Purbeck Stone

Purbeck Stone

Purbeck Stone, like Portland Stone, is quarried in Dorset, and is also a Limestone, known as Jurassic Limestone. It is one of the most versatile British natural stones, being used in a natural state, as broken sections for use as crazy paving, split and self-faced as walling stone or as paving setts, or more usually, sawn and then finished in various ways. Varying in colour – unlike Portland stone – with hues from light beige to deep blue/grey with some yellow touches.

There are often fossil shell markings and veins running through the material, which creates an interesting appearance, instead of the mono-coloured Portland or Bath stones. It is a biomicrudite limestone, with a low absorption rate of less than 5%, with a compression rate in excess of 100 MPa, perpendicular to the natural bed, and therefore is classified as a dense stone.

In sawn form, it is available in varying thicknesses, although 50mm is standard for paving projects when laid over a fully constructed base, similar to porcelain and other paving slabs as described in other articles.

It may be obtained for interior or exterior use, with different types of surface finish, from a ‘polished’ appearance for interior projects, to sanded, bush-hammered, bush-chiselled and hand-tooled where slip resistance is important. It is also available in a natural riven or split finish, sawn four sides for formal designs. Named colours range from Heather, to Downsvein, Thornback and Spangle, all of which are very attractive and provide excellent design options.

Natural split faced setts are available for use in the same manner as granite cuboids, following the same laying methods as ‘cobbles’ (see Cobbles Set Into Cement). For crazy paving schemes, their natural state/split faced/riven unsawn paving may be laid using a soil concrete laying and pointing bed with great effect for less formal designs (see Soil Concrete).