Kentish ragstone is a hard grey limestone in Kent, England, drawn from the geological sequence known as the Hythe Beds of the Lower Greensand. For millennia it has been quarried for use both locally and further afield.
Geology Ragstone occurs in a geological formation known in the Hythe Beds of the Lower Greensand, a layer of limestones running from Kent into Surrey which was laid down in the Cretaceous period. It outcrops in various places, notably at the cliffs of Hythe, Kent (whence the beds get their name) and along the Greensand Ridge above the Weald of Kent. Ragstone occurs in bands between 15 cm and 60 cm thick, alternating with bands of a loose material called hassock. These bands are of similar thickness and the difference in colour between them gives quarry faces a striped appearance. When the stone is extracted from the quarry, it appears to be of a grey green or blue grey colour but later weathers to an autumnal hue which, together with its hard-wearing properties, traditionally made it an attractive material for public building works.
History With hard rock for building being in short supply in south-east England, it was inevitable that the only significant source of hard limestone – Kentish ragstone – would be used in building from an early period. Since Roman times, ragstone has been used in roughly squared blocks for building walls. The stone was almost certainly quarried at the Tovil quarry near Maidstone, and then transported by boat along the River Medway to London. A Roman ship discovered at Blackfriars had a cargo of Kentish ragstone, probably from Maidstone, on board. Examples of Roman uses include the Roman walled cemetery at Boughton and the old Roman wall near Tower Hill underground station. It is possible that ragstone quarrying contributed to the rise of a small town in the Maidstone area in Roman times. Two villas in the locality had links with the quarrying and a settlement could have grown up for those working in the quarrying and shipping industries, as well as for those engaged in providing services to them.
From 1066, the Normans constructed a large number of public buildings using ragstone, such as Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London, castles such as Rochester and Leeds, and churches such as All Saints and the Holy Cross churches in Maidstone. Other examples in Kent include the keep at Dover Castle, Westgate in Canterbury, Knole House, Ightham Mote, the Archbishop's Palace, Maidstone and Maidstone Prison. The building of Westminster Abbey in the 1240s required large quantities of ragstone with the result that local supplies were commandeered for that purpose: a royal command decreed that "no Kentish ragstone shall be carted to London for any other purpose until the Abbey is built". Another use for ragstone was to make cannonballs: in 1419 King Henry V ordered 7000 of these from Maidstone quarries. Most of Kent’s medieval parish churches were built of ragstone and although in Tudor times stone buildings went out of fashion in favour of brick, the demand for Gothic-style buildings in Victorian times led to many churches in south-east East England being built of ragstone. Ragstone was – and still is - also used in roads, and modern quarrying methods allow a wide range of products to be supplied today. Ragstone acquired its name from the quarrymen who so named it because it would break along ragged edges. Because the rock is bedded between layers of hassock, the phrase ‘rag and hassock’ arose. In 1834 a fossil Iguanodon from a ragstone quarry (Bensted’s Quarry, later renamed Iguanodon Quarry) was recorded by the famous palaeontologist Gideon Mantell. By the 1940s over a dozen Kentish quarries were producing ragstone for roads and for buildings.
Modern uses of Kentish ragstone
Only two ragstone quarries are operational in Kent, Hermitage Quarry in Barming and Blaise Farm near King's Hill. Hermitage Quarry continues to meet the traditional demand for building stone for use in modern buildings. Modern demand is busy and diverse, however, with about 60 different products being required for use in the ready mix concrete, road building and engineering industries. Block stone is used for the construction of walls and repairs to historical buildings. Larger stone is used for the construction of seawalls and barriers against coastal erosion. Ragstone is important for repairing historic buildings to ensure that the repairs blend in with the original building. The Hermitage Quarry is the only supplier of Kentish Ragstone building stone in Kent. Blaise Farm is excavated mainly for aggregate, and is not regarded as being a realistic source of building stone. If ragstone cannot be obtained locally, historic buildings such as Rochester Castle, the Archbishop's Palace in Maidstone or the city walls at Canterbury will have to be repaired with stone imported from abroad or elsewhere in the UK, making it difficult to blend in repairs with a traditional Kentish ragstone appearance.
Mines and quarries
Allington Quarry
Allington Quarry is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) as the result of interesting geological features uncovered as a result of quarrying. Once sand and ragstone quarrying had ceased, the quarry became the site of the Allington Quarry Waste Management Facility. Allington was an attractive site for ragstone quarrying on account of its geology and close proximity to the River Medway which allowed quarried stone to be easily transported by boat to London. There is evidence of quarrying in the area since 1174 with the construction of Allington Castle in 1174 and the Allington quarry had certainly existed since the 1790s. In the region of 20 million tonnes of stone were extracted from the quarry for use in local buildings, roads and railways, most recently to build the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. In 2001 owners Hanson Aggregates decided to close the site and relocate to the quarry at Blaise Farm, near Offham, which was estimated to have reserves of 35 million tonnes. Among the last pieces of stone extracted from the quarry were some given to Langley Park School for Boys in Beckenham, Kent, for the construction of stone seating circles at the school.
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