Tacket Street Ipswich

Kentish Ragstone (a sandstone) comes from the Medway valley area but has been imported for the walls of several Suffolk churches and for making sea walls.

Tavern Street Ipswich

The white limestone is St John’s Travertine from Italy ; at the base of the building is Rustenberg Black Accord Gabbro, an igneous rock from South Africa .   The Ipswich shop front has now been changed but as this business uses the same rocks all over the world, you may find these stones in other towns. You may also need a sense of humour in several languages for dealing with curious onlookers while you are studying the building stones.

Building Stones

A variety of rocks may be seen in the walls and floors of many Suffolk buildings. Local materials such as flint were used by our ancestors in fine churches such as Lavenham and Blythburgh.   Flint continues to be used in modern times, appropriately so in a local heritage centre.

Brandon Heritage Centre

Bury St Edmunds Cathedral

Enhance your visit to Bury St Edmunds by downloading our special handwritten map of the geological highlights of 'God's Square' - the Abbey Gardens, the Cathedral, the Great Churchyard, and St Mary's Church. Click here

(The rock and brick store on the Cathedral map no longer exists; there is also a new extension to the cloisters using Ancaster Stone.)

GeoSuffolk goes to Church

Find out about some of the building stones in our local churches.

South Suffolk churches

(See GeoSuffolk Times no.3 for correction to Polstead Church tufa information.)

Suffolk Coastal churches

God's Square, Bury St Edmunds

St. Peter's Church, Ipswich

Wantisden Church