Gornal stone

Gornal stone is a sandstone which originates from the Gornal area of Central England.[1]

The stone was quarried in the Lower Gornal area mostly. Quarrying came to a halt in the 1950s. At the peak of the quarrying, almost all buildings in the Sedgley manor (which also included the villages of Coseley, Woodsetton and Ettingshall) were built from Gornal stone, and numerous examples of the recognisable yellow rock remain, including several churches, houses and numerous old walls. The stone was used in the industrial development of the Black Country. It was almost 100% Silica (silicon dioxide) and had a high melt[2]ing point. When ground into sand and mixed with fire clay it formed a refractory coating widely used in the steel industry to the west of Birmingham. This sandstone contained some of the earliest known Hemicyclaspis Murchisoni fossils.[2]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.craftsintheenglishcountryside.org.uk/pdfs/Heritage%20Building.pdf page 46
  2. 1 2 Ball, H.W. (January 1951). "The Silurian and Devonian rocks of Turner's Hill and Gornal, South Staffordshire". Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 62 (4): 225–IN1. doi:10.1016/S0016-7878(51)80007-5.
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