Building Stones Database for England

00:00:00:10 - 00:00:29:15

Speaker 1

And good afternoon to everyone. It's great to see so many of you here from all over the country and perhaps even further afield. So, yeah, as I said, my name is Clara, Clara Willett. I'm a building conservation advisor in the technical conservation team at Historic England. I've been managing the Building Stone Database Project since 2012, and my specialism is in stone and terracotta conservation.

00:00:30:04 - 00:00:39:09

Speaker 1

And yeah, I'm very pleased to introduce also my co-presenter, Steve Parry from the British Geological Survey. Steve, would you like to introduce yourself?

00:00:40:09 - 00:01:15:13

Speaker 2

Yes, thanks for that, Clara. I work as a petrologist for BGS and have done for many years now, since 2004, in fact, taking on my current role in 2008. I specialize in rock characterization, particularly the bedrock of Great Britain, and my work has an applied focus on building stone identification, provenance and stone matching. I've been directly involved with the strategic Stone Study Stroke Building Stones Database for England Project since 2009.

00:01:16:01 - 00:01:34:00

Speaker 1

Thanks, Steve. So just to tell you a little bit about the Building Stones database for England, it's finally completed. And Steve and I hate to tell you a little bit about it and show you how it can be used. And after this, we'd love for you to go and try it out. And let's let us have your feedback.

00:01:34:13 - 00:02:05:14

Speaker 1

And as Matt said, if there's any questions you have as we go along this webinar, then just put them in the in the questions box in the chat. So a bit of background to the project. So back in 2004 seems a very long time ago now. The then office for the Deputy Prime Minister, which is now the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities, commissioned the planning for the supply of natural building and roofing stone in England and Wales.

00:02:06:03 - 00:02:35:07

Speaker 1

This report is also known as the Simmons Report and this report examined the issues affecting the supply and demand of Indigenous Building Stone in the UK. It focused on the problems of sourcing appropriate stone to repair historic buildings and it recommended that a national database of the building of roofing stones should be established. Also, it recommended that mineral planning authorities should identify and safeguard heritage quarries.

00:02:36:09 - 00:03:10:12

Speaker 1

So the Strategic Stone Study Project, which some of you might have heard of, was commissioned in response to these recommendations, and it sought to support sustainable sourcing of building stones for the repair of historic buildings and for new build. So the Building Stones Database for England is one of the project products of this project. So the Strategic Stone Study Project started and it received initial funding from the then office of the Deputy Prime Minister, and it was funded, funded also and managed by Historic England.

00:03:11:09 - 00:03:42:17

Speaker 1

So we've been working with the British Geological Survey as well as local geology groups and consultants who did the lot of the research and fieldwork and more latterly, we've been working with professional geological consultants. So although the Strategic Stone Study Project hasn't been active continuously since then, it has taken the best part of 15 years to complete. So Steve, if you can tell us a little bit about the research that was done because you obviously you've been heavily involved in this throughout.

00:03:45:00 - 00:04:14:14

Speaker 2

Yes, indeed. Well, in short, county by county and more strictly a mineral planning authority by mineral Planning Authority approach was taken to the data collection. So the the initial plan was to use local geological experts who were considered to be best positioned to identify the indigenous stones in the buildings of a particular county area and indeed establish the likely sources of those stones.

00:04:16:05 - 00:04:50:14

Speaker 2

Direct observation, personal knowledge and any available documentary sources were to be drawn upon to generate the dataset. And it was intended that both vernacular buildings and other structures of local character would be included in the dataset, as well as listed buildings and conservation areas. And ultimately, the amassed information would enable planners to safeguard the sources of the building stones that were found to be of importance to the character of the particular area in question.

00:04:51:10 - 00:05:25:02

Speaker 2

Apologies as a little Bing notification pings in the background there. And concurrently, we here at BGS started a county by county survey of quarries across England. All of the quarries identified would be incorporated into the BGS Mines and Quarries Dtabase known as BritPits with strategic stone study related sites. Having a subset designation of EBSPits being a contraction of English Building Stone Pits.

00:05:26:08 - 00:05:57:15

Speaker 2

Now there were already a number of identified building stone quarries in the BGS BritPits database, and the idea was for the local geologists and consultants to confirm those existing sites and their status and also identify any others that had served as building stone sources. Those undertaking the survey work were also to compile a list of all the local use building stones and relate these to the buildings

00:05:57:15 - 00:06:43:01

Speaker 2

recorded. Buildings would be linked to the quarry sources if possible. Also, if a building contains stone from outside the local authority area and this material was all set to be identified and recorded for future use. As the project evolved over time and and the project was, was in essence, about 15 years in overall duration, it became clear that it would be more efficient for the Strategic Stone Study to utilize a non-local consultancy who were ultimately able to apply a more consistent approach to the collection and interpretation of the data.

