Description

 

 

Geology: Fine-grained white limestone

Age: Middle Jurassic

Provenance: Aubigny, Normandy

 

 

 

 

Aubigny stone is a Jurassic limestone from Normandy in France. It is described as fine-grained and having similar characteristics to Portland Stone and is quoted in some texts as D’Aubigny and sometimes referred to as O’Beaney.  The stone was quarried underground between the villages of St Pierre Canivet and Aubigny in the Department of Calvados. The stone beds are of the same age as Caen Stone and the quarries are located about 30km SSE of Caen. The stone was first used in the fourteenth century and the underground quarries are reported as having closed in the 1970s.

 

The more crystalline, denser and harder nature of the stone made it suitable for stairs and steps and also for exterior work where weathering was likely to be more intensive. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century restorations of the cathedral Aubigny Stone was used in the external base of the south-west transept, the parapets of the Bell Harry Tower and in a number of stringcourses on the south side of the cathedral. Unfortunately its use has not proved popular with recent conservators, as the stone’s permeability differs significantly from that of other stones in the cathedral walls. The result has been that migrating pore waters have met the impermeable Aubigny Stone and consequently created a build-up of water near the surface of the neighbouring stones. Consequential frost damage and the release of salts from solution at this juncture have both severely weathered the adjacent blocks of stone. Aubigny Stone has since been targeted for total replacement to prevent further damage to the building fabric.

 

 

Where to see examples:

 

• Cathedral