The Building Stones of Worcester.

 A walk for New Members led by Hilary Edgeley.

Wednesday 16^th March 2016

Using the Earth Heritage Trust Guides to Worcester and the Cathedral, a group of New Members met outside the Guildhall. The walk progressed as follows:-

1 Worcester Guildhall.

Current building started in 1722 by architect Thomas White, a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren. Either side of door – Charles I and Charles II – a reminder that Worcester was the ‘faithful’ city. Oliver Cromwell pinned back by his ears positioned between the Kings.

Rock: sedimentary Jurassic oolitic limestone – Bath Stone

2 St. Helen’s Church

Rocks: sedimentary oolitic limestone fossils. Triassic New Red Sandstone. Replacement stones by the porch Corsehill sandstone, Scotland.

3 Old Fire Station

Rock: sedimentary Portland Stone, oolitic limestone fossils.

Cut through Crown Gate to:

4 Debenham’s

Rock: igneous. Permian intrusion Larvikite with labradorite feldspar – intermediate to calcic plagioclase.

5 Lloyds Bank

Rocks: sedimentary oolitic limestone Jurassic, Bath Stone. Igneous columns granite with pink alkali feldspar and some white plagioclase. Constituents of granite – quartz, feldspar and biotite mica.

6 Nat West Bank

Rock: sedimentary sandstone showing scouring effect of water currents.

7 Marks and Spencer

Rock: metamorphic. Marble with white veins of calcite.

Cut through to the Shambles, Charles St. to City Walls Road. Turn right.

8 City Walls Road

Rock: sedimentary Triassic New Red Sandstone. Well weathered.

Turn right down Union Street to:

9 Friar Street

Rock: sedimentary Carboniferous sandstone paving slabs. Post deposition brown iron staining.

10 Edgar Tower

Originally the main gate to the castle.

Rock: sedimentary Triassic sandstone.

11 Worcester Cathedral

1 Jesus Chapel – floor- white Carrara marble metamorphic; black Carboniferous limestone fossils. In the nave corals in the limestone.

2 Pulpit – alabaster easily weathered so only used indoors. Marble. Serpentinite. Limestone.

3 Quire Steps – fractured and polished limestone.

4 Prince Arthur’s Chantry – Jurassic limestone.

5 Earl of Dudley’s tomb – white alabaster, alabaster, serpentinite and granite.

6 East end – Purbeck Marble Jurassic limestone. Fossil fragments, rock polishes well.

7 Crypt – Jurassic oolitic limestone. Some pillars were made from a whole block of stone,

8 Cloisters – Carboniferous sandstone green colour. Triassic sandstone red colour. Behind the bells there is evidence of a channel cut during the formation of the sandstone, but the block was positioned upside down.

Note this walk is a repeat of the one done in 2013, click here for more details.