Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate originally obtained from the Middle Jurassic aged Great Oolite Group of the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of Bath, England its distinctive appearance. An important feature of Bath Stone is that it is a 'freestone', so-called because it can be sawn or 'squared up' in any direction, unlike other rocks such as slate, which form distinct layers.
Great Pulteney Street, Bath, looking West towards Pulteney Bridge. The style and the Bath stone used are typical of much of the city.
An old crane at Freshford Quarry
Arno's Court Triumphal Arch, Bristol
Tyntesfield
Oolite or oölite is a sedimentary rock formed from ooids, spherical grains composed of concentric layers. Strictly, oolites consist of ooids of diameter 0.25–2 millimetres; rocks composed of ooids larger than 2 mm are called pisolites. The term oolith can refer to oolite or individual ooids.
Modern ooids from a beach on Joulter Cays, The Bahamas
Ooids on the surface of a limestone; Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic) of southern Utah
Thin-section of calcitic ooids from an oolite within the Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic) of southern Utah
