Ilminster, Somerset, England — Little Team Dorset, consisting of Cassidy Jester (’17) and me, arrived today in England after a long journey of cars, planes and trains. As you can see from the above image of the Bristol Temple Meads train station, we have brilliant weather. Cassidy and I are here to do the fieldwork for her Independent Study project in the Inferior Oolite (Jurassic, Bajocian) of inland Dorset. We met Tim Palmer at the train station and then drove into Somerset for the afternoon and evening. Tim Palmer and I explored the Inferior Oolite and other units in this region last year to prepare for this expedition.
If you know anything about Tim Palmer, you know we’re going to examine building stones every chance we get. This is an ideal introduction to our project because of its combination of geology and history. Tim is a master of this topic, especially Jurassic stones. We first stopped in the little parish of Hinton Blewett to examine a Medieval baptismal font in the 13th century Church of St. Margaret (above).
Here is Tim examining the baptismal font, looking closely at the stonework.
The font is made of Dundry Stone, from the top of the Inferior Oolite, with the exception of a later addition of an oolitic limestone cylinder in the stem, apparently to raise it a bit higher. The basin is lined with hammered lead.
The oldest stone in the structure of the church itself is also a Jurassic limestone. It shows these distinctive patterns of iron-rich layers.
We next visited Wells and its magnificent cathedral. This is the first time I’ve been here. It is spectacular, especially in the brilliant sunlight. It is made mostly of Doulting Stone, a local limestone Tim and I studied last year.
The front of Wells Cathedral has dozens of Medieval statues, most still well preserved. Christ and the apostles make up the first two rows, followed by English bishops.
Most of the statues are protected within stone niches.
Unusual for English cathedrals, there is a large clock with animated figures that ring bells. This is a feature more common in continental Europe.
This beautiful detail shows a pillar of Purbeck Marble, topped with a disk of dark Carboniferous limestone, and then the Doulting stone.
We then visited the famous Vicar’s Close near Wells Cathedral, which is the oldest preserved residential street in Europe. The houses were built in the 14th and earl 15th century.
Tim, Cassidy and I then drove to Ilminster for a night in a Travelodge before fieldwork begins tomorrow. We had an excellent day.
