The Gingerbread Town

Downham Market

“Gingerbread Town”



Take a look around Downham Market in between the modern style brick buildings you will see a gingerbread looking stone incorporated into the architecture, giving the town its nickname. This is Carrstone, a rock that has been quarried locally and has been used for façades,  structural and galeted architecture in the town's buildings. 




The rock that gives Downham Market’s architecture its unique
character is Carrstone, a sandstone rock deposited in the Cretaceous c.108 million years ago and found in through the East of England but is at its thickest and outcroping in West Norfolk; with a maximum 18 metre thickness recorded in a borehole in Hunstanton, but more commonly its about 5 m thick, reducing inland. The most dramatic location to see Carrstone in-situ is in the cliffs at Hunstanton where the Carrstone Formation is found at the bottom overlain by the Hunstanton Formation (Red Chalk) and Ferriby Chalk Formation (White Chalk). It is Carrstone from an extension of the same bed seen in the cliffs at Hunstanton that has been used in the architecture of Downham Market.

 Carrstone gets its distinctive look of gingerbread from the combination of fine to medium grains combined with oolites and the iron oxide (rust) content of the matrix holding the grains. This gives the distinctive granular crumbly look which when weathered is an orange-brown colour and looks similar to freshly baked gingerbread. The effect of weathering on the colour of Carrstone can been throughout Downham Market’s buildings.



A fine example of the colour change with weathering can be seen at St Edmunds Church where Carrstone of different ages can be seen thanks to repairs to this Grade 1 listed building. It is well worth a visit to this church for its history and the view over the fens from the hill where it stands. The original Carrstone used in the construction of St Edmunds Church and other buildings in Downham Market was quarried within the town on the Howdale located behind the church. Other Carrstone buildings to look out for include the Grade II Listed Downham Market Railway Station building, Salamanca House, The cottages on Rampant Horse Lane, The Priory and Dial House.

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