Ok the 3rd instalment in our materials series. This week, buildings what have bin made out of stone. One of the earliest building materials known to Humanity, and one which has given us some of the most spectacular buildings on Earth. It’s truly amazing what can be done with stone, and it lasts for a very, very long time.

Canterbury Cathedral:

😀

Newgrange from the inside

I do like these threads. 🙂

I’m going to go back to very basics with this:

Maybe not a building but I’m always impressed by stuff like this, built for who knows what reason so long ago that most people can’t even imagine the timescale.

May I be the first…

May I be the first…

First thing I thought of was The Valley of the Kings.

Lancashire’s premier tourist attraction:

The Great Stone of Fourstones.
Fairly minimalist in terms of architectual ‘effort’ I admit, but it’s got steps, so it counts 😛

In the vein of molgrips

Across the river from the Turkish village of dalyan.

By no means the greatest stonework in the world but still impressive to see in the flesh.

Berwick ramparts and Beaumaris castle

The Nimitz Class aircraft carriers of their day.

antoni gaudis sargrada familia

Conisbrough castle is a bit of a looker.

There’s cock all there though once you’ve seen the keep.

Peel Tower in Nazi free Ramsbottom featuring some of the not quite inner circle from here. 3 threads in one!

May I be the first…
First thing I thought of was The Valley of the Kings.

That’s Petra. And I don’t mean the dog off Blue Peter.

Got some more:

And the statue of Crazy Horse they are building, which is a much better monument than Mt Rushmore which it is near:

Whitby Abbey, alledged inspiration for Bram Stoker, + instigator of a considerable vampire-based local economy…

Might be pre-empting a future ‘carving’ topic here, but this gem, in a proper Glasgow east-end dump (next to current workplace), always draws my gaze;

Not really architecture, but anyway…

What is CaptainFlashheart’s meant to be?

Anyway…

Kirkstall Abbey by Matthewjb, on Flickr

AlexSimon – Member
Not really architecture, but anyway…

+1

I love the way Gaudi engineered his stone buildings – strings and weights – hang a loop of string, position the weight – trace the line and thats the shape of the arch you need to support your the weight. He’d make his whole building as a piece of macrami, then photograph it, turn it upside down and shade it in. Lovely. Would love to see one in the flesh

What is CaptainFlashheart’s meant to be?

It’s west kennet longbarrow, part of the Avebury landscape. Looks like this inside:

OOh, time for a bit of Yorkshire Stone:

Saltaire, Bradford:

Some bird what me mate’s wife knows lives in a cottage there but I’m not allowed to meet her in case of get pregnant. 😐

Bradford Town Hall:

Bradford is one most beautiful place in World. 😥

Lincoln Cathedral;

Not enough trees to hang a man; not enough soil to bury him. The Dolmens in The Burren, Co. Clare:

Sorry, getting carried away now.

Beaumaris Castle? Nimitz class? More of a type 42, this is a real castle:

Castle’s aside, the roman aqueduct at Segovia gets at least one vote from me:

can’t find a better picture but..

or

or

Sorry, I don’t have a picture to contribute. Elfinsafety. Could you please ping an email over to me if you get chance? I need to drop you a quick line or two.
Ta.

Baldysquirt’s last one wins.

This is my current favourite stone thing cos I saw it today – when I drive to Swindon the road I take goes straight through the middle of them, and I’m always amazed by that. All a bit more hands on than Stonehenge.

Avebury

And Elfin, pretty sure your last photo is Salisbury, not Canterbury. I’m sure you’d want to know that! 😉

How about……… every location use in the The Fall

Isn’t that last pic level 37 of marble madness?

The Captain’s pic of West Kennet Long Barrow took some nifty lighting, it’s very tricky to get any kind of pic in there. In the first chamber on the left, just about at the confluence of the three stones in the top left a pair of swallows have made a nest; not the most practical place in the world. Some great photos here, as usual.

WKLB is a very moving place.

Ok, it’s a bit dim, but it’s stone, it’s very old, and it’s an architectural feature:

This is the Green Man in Wells Cathedral. Very, very few visitors will ever see this little fella, he’s carved into the lintel of a door leading into private offices that the public don’t have access to. I had to ask nicely to get to see him.

I know we’re not really supposed to have bridges, but stone is all about arches and I suppose arches are the arch in architecture.

I love this teeny tiny little bridge by Ian Hamilton Finlay at up the road at Little Sparta, inscribed:

“Arch: n Architectural term,a material curve sustained by gravity as rapture by grief”

Perhaps pushing it a bit, but it’s stone, and it’s certainly architecture, this is just a more distant view;
Glastonbury Tor, from just above Pilton.