From what I can tell, there are four main stones in the Uk. They are Granite, Limestone, Sandstone and Slate. Here's a chart of where you can find those stones mostly:
In the UK, so much of their things in history were made of stone. You see this at every corner. Houses, Buildings, Walls, Streets. I've only virtually toured a small part of the UK, but even when I have been in the UK in person, I noticed this more than anything. I guess that's since Americans use poured concrete more and wood as their preferred building materials that it's a shock to us to see so much stone. I keep asking my British friends stupid questions. The biggest one I have is: "If all this stone was dug out of the earth, at what point does that change the topography of the land? " Seriously! You take huge boulders out of the land and the land is now lower, right???
I have been told that the rock changes by region. The type of rock, the look of it, etc. Probably one of the biggest examples I have found of this is in the pictures below (courtesy of http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/BS-KS.html)
The buildings in the images above from Keswick, Cumbria, England, are almost all green. In fact, the town of Keswick is almost all green. That's because the Lake District in which Keswick sits is the home of numerous quarries of green slate, or "greenslate" as it is known locally. These slates are largely the result of metamorphism of Early Paleozoic volcanogenic rocks. There are various shades of green in the slate, each with is local trade name, so there is some variation in the green of Keswick. The images above also show that stone masons trim the houses with red or brown stone, further enlivening the otherwise green visage of the town.
In America, most of the bridges you see (even the small ones on back country roads, are poured concrete. I have noticed in the UK that even these small ones are stone. Here's a picture of one I particularly liked, showing the age of the stone:
Here's one of the Cathedral Church of Our Lady and St. Philip Howard. Can you imagine how much stone this huge Cathedral used to build it??
And look at this picture... Called Wall House. How Profound :)
Another part of the UK I am fascinated with is the shorelines. Communities near the water are so wonderful. Having grown up in Florida, I personally miss the shore now that I live in Ohio. Even the Great Lakes would not be enough for me - I want to look out and see the Ocean and imagine what lies beyond. The romantic notion of a bottle with a message washing up on the shore has never occurred to me while on the beach, but I suppose that the ocean, to me, expresses freedom. You have to cross an ocean to go anywhere, whether it be by boat or plane. For me, crossing the ocean takes me to Europe. To the UK.
On the other side of the ocean, I have found these in Brighton and Hove that have created curiosity. Today I discovered that they are beach huts. People own or rent them and they are their little home away from home while at the beach.
The other thing I have noticed is that many of the ocean areas are clean and defined. Most beaches I have seen in the US are a hike to get to, often over sand dunes and a wooden bridge. This picture shows a green lawn edged and neat, lined by beach huts, and probably a walk way between the huts and the sand of the beach. Here's a picture my friend Pete took on vacation in Lyme Regis. Apparently, some of these actually have electricity in them and chandeliers, kettles for tea, etc. Fascinating!
Writing this makes me feel so naive. Stones and beach huts have amazed me this week. So simple, huh? But in America, we are young compared to the UK. We have built things by blueprints and engineers. Things in some of the smaller towns of the UK just seem so simple. So prehistoric to an American. The thing that reminds me of this daily is when I was in Portugal last summer and I noticed so many tile roofs on houses. I noted how many people in America these days cannot afford to replace their tile roofs with tile, settling for shingle roofs instead. My friend Peter said, "America is not old enough for their tile roofs to be going bad". Now, I am not a roofer nor do I play one on television, but that really made sense to me. How is it we have tile roofs needing replaced? It reminds me, though, how young of a country we are compared to the UK. Look at some of the pictures of stone I showed you today and think back what amazing historical things these stones have seen in their lifetime ....
Love ~ Peace ~ Happiness
Marianne
