Ross-on-Wye
Ross-on-Wye market town is joined to Bridstow parish by the aptly named Bridstow Bridge. The town sits high on the Old Red Sandstone cliffs, with the meandering river Wye below. From the lookout afforded from the grounds around St Mary’s Church, across the river, can be seen the ruins of Wilton Castle. The owners of this scheduled ancient monument have, in recent years, undertaken some restoration to the castle and they would like their property to feature in the project. Within the immediate area there are a number of history and heritage groups which reflects the quantity of heritage sites found in this town, many of which are stone built.
The geology of the immediate area is that of the Devonian Old Red sandstone. This is reflected in the fabric of the local building stones. However, the stone is far from homogenous. The proposed sites in this cluster vary in age and type; the church in particular is built from a variety of different building stones types.
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Old Red Sandstone
The Old Red Sandstone is a large group of rocks of late Silurian and Devonian age. They were formed in a semi-arid desert environment which has given them their conspicuous red colouring through the intense weathering of iron-bearing minerals. Nevertheless, they are highly variable in outcrop with red, green, purple or brown colourings, coexisting in […]
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Ross Stone
Quarried from the river cliff at Ross-on-Wye, ‘Ross Stone’ is a soft, deep chocolate brown-coloured, medium-grained sandstone from the Brownstones Formation. Green-grey reduction spots and stripes in the rock are very common and pebbles of quartz or mud intraclasts are often present. The sandstone is used extensively in the older buildings of Ross-on-Wye, as well […]
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Quartz Conglomerate
Coarse conglomerates and red sandstones with rounded pebbles of quartz and other lithologies. Likely used in some buildings in Goodrich although difficult to distinguish from a similar layer in the Brownstones which outcrops in Goodrich Castle moat. Also used in some local buildings on Penyard Hill above Ross. Notable use was made of the Quartz […]