Eakring
St Andrew

Stonework

At the Victorian restoration in 1881 internal and external stonework was renovated. The interior walls are plastered, but Magnesian limestone is evident on the dressings of windows and doors.

Externally much of the original local stone, which had been the principal building material at the time of first construction in stone, was skerry from the Mercian Mudstones of the Triassic series. This exhibits thin sandstone bands. On restoration the shortfall in re-usable skerry was made up with Hollington stone, from the Sherwood Sandstone group of the Permian/Triassic transitional era. This distinctive purple-brown stone from south Staffordshire is found scattered amongst the skerry on nave, chancel and vestry.

The Early English tower, still retaining its medieval structure, has a mixture of Mansfield stone, the yellowish Magnesian limestone of the Permian, and much skerry in the lower stage. The second stage is made up of layers of thin skerry, of the type likely to have been recovered from the fields rather than quarried. The later Perpendicular top stage is composed of ashlar material, once again of Magnesian limestone.