Building Stone Background Paper - Surrey County Council

Surrey BuildingStoneReigate Stone(often calledFirestone andknown asMalmstone in theFarnham area) 3Characteristics Found UsesComparatively soft, particularly when first dug out.Invaluable for internal work but externally by nomeans as good. It will not endure a smokyatmosphere. In the country when it has not decayedit can be attractive, for this is a light-toned stone: asandstone so calcareous that it could with almostequal accuracy be described as a sandy limestone. 3Upper Greensand formation. Thequarries and mines (for much of thisstone was mined) were not only atReigate, they were at Gatton,Merstham, and all along the narrowbelt at the foot of the North Downspast Bletchingley to Godstone, alsoin the Farnham area. 3In great demand in the Middle Ages andnot only in Surrey. London Bridge,church of St Mary Overy (nowSouthwark Cathedral), the Palace andthe present Abbey of Westminster, andWindsor, Eton, at Hampton Court andthe Palace of Nonsuch. Lends itself toboth ashlar finish and to mouldings andcarvings, this proved invaluable forinternal works of all kinds. 33Nairn & N Pevsner – The Buildings of England – Surrey. 19714 Association for Industrial Archaeology – A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Surrey. 19905 F Gosling – The Geology of the Country Around Reigate. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association. Vol 40. 1929