00:06:44:15 - 00:06:45:13

Speaker 2

Back to you, Clara.

00:06:46:04 - 00:07:14:08

Speaker 1

Thanks, Steve. I mean, I hope you're you're all seeing the complexity and the vast nature of this this amount of work that was that was carried out. So the Building Stones database for England and here you can just see a screenshot and we're going to be playing with this a bit more in a minute. But what it does is it aims to improve our understanding of the occurrence, the historic use and availability of building stones in England.

00:07:15:03 - 00:08:02:07

Speaker 1

And this information provides a clearer indication of the distribution and relationship between historic built structures and their former all currently worked building stone quarries. It helps to identify and source suitable stone for the repair of historic buildings, as well as identifying areas where local stones are no longer won but extraction could be reintroduced. It also demonstrates patterns of stone used for vernacular architecture and it recognizes regional styles, which is not only interesting but is useful for local authority planners to safeguard and encourage the use of indigenous stones for new build, particularly in sensitive conservation areas.

00:08:03:04 - 00:08:43:16

Speaker 1

So the database was aimed at mineral planners, County Council's local and national organizations as well as individuals. This information would provide a clearer indicator indication of the distribution and relationship between stone built structures and the building stone sources in England. So the Building Stones Database has for England contains a huge amount of information. In quantity alone it amounts to over 4000 building stones, 15 and a half thousand building sources and 20,000 representative historic stone structures.

00:08:44:09 - 00:09:13:16

Speaker 1

So this is the first time that this information has been available in one place, and it's available online in several formats. So here you can see this is the new searchable web based geographical information system. The Map Explorer. And this new version was launched on the 1st of April of this year. This is an updated version of the previous one, which some of you may be familiar with.

00:09:13:16 - 00:09:42:06

Speaker 1

That was on the BGS website. So using the Map Explorer, you can search for specific structures, places and potential sources of stones used. So for example, you can search for quarries, building stones within a specific area, and you can search for a place postcode building or quarry. I should add that there are some limitations. Not every stone building is in the database.

00:09:42:13 - 00:10:10:01

Speaker 1

As Steve mentioned, the focus was very much on vernacular buildings. So the buildings aren't necessarily listed and even all listed buildings aren't necessarily in the database. They're representative of those building stones which have been used. And also this is a point in time dataset. So there historic sources of stone and there it's not updated to indicate the current status of a quarry.

00:10:10:12 - 00:10:37:16

Speaker 1

So is it still producing dimensional stone? And we'll talk a little bit about that as we move on. So here you can see these are the front covers of the 45 regional guides. So these are primarily county based guides. They're highly illustrative. These have been heavily revised. So this is the complete set of all 45 of those guides.

00:10:37:16 - 00:11:05:06

Speaker 1

These have been heavily, heavily revised from those some of those which were produced earlier. So as the set was complete, we wanted to make sure that there was continuity with regards the content and terminology as well as improving legibility and accessibility for a broad audience. As you can imagine, these have been written by many, many authors and many contributors, so we wanted to make sure that there was that continuity.

00:11:06:09 - 00:11:31:15

Speaker 1

So I hope you can see that there is a variety in the regional distinctiveness and it's not only apparent in the building types but also in the stones used. There's also a further reading publication which covers geology, building stone and historic buildings. And we're currently finishing an illustrated geological glossary, which is to help those of us who are not geologists navigate some of these specialist terms.

00:11:32:16 - 00:12:03:16

Speaker 1

So all of these are available to download from the Historic England website. Here you can see an example of one of the area guides. They all have a stratigraphic table which you can see there, and a bedrock geological map and some have drift geological maps as well. So this helps guide the reader through the building stone geology of the area, which is explained in stratigraphic or reverse chronological order.

00:12:04:01 - 00:12:34:14

Speaker 1

That is the oldest stones through to the younger stones. And as I mentioned, the guides are highly illustrated and each has a tailored bibliography. At the end, some of the guides have imported and imported stones section, which recognizes some of the stones that have been sourced outside of the county or the area. The county or the area information is also provided in searchable spreadsheets, which you can see here.

00:12:35:05 - 00:13:02:15

Speaker 1

And these cover the building stones found their sources and examples of their use in historic structures. You can see also it describes the geology of the building stones in more detail. So again, this is just showing the data set in a different format and you can download and then play with the Excel spreadsheets and do searches. So now we just like to ask you, the audience, what's your interest in the database?

00:13:02:15 - 00:13:27:10

Speaker 1

So we've just got Matt is going to put a poll up and we just like to know a little bit about what's your interest and what your background is.

