Purbeck stone for items such as fonts, tombs, flooring and shafts. Purbeck stone Purbeck stone refers to building stone taken from a series of limestone beds found in the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous Purbeck Group, found on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset in southern England. The best known variety of this stone is Purbeck Marble. The stone has been quarried since at least Roman times up to the present day. The Purbeck Group is a sequence of sedimentary rocks that were deposited in a shallow freshwater to brackish lagoonal setting. It ranges in age from Tithonian to Berriasian. Limestone beds are
Portland stone or "ooliths" (from the Greek for "egg-shaped" or "egg-stone"), became partially cemented together (or lithified) by more calcite, to form the oolitic limestone that is called Portland stone. The degree of cementation in Portland stone is such that the stone is sufficiently well cemented to allow it to resist weathering, but not so well cemented that it can't be readily worked (cut and carved) by masons. This is one of the reasons why Portland stone is so favoured as a monumental and architectural stone. Dr Geoff Townson conducted three years doctoral research on the Portlandian, being the first to describe