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| Various decorative stones used in a Victorian inlaid tabletop |
A tour of Chatsworth House can turn into a bit of a maze, with routes and the position of exhibits sometimes changed, as I discovered when trying to find a magnificent Victorian inlaid table that I had seen in an article published by the Mercian Geologist back in 2008.
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| A Victorian inlaid table |
Eventually coming across this after taking a few photographs of the Oak Stairs, I recognised many decorative stones that I had previously seen at churches at Edensor, Stoney Middleton and Bolsover. Others, such as the green fluorite and barytes with galena, I had encountered at the Peak District Mining Museum in Matlock and in Buxton Museum and Art Gallery.
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| Various decorative stones |
The Duke’s Red and ‘cockleshell marble’ are not very common, with the latter being unusual in that is an ironstone from the Coal Measures, which is packed full of non-marine lamellibranchs that are preserved in calcite.
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| Various decorative stones |
Ironstone is usually found above coal seams and sometimes occurs in concentrations that are viable for opencast mining. Going back to the times of Bess of Hardwick, the Cavendish family have since acquired vast areas of land that are very rich in hard rock and mineral resources, which William the 6th Duke of Devonshire used to great effect.
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| Various decorative stones |
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