Mineral
Chalk
Picture to come.
A soft white limestone forming the downs of southern and eastern England. Chalk was burnt in kilns to make lime, which was slaked for mortar and plaster for castles, churches and town walls, and used for limewash and in preparing hides for tanning. Harder beds of chalk were cut as building stone locally, and chalk was spread on fields as a soil dressing.
Caveats (confidence: medium)
Field dressing with chalk is well attested in later medieval and early modern sources; 12th-century evidence not directly confirmed.
Sources: historicengland.org.uk
Made by
- Quarry stone
Used to make
- Burn lime