Polished specimens of Cotham Landscape 'Marble', Bristol Museum and Art Gallery

Image: © Robin Stott Taken: 27 Jun 2017

Cotham 'Marble' was used for the larger blocks in the pair of obelisks at the entrance to Cotham Park: see Image and associated images. A panel in the Museum explains: "At the end of the Triassic period, when the sea was very shallow, clumps of algae grew in the water, forming soft rounded masses. Such clumps were dotted over the sea-bed for many miles around Bristol, and in time became hardened and changed into 'marble' (fine-grained limestone). When cut through and polished these algal masses show a pattern resembling hedgerows and trees. A small local industry developed a hundred years or more ago when quantities of the marble were obtained from excavations in the Cotham district of Bristol. It was cut into slices, polished and sold as an ornamental stone. The specimens are from Almondsbury, near Bristol."

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