This bed is a thin bed of stone which is found under a layer of Newton Clay which is described as blue in colour. It is still Limestone rather than a Marble but it will take a polish.
The colour within the raw block of stone can vary greatly from beige, orange, blue to grey.
The colour variation is due to Iron content within the stone and the oxidisation of the Iron.
The orange colour is where the Iron has oxidised and large particles of rust can be found at times.
The blue colour is where the Iron has not oxidised and is in its purest form.
This is my understanding, however I am happy to be corrected if necessary …
Our main objective with this bed is a relatively unique flooring stone. It would appear that patches of Clay are to be expected, but when we discussed this with a distributor of our stone, they mentioned that it isn’t unheard of to fill the patches of clay or imperfections by flood grouting or resin as other stones that are available on the market have this procedure carried out at the time of the floor being fitted.
Another use for this hard layer of stone would be for Dry stone walling, Random cropped suitable for DPC, Cladding and a Retaining wall as it is not as porous as our normal Todber / Marnhull freestone beds.
This particular bed would also be suitable as a Rockery stone.
