Auteur: Dr David Johnson

From Roman times, rocks have been worked for a wide range of purposes, initially as building stone. As time passed, more and more stone was needed for high-status buildings like castles, halls and mo …

Cumbria is a very varied county with coastal plains, river valleys, the Pennine edge and the Lakeland fells. It has a strong sense of cohesion and common ground. Farming in the county has improved ov …

Ever since people began cultivating cereal crops 10, 000 years ago grain had to be ground down, or milled, into flour to make bread. Up to the Roman period in Britain this could only be done using si …

The exploiting of stone in Cumbria dates back to the Neolithic period when volcanic rock from the high Lakeland fells was worked to make hand axes. In Roman times sandstone was extensively quarried f …

For centuries lime was an essential ingredient in many aspects of life and work – such as farming, building and manufacturing – and the kilns in which lime was produced were a familiar sight across t …

Across much of the country buildings have been made of brick, rather than stone, from the Roman period onwards. High-status buildings of the Tudor and Stuart eras were often built of clay brick, but …