The London Basin's gravel churches: indications of geology, medieval history and geographical distribution

Abstract

Ferruginously-cemented gravels, sandy-gravels and sands, quarried originally from superficial, fluvial, fluvioglacial and glacial deposits, form an important building constituent of early London Basin churches. Their occurrence in the various churches relates very closely to the recognised geographical distribution of the respective, parent geological bodies. Similarly, clast compositions in the gravels of the different church fabrics reflect the understood geological sedimentary distribution patterns.The evidence suggests that London Basin churches which contain superficially deposited ferruginously-cemented materials in their walls are likely to possess Anglo-Saxon or earliest Norman origins.

Stone emplacement in early Scottish churches: evidence of Early Christian craftsmanship

“…When all else fails, the approximate age of church sites preserving only limited elements of their wall fabric can be judged on the fabric itself. The present author has shown that in England the post-Roman, pre-Conquest church builders relied entirely on local stone for their wall fabric (eg Potter 1999;2001); this not necessarily being true for builders in other periods. Saxon quoins are in only rare instances constructed, therefore, of more than one stone type.…”

“…It is evident that Anglo-Saxon builders relied extensively on very local stone in the construction of their churches (eg Potter 1999;2001;Pearson & Potter 2002). If their counterparts in Scotland worked similarly with local materials, generally the rocks available for selection would be restricted to indurated and hard Palaeozoic and precambrian sediments, igneous rocks like basalt and granite, or metamorphic gneisses and schists.…”

Church building fabrics on Romney Marsh and the Marshland Fringe: a geological perspective

“…Estimate only, based on the excavations and work of Gardiner (1988 Although limited amounts of stone were imported into the Romney Marsh area for specific building purposes, in keeping with early church building custom (Potter 1998(Potter , 1999(Potter , 2000a(Potter , 2000c(Potter , 2001(Potter , 2002, most of the stone in the church fabrics will be shown to be local. Those rocks detailed in Table 1 undoubtedly provided the vast quantity of the material.…”