CED Stone Commercial Brochure

The BGS Geological Walk Architects: Munro & Whitten Contractors: Kier Construction CED Stone Group www.cedstone.co.uk The Geological Walk is an exciting 1200mm² outdoor display of natural stone paving and materials from Britain and Northern Ireland, laid at the British Geological Survey’s site in Keyworth. Opened in May 2012, we worked for more than two years to help bring the British stone industry together in a remarkable way to support the project. The walk features every type of British paving stone in regular production (and a good few that could be, too) from the Precambrian to the Quaternary periods, and includes some 40 different products. The stunning entrance approach covers an additional 600m2 and features Cumbrian and Welsh slate. Paving materials along the walk include Grey Cornish Slate, Reclaimed Aberdeen Granite Setts, Welsh Heather Slate, Bluestone, White Anorthosite and Forest of Dean Sandstone to name a few. Representing the geology of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the path leads past five feature boulders made up of all three main stonetypes; igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic stone. The focal point of these boulders is a monolith of Lewisham Gneiss, the most ancient rock type in the British Isles. In addition to paving, other stone features were also included, including Northern Irish Mourne Granite benches, Cornish Granite steps and Yorkstone wall coping stones. A meter-wide ‘timeline spine’ or Carboniferous flagstone runs the length of the walk and bears numbered discs identifying the different rock paving types. The paving is all laid in chronological order, beginning with the Precambrian age. When selecting the materials for the Geological Walk, the primary consideration was that each one can be used as a paving material in either public or private places, or both. All materials had to be frost-resistant, durable and capable of being slip- resistant. Some gaps were filled by using reclaimed materials no longer in production – such as the Aberdeen and Peterhead granite setts from North-East Scotland, and ‘ironstone’ setts from the M25 corridor in Surrey. Knapped flints were also included, selected for having the flattest possible face to ensure the safest paving surface. The examples seen in the Geological Walk were carefully selected and fashioned from cliff fall debris in a now-closed quarry. 25