00:13:27:10 - 00:13:48:04

Speaker 3

So we have an interesting spread of votes that will actually just broadcast those results. So our attendees can see, let's just move that down a little bit so you can see everything. I think lots of conservation professionals or practitioners, a few conservation officers. Excellent. Is that what you were expecting, Clara?

00:13:49:15 - 00:14:24:01

Speaker 1

Yeah, I think so. There's this, there's a minority of geologists, but that no, that's not that's not surprising. But no, that's really interesting to know. Thank you. That's great. So now using our best technology, we're going to do a live screen share. So we're going to show you a little bit of how you can use the Map Explorer. Steve and I are going to just take you through a couple of examples of how how you can use the Map Explorer to sort of find out more information.

00:14:24:10 - 00:14:31:16

Speaker 1

So, Steve, if you can work your magic and then we can hopefully people will see your screen.

00:14:32:06 - 00:15:12:12

Speaker 2

Well, here's the moment of truth. Is the technology going to play ball with us? So here we go. So hopefully everyone can now see the sort of generic Google landing page there and the simplest route to to reaching the Building Stone Database for England Web Explorer is to utilize Google and type in building Stones database for England and hopefully at the top of the hit list there, you should see the Historic England building stones of England landing page.

00:15:12:12 - 00:15:42:11

Speaker 2

So you can read a little bit about the project there and scrolling on down, I'll hopefully not go too quickly and make everyone seasick there. But you can see we'll come back to in a moment the the option to launch the Web Explorer itself. But just briefly, going further down the page, you can see the options to download the various county guides.

00:15:42:11 - 00:16:23:04

Speaker 2

They're subdivided and grouped according to the HE stroke English Heritage regions and down towards the bottom, there's some frequently asked questions which tells the user a little bit more about the project. The background to it, much of the type of information that Clara has been furnishing everyone with already today. So scrolling back up to the midpoint on that page, we can open the map and that hopefully and indeed it has as opened the Map Explorer.

00:16:23:07 - 00:17:01:13

Speaker 2

And once you get past this little pop up screen there, that is what you should see. And what in essence we're seeing here is a topographic based map with the geology of Britain. And and you can see the entire UK here, in fact, and the geology draped over that topography. And then in the case of England, you can see the strategic stone study stroke Building Stones Database for England dataset and represented in the form of symbols.

00:17:02:15 - 00:17:34:01

Speaker 2

Now this this works much in the same way that Google Maps itself works. You can zoom in and out using the ruler wheel on your mouse. There is the option to use the plus and minus buttons up in the top left to zoom in and out. If if I do that to demonstrate, there is also a forward and back button and you can see only the previous extent is is alive at the moment.

00:17:34:01 - 00:18:19:17

Speaker 2

But that of course will change as the demonstration proceeds just now. Also up in the top right, there are a number of additional buttons or tools. So we can see going through these in order. First of all, this little question marks symbol here and this if I click on it, there is simply some guidance on how to utilize the map explorer for those unfamiliar with this type of portal and these sorts of dropdowns, can be closed utilizing the little cross that you see in the top right of the little pop up or indeed clicking on the little tool icon itself.

00:18:21:11 - 00:18:54:14

Speaker 2

There is also some information about the project itself and towards the right there. And also if you feel so inclined to to contact Clara, there's a link to her email address. If you have any questions or comments on on the project that that could benefit all the user community and then the three buttons in the middle here. Well, we have to search functions which will come back to a little bit more in due course.

00:18:55:01 - 00:19:30:06

Speaker 2

But we also have this little stack symbol here, and this enables you to toggle on or off the various layers of data which are included on the map face that you've got. So we have what's just collectively and tagged as the buildings layer and you can see that buildings are represented as green circles. Other structures such as bridges, for example, are shown in yellow circles and villages in red circles.

00:19:31:04 - 00:20:10:08

Speaker 2

We've also got the stone sources, i.e. the quarries that have produced the various building stones that have been identified and they're represented by light blue colored squares. We then have the geology right now there's actually two geological data shown here, and the specific one that is shown is dependent on the level of Zoom. Now this particular level of Zoom, it's the 1 to 625000 scale bedrock and superficial geology that is shown as we zoom in much closer.

00:20:10:08 - 00:20:51:06

Speaker 2

And let me just do that to demonstrate the purpose. If I go in a little bit closer, you'll eventually see a switch and you can now see this. The 625 K geology has kind of blanked out and now it's the 1 to 50000 scale digital geology that has come live here. So again, you have the ability to toggle on or off the 50,000 scale linear feature, such as faults, areas of mass movement, artificial ground that could that could be quarry workings, for example.

00:20:51:06 - 00:21:24:01

Speaker 2

It could be areas that have been subject to landfill, for example, over time. And then we have the British Geological Survey's 1 to 50,000 scale, superficial geology and also the bedrock geology as well. And we can find a little bit more about this, this geology by clicking on the face of the map itself. So, so let me focus on the bedrock itself at the moment.

