This room has the most spectacular fireplace in the whole house geologically. It is the Frosterley ‘marble’ really a dark limestone which takes a polish and it is full of fossils. This is the same marble which is used in Durham Cathedral. The white skeletons made of calcite show up beautifully against the black background […]

In this room the fireplace is made of marble, a metamorphic rock formerly a limestone (calcium carbonate; the mineral Calcite). The black markings are distinctive and show the brecciated nature of the marble in places. Leave this room and turn right through the door down four steps onto the landing. Go through the fire door […]

The fireplace on the western wall in this room is a red breccia. A breccia is a sedimentary rock made of angular fragments of other rocks. The red colour indicates an iron content. The fine carving of the mantelpiece is missed because of the busy nature of the rock itself and indeed the scallop shapes […]

The North Wing south-facing eastern side of the wall contains hammer-dressed limestone blocks which show a mixture of micrite (muddy limestone) and coarser brachiopod beds. The muddy limestone beds are full of fossils of all types when viewed with a hand lens. There are tiny broken shells of brachiopods, crinoids (sea lilies) and corals a […]

The walls to the kitchen extension are made of limestone but the window sills and surrounds are made of sandstone. This is not a good combination as the limestone weathering and especially from the lime mortar will eventually break down the sandstone. Continue into the courtyard and cross over diagonally to the far right hand […]

At the top of the cellar steps the walls are made of hammer dressed Carboniferous limestone. These were deposited in warm shallow water marine conditions similar to the Bahamas today. You can see the remains of organisms which were alive at the time. The fossils are of the phylum Brachipoda, a two shelled organism now […]

The cellars themselves date from the period of an original house (1570-1630). The local Horton flags used for the floor have been painted in place but in the corridor there are ripples which show that the sandstone was deposited in shallow moving water similar to a modern beach (either marine or freshwater). However this beach […]

The local hard Horton flags, in this case a sandstone, have been used to cover the steps. In many other places slate is used. The cost and difficulty of obtaining this metamorphic hard wearing material was not considered necessary for stairs that few except servants would see. The human wear can again be seen in […]

This small room has a fireplace of local Silurian sandstone exactly the same as used in the stairs and doorsteps and shows the low status of this room. It is utilitarian. Leave the Staff Dining Room turn left and then right in the corridor. Go through the door at the end and turn left again […]

The fireplace in this room is made of bricks and a dressed fine, well sorted, sandstone. The quality of this fireplace shows that this is a slightly lesser status room than the Ballroom where quality would need to be on show. The hearth here is brick. Leave the Common Room and cross the corridor to […]