The Building Stones of England: Suffolk

This guide describes Suffolk's local building stones in their geological context. It includes examples of buildings and structures where the stones have been used. Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks in Suffolk have provided a limited range of building stones for local use. However, the succession contains no freestones. Consequently, large volumes of Middle Jurassic Lincolnshire Limestone, and some Caen Stone from Normandy, were imported into the county from medieval times onwards. Upper Cretaceous strata in Suffolk yielded both chalk and flint for building purposes, the latter being the most common type of building stone seen in the county. Tertiary and younger successions provided septaria and occasional Crag limestones, such as the Bryozoan Rock Bed, and ironstones for local building. Pebbles of flint and more exotic lithologies, derived from glacial till and ships ballast, have also been used for building purposes. No building stone quarries are currently operating in the county.