00:21:24:01 - 00:22:02:03

Speaker 2

So I'll toggle off the superficial deposits. And that leaves us with predominantly the bedrock color with some of the artificial ground marked in the hatched areas in this particular field of view. So just as an example, let me click on this yellowish colored polygon here, and it provides this little bit of pop up that I can maximize. And in short, that's telling us that the bedrock geological unit corresponding to that yellow polygon is the Blisworth limestone formation.

00:22:02:06 - 00:22:43:14

Speaker 2

So that's a Jurassic limestone unit, quite ironically, one that we will come back to later on in the webinar, that that was sheer fluke. That was that was not intended. It's just serendipitously worked out that way. That's quite nice. And I think unless Clara would like to add anything or ask me to clarify anything, we'll move on and do a couple of demonstrations and show you how you can utilize the database to find a little bit more out about particular buildings and how you can potentially utilize it

00:22:43:14 - 00:22:47:13

Speaker 2

to find out more about the sources of those stones.

00:22:48:10 - 00:23:09:15

Speaker 1

I think we can I think we can continue, Steve, but hopefully you, the audience can see that we've tried to make it sort of as simple as possible to help guide people through. But as Steve mentioned, if you have any feedback or questions, you can contact me directly. And we've always welcome feedback, feedback on on your experiences of it.

00:23:10:11 - 00:23:15:16

Speaker 1

So yeah, that's great. But. Steve Yeah, let's, let's have a, let's have a go at a couple of scenarios shall we.

00:23:16:05 - 00:23:55:03

Speaker 2

Okay. Well we'll go for the first example that we discussed, Clara, and I think I think we'll go for a building not not too far away from where where I'm based here in Nottinghamshire. And we'll go up to the town of Newark, about halfway between Nottingham and Lincoln. So we can we can use the Gazetteer. Now, it didn't initially mention the Gazetteer because I knew I'd be coming back to this, but up towards the top left, close to the plus minus zoom buttons, you see there's a find location box along with a magnifying glass symbol.

00:23:55:12 - 00:24:24:09

Speaker 2

And if we type Newark in there, the Gazetteer gives us a number of options. And in the present case it's the Newark on Trent in Nottinghamshire that we're interested in. So if we click on that from the the options that have appeared on the map, then relocate three positions and somewhat zooms out to the the Newark area, which is indeed correct.

00:24:24:16 - 00:24:58:11

Speaker 2

And we've still got the 1 to 50,000 scale and bedrock geology here draped on on top of the topography. So let me let me zoom in a bit and into the the center of Newark and see the building that we're going to have a look at in this particular example is shown as the remains of Newark Castle. It was it was one of the many fortifications that was slighted in the wake of the Civil War.

00:24:58:16 - 00:25:39:10

Speaker 2

And there's still a reasonable chunk of Newark Castle standing, at least on its river, facing side. So let me click on the little green square there. And you can see that we got a little pop up are appearing and it tells you that the building name is indeed the remains of Newark Castle. From the point of view of the database, there's a unique side there and it lists the building stone types that have been identified in the structure by the geologist and in this case, yours truly in the building there.

00:25:39:10 - 00:26:09:17

Speaker 2

And they're listed. And there's also two little information panels here that identify definite or possible sources of the stones in question. Now, they're not filled in in this particular case. You can also see in the little banner at the top of the pop up, you see one of two. Now, that's not intended to be misleading the second information panel.

00:26:09:17 - 00:26:40:14

Speaker 2

If I just utilize the next feature tab there, it's it's identifying the bedrock at the site there so much as I demonstrated a few moments ago in terms of a random click somewhere in England, this is simply identifying the underlying bedrock at this particular site here. So in this particular case, it's a subdivision of the the Mercian Mudstone group unit there.

00:26:42:10 - 00:27:23:16

Speaker 2

So yes, so the next thing we want to do and let me just briefly bring this back that the first stone that's been identified in in the fabric of the surviving structure, there is a stone type that's been given the name Lias Limestone. But to find out a little bit more about Lias Limestone, it's bedrock source unit and and some of the sources of that you can consult the relevant spreadsheets that sit behind the database and indeed you can consult the Nottinghamshire guide and you can learn a little bit more about Lias Limestone.

00:27:23:16 - 00:28:03:02

Speaker 2

But from the point of view of the map explorer here, let's say we wanted to to try and explore the local area and see where the Lias Limestone used in Newark Castle might have come from. So let me, let me just zoom out a little bit and I don't really need to go too far, but I can see and hopefully you can also sitting in a sort of brownish gray colored bedrock polygon to the east of the Newark center, there's a quarry marked on Beacon Hill.

