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Stone - Forest Marble Stone

Stalbridge Quarries provides Forest Marble limestone for building stone, drystone walling and paving. The natural stone is a hard oolitic limestone, formed some 70 million years ago when this part of Somerset was a warm tropical sea.

The geology of the stone, has left us with a very hard wearing, versatile and attractive stone.

The stone has been in great demand since Roman times for the construction of houses, drysone walls, landscaping and paving.

Today, the natural stone is used in renovations, extensions, landscaping and new builds, reflecting the tradional materials and style of villages and market towns, throughout Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire and the West Country.

Building Stone

Building stone

The building stone is cropped (split by a guillotine) and dressed to provide ready to use 6 inch on bed stone. This is technically called random rubble walling. The building stone is very hard and durable (that is why the limestone is called Forest 'Marble'. It is also water and frost resistant. The cut face ranges from a buff colour to a dark grey - over time these colours mellow to a light brown. The overall effect on a wall is a soft mottled buff, grey and brown colour.The building stone comes dressed and is used in many of the villages and market towns throughout the West of England.

Building stone

Dry

Drystone walling

The loose beds of stone are ideal for drystone walling. The stone is strong, impermeable, frost resistant and largely flat, with plenty of natural faces on the uncut sides.

For several thousand years, the art of drysone walling has been used to build homes, barns and walls.

In Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, there are some superb examples of drystone walling with Forest Marble stone. One of the best is on the Inwood Estate, where there is a four mile, seven foot high drystone wall built by Napoleonic prisoners of war in about 1800.

Today the art of drystone walling continues to define the boundaries of rural gardens, houses, farms and estates, adding value and beauty to the landscape.

The main centres are Templecombe, Dorchester, Wimborne, Wincanton, Stalbridge, Shaftesbury, Frome, Bristol, Taunton, Salisbury, Bruton, Beaminster, Bridport, Gillingham (Dorset), Yeovil, Dorchester, Wincanton, Mere, Sturminster Newton, Chard, Sherborne, and Castle Cary.

Paving

Paving stone, roofing and natural flags

The thin flat beds of the limestone have traditionally being used for paving stone, roofing, flags. and even field boundaries (standing upright).

The stone's natural curves, rippples and soft brown grey colour of the stone, provide a reflection of countryside where ever they are placed.

The paving stone and flags are not cut or dressed, and so are in their natural state. This adds a soft rural ambiance wherever they are placed.

The church shown in the picture is a typical example of use of the stone in the roof, walls and path.

There is also available sawn paving stone to suit more formal architecture and landscapes.

The stone is utilised throughout Wessex, from Bristol, to Bath, to Bournemouth, to Salisbury, to Taunton to Southampton and to Yeovil.

History of the stone and the quarry

History of Forest Marble stone

Forest Marble is an oolitic limestone, formed when the land mass was a tropical shallow sea, some 70 million years ago. The natural stone reflects this as it is composed mainly of fragments of shells and fossils. Since Roman times the hard, durable, water resistant stone has been in high demand for the construction of houses, barns, drystone walls and paved areas, whereever it has come close to the surface. There are exposed seams that run from South Dorset, through Somerset and on upto Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire. The use of the stone has helped to create some of the prettiest and distinctive countryside, farms, villages and market towns throughout Wessex.Today the stone contiues to add beauty and presennce to grand designs, landscapes and intimate stone builds throughout the area.

Building stone

Contact details modern glass.JPG

Contact details

Manager - Peter ThumwoodTelephone - 01963 364200Location:Stalbridge Quarries LtdSherborne RoadHenstridgeTemplecombeSomersetBA8 0PHPostal address:8 Old Station GardensHenstridgeTemplecombeSomersetBA8 OPU

Building stone

Stone prices

Prices for the stone

Building stone £140 per tonne

Drystone Walling £65 per tonne

Rockery £65 per tonne

Paving Stone £25 per square metre

Exclusive of Transport and VAT

The main centres for the stone are between the cities of Poole, Bournemouth Salisbury, Bath, Bristol, Taunton, Frome, Sherborne, Castle Cary, Wincanton, Southampton, Exeter, Dorchester, Chard, Exeter, Frome, Wimborne, Warminster, Shaftesbury, Yeovil, Sturminster Newton and Weymouth.

Inwood Estate

Stalbridge Quarries lies within the idyllic Inwood Estate on the Somerset, Dorset border, equidistant between the towns of historic Sherborne and Shaftesbury. The Estate comprises of a large number of small to medium size dairy and beef farms with a multitude of woods and coverts and old quarries.All of the land within the Estate is multi use. As well as providing providing food or building material (timber and stone), the estate places a high value on conservation, amenity and landscape. There are a number of rare and protected habitats and species on the estate that are of national importance. Over the last few hundred years, there have always been a number of quarries on the estate to provide stone for the walls, barns, cottages, villages and local market towns. These buildings and walls reflect the local geology creating the distinct local identity that we know today. Once the stone is exhausted in a quarry, the quarry is converted to woodland largely comprising of oak and ash or rough pasture (banks and dips in them). The present quarry site will be restored to woodland and meadowland. These quarries have provided a great contribution to conservation.The stone from the quarry will continue to help enhance and protect the traditional builing style and landscape of the local towns and villages in the West of England.

welcome

Building Stone

Dry

Paving

History of the stone and the quarry

Contact details

Stone prices

Inwood Estate