| Back | Main Details | Samples & Images | Quarries | Usage | References |
| Local Name(s): | Bath Stone - Hazelbury. |
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| Stone Group: | Sedimentary | ||||||
| Stone Type: | Limestone | ||||||
| Geology: |
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| Geological Sub-Divisons: | Great Oolite Series. |
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| General Colour Description: | A creamy white coloured stone. Soft and warm yellow in colour when freshly quarried, it will harden and turn whiter in colour when exposed to the atmosphere (Watson 1911: 176). |
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| Hand Specimen Description: | A medium grained, moderately well sorted, hard, oolitic limestone with occasional larger shell fragments. |
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| General Comments: | Bath Stone of unspecified type was used by the Romans for baths, buildings, villas, memorial stones and sculptures. There were probably Roman quarries at Combe Down near Bath and an early inscription to an official suggests imperial interest at the time of Caracalla. Little quarrying occurred in the Saxon period, and the next earliest reference to Bath Stone is in 1207 with small scale quarrying. Activity continued from this time up until the 18th century which became the 'great age' for Bath Stone extracted from Combe Down, Odd Down and Hampton Down (Stanier 2000: 68). |
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| Stone Identifiers: | Calcareous, Fossiliferous, Oolitic. | ||||||
| Reacts dilute to HCl? | Yes | ||||||
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