Axbridge Parish Church is dedicated to St John the Baptist. Originally built in the 13th century the main superstructure of the church is 15th century in design and is now a grade I listed building. The main fabric of the building is limestone with Doulting stone decorations, however it is the unusual steps leading up to the main church door (at the published coordinates) that are the topic of this earthcache.
The internal decorations of the church are well worth seeing, and include medieval painted panels, statues of St John the Baptist and King Henry VII and the head of a green man with leaves sprouting from his face. The church has a vibrant and active community, with a regular programme of worship and other community activities.
Onto this earthcache
Take a look at the steps leading down from the church to the square. You would be forgiven for thinking that the steps were moulded from concrete with some kind of coarse grain mixed in. To the untrained eye that could be what they look like. However each block has been carved from a single piece of a type of rock called Dolomitic Conglomerate, more colloquially known as Pudding Stone.
Dolomitic Conglomerate is a type of rock that was formed in the Triassic period of history, about 251 to 200 million years ago. In this period Britain was part of the vast supercontinent of Pangaea, into which most of the world's landmasses were grouped together. Due to tectonic movement during this period the Mendip Hills were rapidly being eroded creating coarse-grained fragments of the limestone and sandstone bedrock making up the landscape. These fragments were deposited in steep-sided desert canyons and steep mountain slopes and became bound together by finer sediment. This solidified and hardened over time to form Dolomitic Conglomerate, or Pudding Stone, as you see it today.
You can see Pudding Stone in its natural state by taking the cave tour at nearby Wookey Hole (which you do have to pay for). In the first chamber ask your guide to shine his torch on the cave wall and you will see the coarse grains bound together by finer sediment as if locked in time. This is the more angular form of Dolomitic Conglomerate, which formed closer to the mountain slopes. More rounded Dolomitic Conglomerate was looser and more likely to be washed away in periodic flash floods, creating many of the erratic stones that can be found all over the United Kingdom.
Earthcache questions
- Take a look at one of the stone blocks that make up the steps leading down to the square. Describe the coarse grains you can see in terms of size, colour and texture.
- Based on your observations in question one are the coarse grains pieces of limestone, sandstone, or a mixture of the two? Please give a reason for your answer.
- Are the coarse grains angular or rounded? Based on this observation is the Dolomitic Conglomerate you can see here likely to have been formed closer to the Mendip mountain slopes or in looser erratic stones?
- (Optional) Please upload a photo of you or your GPS at the church with your log.
Please email your answers to me using the email link on my profile above. You may log this cache as found before you have received a response from me, however any logs without a corresponding email may be deleted without further notice.
****************** ********************
For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro.co.uk
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
****************** *******************