00:28:03:02 - 00:28:32:08

Speaker 2

So let me just click on that just now. And well, quite fortuitously, we can see that the Beacon Hill Quarry, in fact, quarries produced Lias Limestone. Now, without getting too involved at the present time, we could regard this as a potential source of some of the Lias Limestone at least that was used in the construction of Newark Castle.

00:28:32:08 - 00:29:11:01

Speaker 2

And again, we're seeing this one of two appearing on the little banner of the pop up there. And that's simply due to the fact that my click has triggered the identification of the underlying bedrock. So it it so happens that the bedrock at that particular quarry site on Beacon Hill is identified as the Barnes Stone member. Now, for for those of you that are relatively familiar with the Lias geology, this this unit is it's traced further to the south and southwest.

00:29:11:07 - 00:30:01:13

Speaker 2

It passes laterally into the Blue Lias formation. So to all intents and purposes, although named differently in this area, this is the the Blue Lias the name that you might be more familiar with. And so, as an example, just just using a little bit of of point and click and zooming in and out on the map face. You can, you know, potentially investigate possible sources of particular stone types and try and do a little bit of an identification of of possible sources of building stones, trying to establish that relationship between building stone and its possible source.

00:30:02:16 - 00:30:36:01

Speaker 2

Now, in terms of some examples of of how else the map explorer can be used, let's let's have a look for other buildings in the Nottinghamshire area that utilize Lias Limestone. So let's use some of the the search tools that that we have. So coming up again to the top right, we have our two search tools. We have the option to do firstly a building stone query or we can do a stone source query.

00:30:36:01 - 00:31:06:07

Speaker 2

So in the present case, let's do a stone source query. And as mentioned, let's have a look for Lias Limestone examples. And fortunately my typing hasn't let me down on this occasion. So the Mineral Planning Authority in question here, if I scroll down the list, we want to have Nottinghamshire County Council, we just need to go a little bit further and, and there we go.

00:31:06:07 - 00:31:40:10

Speaker 2

In terms of filtering the results here, you can see under spatial filters you have the option to return hits or features that meet the search criteria either within the full extent of the map so that that's the entire England area in this case. Or if I go to the the little drop down there on the right hand side, you can also search purely within the map extent that you're looking at at any particular time.

00:31:40:15 - 00:32:13:07

Speaker 2

But in the present case, let's look for Lias Limestone buildings and other structures within the full map extent. So having set things up there, let me click on apply the green banner down at the bottom and off we go. The map automatically re-zooms to take in all the features that have been identified, which are now shown in these purplish colored circles.

00:32:13:07 - 00:32:45:12

Speaker 2

We've also now got to the results being displayed on that panel on the right hand side. And as as an example, we could click on the first quarry source of of Lias Limestone. And if I click on that, the map will automatically zoom in to a potential source of Lias Limestone. Let me use the the back button, the previous extent button to to take that out.

00:32:46:11 - 00:33:21:01

Speaker 2

I'll close that down. I'll also drag up from the bottom, the little toggle there. And you can see you can display the information, the metadata that relates to those sources of Lias Limestone. The other thing that I'll do whilst I'm here, let's find not only just sources of Lias Limestone, what I wanted to do, first of all, in fact, which was to establish Lias Limestone buildings in Nottinghamshire.

00:33:21:01 - 00:34:12:02

Speaker 2

Let me do that just now as well. So there we go. So these are now now the buildings rather than the quarries that are shown in once again, these little purple circles. Now, just as a general comment here, you'll you'll notice that those buildings that have been identified, that feature Lias Limestone follow the boundary and the shape of the boundary between this sort of greeny gray colored unit on the bedrock geology and this sort of slightly grayish violet colored unit, depending on on how exactly you see the colors on your monitor there.

00:34:12:14 - 00:34:48:15

Speaker 2

And quite interesting that the distribution of buildings appears to follow something of a pattern that relates to the underlying geology. And so without saying too much more about that this afternoon in this demonstration, it begins to show you how patterns of building stone use can be identified using the Building Stones database for England. And it gives you some idea how those patterns of use relate to the the underlying geology.

00:34:49:02 - 00:35:17:06

Speaker 2

So it's, it's just another way in which you potentially exploit and, and utilize the map explorer and indeed the data that that sit behind it. Um, would you like to add anything else at that point, Clara, or would you like us to, to move on to the second example? Would you like to say a little bit more about that before we, we carry on?

00:35:17:16 - 00:35:38:11

Speaker 1

Yeah. So yeah, we're going to, to stop, we're going to come back, we're going to use the Map Explorer again in another example, but we're just going to swap back. And I just want to we're going to give you another example of a of a built structure. One thing I should also add is that you're not limited to a mineral planning authority.

