Little Hadham's Hertfordshire Pudding Stone.
When working on the new A120 bypass Little Hadham Bypass and Flood Aleviation Scheme, the Little Hadham Parish Council (then Chaired by Cllr Liz Lloyd-William) asked the contractor GRAHAM to keep an eye out for Puddingstones as these are most commonly unearthed during large building works of this type. They were very excited therefore in 2021 when this large specimen was unearethed by the team!. The contractors moved this impressive 3.5 tonne specimin to the site chosen by the Parish council by the distinctive fillage water pump and village sign at the heart of Little Hadahm.
The distinctive rock gets it's name as it was thought to have the appearance of fruit pudding. People thought the flints resembled plums in a pudding. The conglomerate sedimentary rock is comprised of rounded flint pebbles that are cemented together by a younger matrix of slicia quartz. This silcrete is entirely natural, formed when surface soil, sand and gravel are cemented by dissolved silica (and oxide of silicon).
When identifying puddingstone you'll see the edge break cuts across both the pebbles (splitting the pebbles) and sandy matrix. This is because both have equal stregth. This is how you can tell that the silica quarz is not concrete as it might first appear ( in concrete the pebbles would remain whole and the break would only be in the matrix. All puddingstones are several muillion years old and were formed when small, mailny flint pebbles were deposited in river beds and then later covered by London clay. This puddingstone mixture was subsequently compressed and bonded together during the Ice Age, becoming strong enough that it could resist being crushed. When the ice melted, large pieces of rock were tumbled by flood water to produce the rounded blocks that are unearthed. Created by the precise conditions prevailing locally during the last Ice Age, nearly all puddingstone in the world is found in Hertfordshire and most of it lies in the Gade and Bulborne Valleys. It is considered one of the worlds rarest rocks as it is found is such a small number of places world wide.
There is some fun folklore surrounding these geological gems. Hertfordshire puddingstone is said to have several supernatural powers, including being a protective charm against witchcraft. According to reports, parish records from the village of Aldenham in Hertsmere show that in 1662 a woman suspected of having been a witch was buried with a piece of it laid on top of her coffin. This was to stop her from escaping after the burial.
More recently a piece of puddingstone was given to a bride and groom, potentially as a symbol of fertility. Its supposed magical powers gave it the names of woe stone, hag stone or witch stone, and it's also been called grow stone or breeding stone too. This is because it was thought by farmers ploughing fields that they would multiply as if by magic in the fields. In Chesham, however, they're given the more simple name of everlasting stones.
To Claim this cache please answer the following questions:
1. Is the pudding stone taller at it's North or Southern end?
2. Looking at the back of the puddingstone (East on the far side to the pub) at its lower end. I see three layers of flint (bottom, middle and top). Can you describe these three layers to me?
3. The centre of the flints have a very distincting colour that mark them out as Hertfordhsire pudding stone (if you get as excited as me about Puddingstones and google them you'll see that globably pudding stones are very different in colour). What colour is this?
3. If you're willing I'd love to see a picture of you with the Puddingstone uploaded with your log. Please go ahead and log the find at the time you send your answers and I will respond when able. If you'd rather your geocaching name / GPS / Shoe in frame will all surfice!