This EarthCache will give a brief history of the Romney Marshes, and discuss what are the main building materials used on the Romney Marshes. This will then hopefully give the successful cacher tools to identify the building materials used in the Construction of this very old Church.
Firstly a bit of history about the Church
St Augustine's Church is a Grade I listed Anglican church in the village of Brookland, Kent, in Walland Marsh, about 5 miles north-east of Rye, East Sussex. It was originally built about 1250. It has the unusual feature that the bell tower is separate from the rest of the church.
*****************************************************
If you would like to add to the Church Micro series yourself then please visit
http://churchmicro.co.uk/
There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page that can be found at
http://www.15ddv.me.uk/geo/cm/index.html
*******************************************************
The Romney Marshes
The Romney Marshes are an area of reclaimed, low-lying, open marshland mainly in Kent but also stretching into East Sussex. The area is bound to the south and east by the English Channel and to the north and west by upstanding, old sea cliffs. They form a remote, horizontal landscape of open agricultural land crossed by drainage dykes and marshes and dominated by the sky. In contrast to the reclaimed marshes, there are also extensive shingle beaches at Dungeness and small areas of sand dunes at Camber Sands. The area is distinctive for its open character and absence of woodland (0.8%). The urban area is just 3.9%. About 28% of the area falls within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
Until the first century AD, the area was a shallow bay with settlement upon its numerous, small islands, and the Marshes were created by the natural deposition of sediment and the reclamation of the area for agricultural use.
Reclamation from the 8th century was driven by individual farmers from settlements on higher ground and alongside roads.
Rocks used on the Romney Marshes
There is no natural rock to be found in The Romney Marshes. All rocks have to be brought into the Marshes for construction. All natural stone used is Sedimentary rock: which includes Sandstone, Liimestone and Chall with Flint.
Due to the non-existence of naturally occurring rocks on the Romney Marshes,..... building materials from old building and ruins are often recycled often giving buildings a random construction apoearance.
Sedimentary Rock
What is Sedimentary Rock?
Sedimentary rocks are formed from pre-existing rocks or pieces of once-living organisms. They form from deposits that accumulate on the Earth's surface. Sedimentary rocks often have distinctive layering or bedding.
The main Rock used in buildings in Romney Marsh are Kentish ragstone and Hythe ragstone ( from same geological sequence)
Kentish ragstone is a hard grey limestone in Kent, drawn from the geological sequence known as the Hythe Beds of the Lower Greensand. For millennia it has been quarried for use both locally and further afield.
Kentish ragstone
The Lower Greensand as a broad zone between the brick-patterned chalk (a type of limestone) and the interior large c-shape weald Clay. Many towns shown are on the Lower Greensand.
Kentish Ragstone is Quarried at Hermitage Quarry in Barming. Hythe Ragstone used to be quarried North East of the Romney Marshes.
Southern Sandstone
Southern Sandstone is a local name for the Ardingly Sandstone of southeast England, a soft sandstone of Cretaceous age separating the Tunbridge Wells Sands from the overlying Grinstead Clay. It is particularly well exposed throughout the region between East Grinstead, West Sussex and Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Southern sandstone is more yellowy than the Ragstone and more flakey and courser grained.
Flint
Flint is a sedimentary rock consisting of microscopic, nearly undetectable (cryptocrystalline) crystals of the mineral quartz (SiO2). It is considered to have begun forming soon after the deposition of Chalk.
Below is flint in a wall.
How flint is formed
- The sea bed is compressed and cemented over time to form rock.
- Flint forms when silica fills the burrows and holes made by marine organisms in the sea bed.
- The silica comes from the skeletons of these organisms, such as sea sponges and coccolithophores.
Questions:
Please or message me your answers to the following questions. You may log straight after doing so.
1. From what you have read above.....why are there no natural rock formations on the Romney Marsh?
2. Go to the church clock tower. Identify three types of sedimentary rock in the tower wall describing its appearance in terms of shape, colouring and texture.
3. Walk around the outside of the church anti clockwise until you get to the arched doors at the South of the Church. What other building material do you see in the wall?
4. Why do you think the construction of the Church walls looks "random" in places? Why do you think some of the building materials have been recycled?
5. On your geocaching log please post a photo of yourself ( no need to include your face) with the clock behind you or post a photo of your caching name and date on a piece of paper with the clock.
Thanks for visiting