The building stones of South East England : mineralogy and provenance

The South East of England (London, Kent, Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire), is characterized by a range of distinctive, traditional vernacular buildings. Stone from the local strata, which ranges from Late Jurassic to Palaeogene in age, has been widely used throughout the area for building purposes (footings, walling, roofing) and was also frequently imported into London, which itself has no building stone resource of any significance cropping out within its boundaries. Determining the provenance of some of these stones, away from their local context, however, can be difficult, but is greatly facilitated by studying their mineralogy, textures and fabrics under the microscope.