Brushed metal plaque № 30569

Hertfordshire Puddingstone Hertfordshire’s best known claim to geological fame The story of Hertfordshire’s distinctive local stone began at the end of the dinosaur age. A warm sea covered most of Britain. Chalk was deposited on the sea bed and flints later formed in the chalk. These flints became beach pebbles when the sea, having retreated, reinvaded this area over 50 million years ago. Fine sand filled the spaces between these pebbles, then iron compounds stained the rock to give the colours you can see. Later, natural cement, similar to flint, bound the pebbles and fine sand into coherent rock. You can see that the similarity of this natural cement to these pebbles makes this rock break evenly. Hertfordshire Puddingstone occurs as blocks, occasionally several metres across, in parts of this and adjacent counties. East Herts Geology Club presented this piece to Hertford on behalf of the farmer who found it at the cost of a broken plough. September 2005.

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