On Friday night’s (07 March 2026) talk in the Franklin Hall, Spilsby we met a new speaker, Paul Hildreth, who whose talk was on the Building Stones of Lincolnshire.
Paul who is a Yorkshire Man living in Lincolnshire, trained in Chemistry and Geography and went on to take a degree in Geology. He went to work in Geology for several years before training as a teacher. He took up teaching for over 30 years, before retiring and joining the Hull Geological Society (HGS), Yorkshire Geological Society (YGS) and the Geologist’s Association (GA) to begin private research.
His talk was very interesting, detailed and informative and went down very well. He showed us the rock type and formations in Lincolnshire, went on the tell us about the type of building stone and materials available and their properties and uses. It made sense to use, where possible, the local rock for construction as transporting it was difficult and expensive as the only way was by water (sea, river or canal). When the railways came along it was a little easier. A different or easier rock to carve might be used for door frames and windows, later it could be used for decoration and prestige. Lincoln Cathedral is the only large prestige building in Britain and Europe to be built on the rock it is constructed from. A themed cake was supplied by the Artisan Baker of Firsby.
Thank you, Paul, for your excellent talk and we hope to see you again. Enclosed are a few screen shots of the evening.