00:35:38:11 - 00:36:02:12

Speaker 1

So you can search the whole of England for building stones or buildings made of a certain stone. So it really is a very flexible database to explore. But thanks, Steve. You've you've given us a really nice clear sort of exploration of that. And hopefully people feel that they can they can go and have a play as well. But yeah, we're just going to look at another example here now.

00:36:02:12 - 00:36:29:02

Speaker 1

And so the example that Steve showed you of the remains of Newark Castle. That's obviously a building that's in the database. But actually what if you're trying to find out about more about the stone that isn't in the database, which is going to happen. So we thought we'd use an example here and this is an English Heritage site, and this is the remains of Chichele College in Northamptonshire.

00:36:29:13 - 00:36:53:08

Speaker 1

It's a scheduled monument dating from the mid 15th century. Here you can see the remains of the East Range. This is an external elevation which faces onto the main road in the village and you can see the detail of the stonework here, which has actually lost a lot of its pointing due to erosion from splashback and deicing salts.

00:36:53:08 - 00:37:28:05

Speaker 1

This is the other side of the east range, so you can just see the reverse of it there. In February 2021, there was a partial collapse of this elevation. So you can see the detail there. Much of the stone was salvaged, but some new stone was needed. So after gaining listed building consent, representative samples of the stone were taken and through visual inspection and archival research by a building stone geologist, the stone was identified as blissworth limestone.

00:37:29:07 - 00:37:55:00

Speaker 1

So we can go back now to the Building Stone Database Map Explorer and see what information we can find there. So again, we're looking for IT to play ball with us. And Steve, if you can reshare again and we'll have a look at the map explorer. So this time obviously we can't put it. It won't recognize the database, won't recognise Chichele College.

00:37:55:16 - 00:38:20:09

Speaker 1

But you could put that into the search bar at the top left there. But we know that we know it's not going to be there. So you could start by putting the place name in or the actual building, but it may not come up with anything. So we're we're going to try either Higham Ferrers, which is where Chichele College is, or we've got a postcode we've identified a postcode.

00:38:20:13 - 00:38:22:12

Speaker 1

So Steve, you going to put the postcode in?

00:38:23:05 - 00:39:03:11

Speaker 2

Yeah. So hopefully Google isn't lying to us, so NN10 8DZ apparently is the postcode we want in Great Britain and there we go. So let me just zoom out a little bit there. And you can see we are indeed at Higham Ferrers. I didn't mention this a moment or two ago, but let me just demonstrate some other functionality of the map explorer on the little pop up that support here relating to our postcode search area.

00:39:03:11 - 00:39:28:14

Speaker 2

You can see this three little dots. If I click on those, we can add a marker. So should you wish to go elsewhere on the map face before coming back here, you can actually leave something of an identifier to enable you to to readily identify in this case, Chichele College. And it's it's just as easy to remove that.

00:39:29:01 - 00:39:54:03

Speaker 2

If if I come back on there, I can do similar sort of process in reverse and remove the little pin marker. But anyway, so let me, let me zoom in a little bit and can see that the postcode area does indeed include the building of interest there. You like to say a little bit more, Clara, before I carry on.

00:39:54:16 - 00:40:12:04

Speaker 1

Well, it's just it's good that we found that on the actual map there. So you can see that we found what we wanted. So really, now we want to sort of have a look at the proximity of this site to see if we can find some potential sources. Steve, do you want to just see what we can find?

00:40:12:04 - 00:40:21:17

Speaker 1

So we've we identified the stone as blissworth limestone. So now we want to start looking at where we might potentially find that stone.

00:40:23:08 - 00:40:45:00

Speaker 2

And now I've been using the wheel on the mouse a fair bit to zoom in and out. But let me just confirm to you that you can indeed use the buttons top left to zoom in and act. So let me let me come out a little bit and allow you to see the broader area and the the bedrock distribution.

00:40:45:00 - 00:41:28:12

Speaker 2

So, again, we're picking up on this this sort of northeast, southwest trending geological grain, for want of a better way of putting it, that that exists in this particular part of England. And Higham Ferrers is sitting in in that sort of geological grains. I refer to it. And if I click on the yellow polygon here, we can see that the underlying geology is the blissworth limestone formation, which Clara has mentioned is the stone type that was identified in the Chichele College buildings.

00:41:29:02 - 00:41:55:09

Speaker 2

Now sitting up to the northeast of Higham Ferrers, you can see a number of quarries have been identified, shown by the light blue colored squares. In this case, they're all assigned the name Stanek Quarries. Now I assume it is Stanek or Stanwick, but if anybody's familiar with this area and I'm mispronouncing that, please correct us in the comments.

