Hamstone is a golden-brown building stone from Ham Hill, Somerset, widely used in the construction of Somerset church towers.[1] It is a sedimentary rock formed in a shallow-marine environment about 174–183 million years ago, during the Jurassic period. It is generally composed of coral and shell fragments deposited in the carbonate sea that once covered the area.[2]
Weathering causes the stone to darken to richer-coloured tones.[2] While generally well-cemented, hamstone is characterised by marked bedding planes of clay inclusions and less well-cemented material, which weather differentially to give exposed blocks a characteristic furrowed appearance.[3]
Modern quarrying
Today hamstone is quarried in only two areas of Ham Hill. The North quarry, the longest-running hamstone quarry in existence, is operated by Ham & Doulting Stone.[4] The Norton or South quarry, operated by Harvey Stone, was formed by the re-opening of workings that were abandoned in the 1930s, and extracts its stone from 20–30 metres below the surface. Hamstone House in Surrey was built in 1938 with the last significant supply of hamstone from the quarries on Ham Hill before their closure for forty years.[5]
Haslett, Simon K. Somerset Landscapes: Geology and Landforms. Blackbarn Books, 2010.
Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimise our website and our service. By clicking on “All cookies”, you consent to us using all cookies and plug-ins as described in our Cookie policy.
Functional cookies
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.