The Stone
The stone being worked at Ladycross Quarry was laid down during the Carboniferous period of the Palaeozoic era. That was some 290 million years ago. To better understand this, consider a mythical year spanning this period. The stone would have been laid down during the first two days of January, the first dinosaurs appearing in May and the great Ice Age occurring in late November. modern man would not begin to develop until about December 27th!
Ladycross Stone is sedimentary. It is formed from grains of sand washed down by rivers in to clear, shallow seas where the sand was deposited in delta like conditions. From time to time a thin layer of clay and mica was deposited over the sand giving rise to very level bedding planes. The existence of those planes mean that the stone will separate into large, exceptionally flat slabs, making it most suitable for the production of paving stones, roofing slates and walling. Later the grains of sand became compressed by other deposits and were cemented together by natural iron cement. The variety of colour seen in the stone is due to partial oxidation of the iron cement giving a most attractive appearance.
This layering is what allows the stone to be quarried by hand and does away with the need for explosives. This, in turn, has enabled Ladycross Quarry to become a beautiful nature reserve with over 140 species of birds observed to date. Check our Nature pagefor more details