Isle Of Purbeck Marble

The earliest known interior use of purbeck marble is probably that of the eight norman horizontally bedded and dowel jointed pillars that the arches to the chapels and aisles spring from on the lantern tower piers.

Isle of purbeck marble.

It can only be obtained from one place and that s land in the area of corfe on the isle of purbeck in south eastern dorset. This sixty square mile chunk of land jutting into the english channel is bordered on three sides by water and although not actually an island has an insular character which is largely due to its geography. Purbeck marble decorates many of our most famous buildings including westminster abbey and canterbury cathedral. Purbeck marble was a highly prized building material in the middle ages especially from the 11th to 16th centuries with its heyday in the 12th and 13th.

Uniquely in britain stone has been continuously quarried on the isle of purbeck since shortly after the norman conquest. Purbeck stone refers to building stone taken from a series of limestone beds found in the upper jurassic to lower cretaceous purbeck group found on the isle of purbeck dorset in southern england. Purbeck is a district of dorset that takes its name from the peninsula known locally as the isle of purbeck. These limestone beds were deposited during lower cretaceous epoch purbeck marble is not a metamorphic rock like a true marble but is so called because it.

The best known variety of this stone is purbeck marble the stone has been quarried since at least roman times up to the present day. It can only be obtained from one place and that is the land in the area of corfe on the isle of purbeck in south east dorset. The english channel to the south and east where steep cliffs fall to the sea. The isle of purbeck is a peninsula in dorset england it is bordered by water on three sides.

The size of the lantern pier base plates red arrowed below that these pillars stand upon suggest there may well have. The skill of purbeck s medieval masons embellished cathedrals and country churches alike with everything. Purbeck marble was a highly prized building material in the 11th through to 16th centuries with its heyday in the 12th and 13th. Not a true metamorphic marble but a polishable micritic limestone packed with abundant gastropod fossils the freshwater snail viviparus from the peveril point member of the lower cretaceous age durlston formation.

This industry is no longer active. And by the marshy lands of the river frome and poole harbour to the north. Purbeck marble is a fossiliferous limestone found in the isle of purbeck a peninsula in south east dorset england it has been quarried since at least roman times as a decorative building stone.