00:41:56:05 - 00:42:35:06

Speaker 2

But if if we have a look at some of the the Stanek quarry sites, there we go. We can click on one at random there. And you see the little pop up is now come on the screen. And in this case, the quarry site that I've selected has an alternative name, which is Chalveston Again, I may have mispronounced that, so forgive me if I have done so, but the key thing from the point of view of this demonstration is that the stone type that was worked at that particular site was blissworth limestone.

00:42:35:15 - 00:43:21:02

Speaker 2

And that that's true of all the Stanek quarry sites. Let me let me take another one at random there. And indeed you can see the the stone identified as having been worked there is blissworth limestone. In short then and without doing too much more and we have identified these quarry sites that sit to the northeast of the building of interest that could be regarded as sources or at least potential sources of some of the stone that was used originally in the construction of Chichele College and the associated buildings.

00:43:21:02 - 00:43:21:10

Speaker 2

Okay.

00:43:21:15 - 00:43:51:10

Speaker 1

Clara, lovely. So as you as Steve's just shown, you can really see, you know, we're building a relation between the building in question and potential sources of that stone. Steve I don't think we've demonstrated that actually what you can do might be wished slightly short of time. Now, but actually what you can do is if you were looking for blissworth limestone, you can actually do a search.

00:43:52:04 - 00:44:04:09

Speaker 1

You aren't limited to a particular area you can actually do or you're going to do it. That's brilliant. You can do a search for blissworth limestone for potential sources of that. Well.

00:44:05:03 - 00:44:34:08

Speaker 2

Let me just demonstrate what happens if if you don't restrict to a specific county area, NPA. So let me just go for all blissworth limestone quarries across England and apply that. So, so in this case it is identifying all of the sites in the database. In this case, we can see if I come across to the the search results spot, 102

00:44:34:08 - 00:45:05:16

Speaker 2

in fact, within the database, these are quarries that we have a record that have worked. Blissworth, lias, sorry, blissworth limestone even building stone. So all of all of these taken at a certain level could be regarded as potential sources of the stone used originally. That of course is not going to be the case, but they could be regarded as potential sources of that stone.

00:45:06:15 - 00:45:31:05

Speaker 1

And you can export all that information that you can see on the right hand side. You can export that as a CSV file, so you can save that. So you can save the results that you've you found. So yes. So, Steve, what we're showing here is obviously potential sources, but how do we find out where we might actually get this stone from?

00:45:31:05 - 00:45:36:10

Speaker 1

So basically current quarries extracting this stone.

00:45:38:09 - 00:46:27:10

Speaker 2

Well, this this is where the database doesn't actually help you. And at this stage, you would be reliant on either consulting a geological expert, a stone mason or indeed there are there are publications you can consult there. There is the Natural Stone Directory of course, there's the BGS own directory of mines and quarries. So once once you've established and you know those quarries that at least are known to have produced at some stage in the past, blissworth limestone, you can then consult, as I say, individuals or indeed publications to establish those quarries that are still operating and could potentially furnish you with stone.

00:46:28:10 - 00:46:31:12

Speaker 2

And at the present point in time, yeah.

00:46:31:17 - 00:47:01:07

Speaker 1

So I think yeah, we can stop sharing now and we can just go back to, to the presentation we just mentioned the directory of mines and quarries, so that is updated. Steve, I think BGS obviously you produced this. So what we're showing there is the 2020 edition which is freely downloadable, but the current one is a paid for publication, isn't it?

00:47:01:13 - 00:47:11:08

Speaker 2

If, if you want a hard copy you would have to pay for that. But it is available as a free download off the BGS website.

00:47:12:03 - 00:47:44:14

Speaker 1

As a PDF, so that information is available to go and have a look at it as well. Also, yes, we mentioned the Natural Stone Directory, which also has a that's a an annual production. Again, it's not for free, it's a paid for publication. But again, that's a searchable directory for current stone quarries and also Matt will put links to all these publications in the chat or and the resources at the end.

00:47:45:02 - 00:48:12:04

Speaker 1

I should also direct you to Historic England's guide for sourcing stone for Historic Building Repair, which is basically a step by step guide for going through from sampling through to commissioning a building stone geologist and takes you step by step through about identifying and sourcing stone for historic building repair. So I'd really recommend you go and download that as well.

00:48:12:04 - 00:48:27:17

Speaker 1

We're almost at the end now, I think. But yes, we were just going to talk a little a little bit about where can where should people go if they want information about a building and stone. So what sort of desktop research resources are there out there as well?

00:48:29:14 - 00:48:58:01

Speaker 2

Well, I mean, we've been utilizing the web this afternoon. So I mean, that is an obvious first port of call looking for information. And there are the the various Pevsner guides, of course, some of which are very good from a geological point of view, providing information on on stone types featuring in the buildings. There's this publications like The History of the King's Works for for much older buildings.

