to the Frome valley in the east, the hills ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. At present there are only three quarries quarrying Doulting stone. The largest, The Doulting Stone Quarry, was producing building stone in

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

times. In the 20th century it was operated by the Keevil family. Until 1994 it was operated by

Amalgamated Roadstone Corporation Amalgamated Roadstone Corporation (ARC) was a British stone quarrying company. History Amalgamated Roadstone Corporation Ltd. was formed on 23 April 1935 to acquire six quarry companies in Britain. These were Betty and Tom Ltd, Carreg-y-Liam Qu ...

(now part of

Hanson plc Hanson UK, formerly Hanson Trust plc, is a British-based building materials company, headquartered in Maidenhead. The company has been a subsidiary of the German company HeidelbergCement since August 2007, and was formerly listed on the London S ...

) but was then bought out as a stand-alone business. Ham & Doulting Stone Co Ltd own the east quarry which was originally in use for centuries after which followed a period of inactivity. It was reopened 12 years ago. The quarry also offers primary and secondary cutting and profiling. The stone quarried at Doulting is a thick layer of

oolite Oolite or oölite (''egg stone'') is a sedimentary rock formed from ooids, spherical grains composed of concentric layers. The name derives from the Ancient Greek word for egg (ᾠόν). Strictly, oolites consist of ooids of diameter 0.25–2 ...

middle Jurassic The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 163.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relatively rare, but geological formations co ...

age, deposited as sediments in fairly shallow coastal seas. The stone is unusual as it shows

unconformity An unconformity is a buried erosional or non-depositional surface separating two rock masses or strata of different ages, indicating that sediment deposition was not continuous. In general, the older layer was exposed to erosion for an interval o ...

at the division between the oolite and

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...

limestone beneath, representing two types of rocks laid down millions of years apart, the intervening sediments having been eroded away before the Jurassic strata were laid down. It has a high level of water absorption and porosity. The stone is used for building purposes, including

Glastonbury Abbey Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Its ruins, a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument, are open as a visitor attraction. The abbey was founded in the 8th century and enlarged in the 10th. It wa ...

and the west façade of

Wells Cathedral Wells Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Wells, Somerset, England, dedicated to St Andrew the Apostle. It is the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, whose cathedra it holds as mother church of the Diocese of Bath and Wells. Built as a ...

, and other structures in the cathedral close, such as the fortified gate called The Bishop's Eye.

References

External links

The Doulting Stone Quarry web site

Ham and Doulting Stone
{{coord, 51.190187, N, 2.501578, W, region:GB_type:landmark, format=dms, display=title Quarries in the Mendip Hills Geology of Somerset

See also

References

External links