Humans have exploited the natural properties of different types of stone for millenia. From using flint as a cutting tool to using pebbles to crack open nuts or seeds. With the advent of stone buildings a few thousand years ago it is likely that the best stone to use was that from a quarry close to the building site given the difficulty of transporting heavy items using only human and animal power.
Devon is a great place to look for many different types of building stone as you can see from this image
and all but two of the types of stone you see have come from the County. In the early 1860s architect John Hayward was commissioned to design a museum, library, school and a mechanical institute. Hayward was one of the leading figures of the Gothic Revival style of architecture, influenced by 13th century Early English buildings with their large arched windows and tracery.
Several types of stone were used to create the facade of this building and at first glance it seems as though they have been chosen at random. Look closer however and you will note that each different type of stone has been used in its location because of a particular property. The questions below are intended to help you interpret what you see in front of you.
You can claim a find by sending me a message with the answers to the following questions:
1) There are six types of stone in the facade? Describe at least three of them and indicate which part of the building you can see them. Note that there is no breccia in this facade. If you don't know the names of the stones then a description will suffice.
2) Using any two of these types of stone in question 1 as your examples, explain why they were chosen for that part of the facade. An example could be the red granite pillars by the front door. These would have been used here because granite can take a lot of weight and be polished to give a glossy appearance.
3) One of the types of stone used is volcanic and was quarried less than 2 miles away. Which stone do you think this is and why? Use the geology map in the listing to help you identify it.
4) Optional task, find a fossil in one of the rocks and take a photo of you, a part of your body or your GPS with it
Please log your find as soon as you sent me a message. I aim to reply to everyone who takes the time to send their answers but this can sometimes take a few days. If I don't receive answers within a week of logging a find I will delete your log entry; I hope you agree this is fair.