00:48:58:06 - 00:49:35:14

Speaker 2

And and indeed there is an extensive online literature available dependent on whether you as an individual or the organization you work for has has access to and the various and suppliers, for want of a better word, of, of journal articles and e-books for example. So so yes, that's that's just an example of of some of the documentary sources, whether it be hard copy or indeed available digitally that could be looked at in the first instance.

00:49:36:02 - 00:50:00:11

Speaker 1

Yeah. And as I mentioned before, all the regional guides have extensive bibliographies within them, are specific to that individual region. But that's great. We just got one last poll we'd like from you. We just like to know having seen, you know, we've we've hopefully shown you how you can use the database and all the resources that are available.

00:50:00:11 - 00:50:27:12

Speaker 1

How do you think you might use the database having having seen this? And we just want to get some ideas of what you're thinking of now.

00:50:27:12 - 00:50:29:12

Speaker 3

There are some definite winners there, aren't there?

00:50:29:17 - 00:50:44:12

Speaker 1

Definitely. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's really interesting. And I guess that's what we're all looking at is identifying stones for a specific building and for sourcing stones for repair. So yeah, that's, that's going to be the main use I think people would, would use it for.

Are there any plans to link from the Historic Buildings List with the content of the database? It would be really nice to have a snapshot of the underlying geology map layer and info about the identified stone type if it has been recorded.

No, but the database information is being used to enhance information on listed buildings in the National Heritage List for England.

Are there plans to take the database further? i.e. adding live quarries, for example?

Not at this point.

As a cob specialist, is there any content in the database about soil types? Or just stone?

No, the underlying mapping is bedrock and drift geology. https://magic.defra.gov.uk has information about soil types.

Is there a way of adding information to the dataset?

Yes, you can contact [email protected]. Additional information will have to be verified with the British Geological Survey before it can be added to the database.

Is there a key for the colours?

No, there isn’t a legend as such for the geological mapping, but if you click on any part of the map face (when the geology layer is active) the resultant pop-up will give you more information about the underlying geology. The alphabetical code given in the ‘LEX’ column of the pop-up can be entered here https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/lexicon/home.cfm to obtain a detailed description of the relevant geological unit.

Is the building ID code linked to the listing number in any way?

No, the building ID number is the unique number given to the structure within the database.

Are there any plans to link from the Historic Buildings List with the content of the database?

No plans at this point, but in the future it would be useful to do this in a mapping application such as https://magic.defra.gov.uk.

Can a PDF of the results be saved to compare results side by side or would it be a case of taking a screen shot?

We weren't able to demonstrate this due to the limitations of the screen share function, but you can download a .csv file of the query results.

Can buildings be added to the database where building stone types are known but not previously recorded?

Yes, you can contact [email protected]. Additional information will have to be verified with the British Geological Survey before it can be added to the database.

It's a bit of a shame that you are constrained to searching by county - especially if you are trying to find a quarry for a type of stone that doesn't have many quarries and where it might have been brought from further afield. Is there a way around that?

You can leave the MPA (Mineral Planning Authority) filter empty so the query will search over the entire country.

Can you tell whether a quarry is still extracting?

The status of a quarry is best checked through the BGS Directory of Mines and Quarries (https://www2.bgs.ac.uk/mineralsuk/download/dmq/Directory_of_Mines_and_Quarries_2020.pdf).

Earth used in buildings, not just the superficial soils.

https://magic.defra.gov.uk/ has information about soil types.

Can the map be manipulated to show the quarries and rivers/roads for example to explore potential transport routes?

You can change the visibility of the geological and geographical layer, but these are contemporary and not historic. Historic maps can be examined using the National Library of Scotland map viewer, for example (https://maps.nls.uk/).

How can information on other buildings be added to the database checked?

Additional information will have to be verified with the British Geological Survey before it can be added to the database.

Where there is no operational quarry in the region supplying a particular stone (e.g. coal measures sandstone from the North Derbyshire coalfield) what would be the best way to identify potential sources?

Seek the advice of a geologist specialising in stone identification and matching.

Are quarries still being added? I'm thinking of small domestic or town-scale quarries in particular.

No further data is being added to the database formally, but we invite people to send information to be added on an ad hoc basis.

Will there be scope to add buildings and quarries as research continues to be carried out?

You can send further information to [email protected]. Additional information will have to be verified with the British Geological Survey before it can be added to the database.

Which of the revisions from the old BGS version to the new EH version was most challenging? (either Atlas or the underlying database)

Revising the guides has been a lot of work to bring some consistency to the content and terminology. Transferring the database to a new mapping application has been relatively easy since the software now available is off-the-shelf.