Ashford-in-the-Water

The River Wye at Ashford-in-the-Water

September 2018 proved to be a very productive month for my investigation of places that I think will be of interest to Geotourists and, during my trips to the Peak District National Park – the Longshaw Estate/Padley Gorge and Edensor/Chatsworth – I saw many examples of Millstone Grit in its natural setting and as a building stone.

Pale Eyam Limestone with Millstone Grit dressings on Greaves Lane

For my next trip to the Peak District, I had intended to visit the Bakewell Rock Exchange in the middle of October, combining this with a visit to Holy Trinity church in Ashford-in-the-Water; however, when the X54 bus failed to turn up in time to get me to a new ceramics class that I had just started in Sheffield, I decided to catch a later bus and make a special trip to this village, which is set on the Eyam Limestone Formation.

A dovecote at the Riverside Hotel

Whilst undertaking a survey of the RIGS, when living in Bakewell, I encountered very many examples of Carboniferous Limestone - from black deep water sediments composed of lime mud to pale grey knoll reefs that are full of brachiopods, corals and crinoids - but I never took much notice of their use as a building material.

Clifton House and Brushfield House on Church Lane

Carboniferous limestone is very hard and difficult to work by hand and, traditionally, it has been used for basic walling in vernacular architecture in the White Peak, with Millstone Grit reserved for the dressings, and generally it is only those varieties that were polished as decorative stones – including Ashford Black, Hopton Wood and Sheldon – that have been used outside this area.

Gritstone House on Greaves Lane

Travelling from Treeton to Ashford-in-the-Water is no easy matter and - with three separate bus journeys required - a short delay to the X54 resulted in two missed connections, which added an hour and a half to my journey. Finally getting to Ashford at 2:30 pm, only to find that road works were preventing access to the centre of the village, I was starting to think that this day out wasn’t such a good idea after all – especially since I had to catch another 3 buses to get home.

Shamble Cottage on Hill Cross

Not to be deterred, I set off at a quick pace to explore the old village and, as I had expected, there was the usual pattern of limestone used for walling and gritstone for dressings. Looking at various blocks of limestone from a distance, I began to see subtle variations in colour and texture that I had not distinguished before.

The barn at Highfields Farm

When encountering Highfields Farm on Vicarage Lane, I immediately thought that it would make an excellent stop off point on a geological field trip, with an expanse of walling that contained blocks of stone with a different character and a very unusual barn.

A detail of thinly bedded limestone with chert at Highfields Farm

The Eyam Limestone is of two main types, a reef facies and a bedded facies, and it is the latter that is seen here - both thinly bedded brownish coloured limestone that contains very distinctive bands and nodules of black chert and a massive fine grey limestone of mid to dark grey colour. 

Eyam Limestone with subconchoidal fracture at Highfields Farm

When looking closely at the darker limestones, it is clear that they are only suitable for general walling stone as, when dressed with a hammer, this stone breaks with a very irregular subconchoidal fracture.

The Elms on Vicarage Lane

Walking back down Vicarage Lane into the village, with my eye now adjusted to these variations, I noted that this pattern is repeated in all of the limestone walls that I subsequently saw and there was no sign of fossiliferous varieties that are generally associated with the reefs.

Great Batch on Church Street

Although not suited for use as dressings in buildings, the Carboniferous limestone seen here is quite a versatile building material and has been worked into semi-circular coping stones for various boundary walls and has been used in the Sheepwash Bridge, without the need for structural support with Millstone Grit dressings.

The Sheepwash Bridge