Field trip to the building stones of Canterbury

Trevor Devon (UK) Eleven members of the Hastings and District Geological Society (HDGS) assembled in front of the Canterbury Law Courts on a fine Sunday morning in June 2010 to meet up with our guide for the day, Geoff Downer. Geoff had previously given a talk to HDGS in the spring on the building stones of St Augustine’s Abbey and clearly had a great passion for this subject (he calls it a “hobby”). The day was spent on a gentle walk around the eastern part of Canterbury, largely taking in St Martin’s Church, St Augustine’s Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral. Geoff provided a fascinating commentary on the geology, history, archaeology and architecture of the area, and stopped at appropriate sites to explore and identify the building stones more fully. Given that Canterbury had been an important major Roman town, and given its subsequent ecclesiastical history from Saxon to Norman and medieval times, there was no shortage of material to see. After a brief introduction to the geology of the Ouse Valley, we took a short walk to look at the thirteenth century Conduit House (Fig. 1), a well-preserved example of medieval water technology that was used to collect groundwater from the natural springs of the surrounding hills and gravity feed it down to St Augustine’s Abbey using lead pipes. The reservoir and tunnels are constructed of all sorts of stone, using some reclaimed material from the nearby city and the structure would originally have borne a circular roof. From this fascinating … Read More