Stone in Archaeology Database

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Don Group, Cadeby Formation (formerly known as Lower Magnesian Limestone).

A cream coloured stone with tiny dark specks. It is white when freshly broken, but weathers to a pale grey/cream colour.

A hard, compact, fine grained limestone which is well sorted with a rough feel. The stone comprises dolomite rhombs which are small and crowded closely together, in addition to minute irregular pores, some of which are filled with calcite or with a yellowish isotropic or cryptocrystalline substance (Howe 1910: 196).

In the seventeenth century, Sir Christopher Wren is said to have believed that Roche Abbey was the best buidling stone in England, after Portland Stone.