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53-713: The West Somerset Coast Path is a long-distance footpath that links the northern end of the South West Coast Path to the River Parrett Trail in Somerset , England, UK. In March 2016 a 58 miles (93 km) stretch of the England Coast Path from Brean Down to Minehead , which incorporates the West Somerset Coast Path, was opened and designated as part of the England Coast Path . It runs from

106-604: A burh by King Alfred , as part of his defence against Viking raids from the Bristol Channel around 878 AD . The Blue Anchor to Lilstock Coast SSSI is a 742.8 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest . It provides an outstanding series of sections through the Early Jurassic Lower Lias , spanning the Hettangian and Pliensbachian Stages and named the "Lilstock Formation". This sequence and

159-462: A Trail Partnership. As of January 2023 , there are over 2,500 miles (4,000 km) of trails on seventeen routes. The longest trail, the England Coast Path , is not complete though more sections are planned to open over the coming months and years, with a planned completion date of around 2024. The newest trail is the Coast to Coast Walk which will officially open in 2025. There are 83 million visits to

212-619: A combination of day trips or as an end-to-end expedition. They are primarily intended for walkers, but may have sections suitable for cyclists and horse-riders. One of the trails, the Great Glen Canoe Trail, is designed for canoeists and kayakers . Those included here meet the definition of a long-distance path as being around 50 km (31 miles) or more, particularly that they will take more than one day's walking to complete. Some shorter paths linking between major walks (e.g. Maelor Way) are also included. The Macmillan Ways are

265-476: A delicate green variety at La Pedrara , in the district of Tecali , near Puebla . Onyx-marble occurs also in the district of Tehuacán and at several localities in the US including California , Arizona , Utah , Colorado and Virginia . Gypsum alabaster is softer than calcite alabaster. It was used primarily in medieval Europe, and is also used in modern times. "Mosul marble" is a kind of gypsum alabaster found in

318-403: A distinct pale, greenish blue colour, resulting from the coloured alabaster found there. The name "Watchet" or "Watchet Blue" was used in the 16th century to denote this colour. Daw's Castle , about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) west of Watchet, is a hill fort situated on a sea cliff about 80 metres (260 ft) above the sea. The fort may be of Iron Age origin, but was (re)built and fortified as

371-531: A set of paths that promotes and raises money for the Macmillan Cancer Relief charity. Several European walking routes pass through the United Kingdom. They all use sections of UK long-distance paths. Alabaster Alabaster is a mineral and a soft rock used for carvings and as a source of plaster powder. Archaeologists, geologists, and the stone industry have different definitions for

424-702: A small shop, a tennis court and a putting green. The chalets, measuring 18 by 14 feet (5.5 by 4.3 m), can be let out for holidays; some owners live in them all the year round. Download coordinates as: Long-distance footpaths in the UK National Trails are a network of long-distance paths in England and Wales (plus a small stretch of the Pennine Way in Scotland ) funded by Natural England and Natural Resources Wales and maintained by local authorities under

477-403: A smooth, polished surface is washed with dishwashing liquid , it will become rough, dull and whiter, losing most of its translucency and lustre. The finer kinds of alabaster are employed largely as an ornamental stone , especially for ecclesiastical decoration and for the rails of staircases and halls. Alabaster is mined and then sold in blocks to alabaster workshops. There they are cut to

530-574: A vase of alabaster. The name may be derived further from ancient Egyptian a-labaste , which refers to vessels of the Egyptian goddess Bast . She was represented as a lioness and frequently depicted as such in figures placed atop these alabaster vessels. Ancient Roman authors Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy wrote that the stone used for ointment jars called alabastra came from a region of Egypt known as Alabastron or Alabastrites. The purest alabaster

583-497: Is a porous stone and can be "dyed" into any colour or shade, a technique used for centuries. For this the stone needs to be fully immersed in various pigmentary solutions and heated to a specific temperature. The technique can be used to disguise alabaster. In this way a very misleading imitation of coral that is called "alabaster coral" is produced. Typically only one type is sculpted in any particular cultural environment, but sometimes both have been worked to make similar pieces in

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636-465: Is a snow-white material of fine uniform grain, but it often is associated with an oxide of iron , which produces brown clouding and veining in the stone. The coarser varieties of gypsum alabaster are converted by calcination into plaster of Paris , and are sometimes known as "plaster stone". The softness of alabaster enables it to be carved readily into elaborate forms, but its solubility in water renders it unsuitable for outdoor work. If alabaster with

689-518: Is also found, in smaller quantity, at Watchet in Somerset , near Penarth in Glamorganshire , and elsewhere. In Cumbria it occurs largely in the New Red rocks, but at a lower geological horizon. The alabaster of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire is found in thick nodular beds or "floors" in spheroidal masses known as "balls" or "bowls" and in smaller lenticular masses termed "cakes". At Chellaston, where

742-455: Is calcite in the wider Middle East , including Egypt and Mesopotamia , while it is gypsum in medieval Europe . Modern alabaster is most likely calcite but may be either. Both are easy to work and slightly soluble in water. They have been used for making a variety of indoor artwork and carving, as they will not survive long outdoors. The two types are readily distinguished by their different hardness: gypsum alabaster ( Mohs hardness 1.5 to 2)

795-534: Is derived: onyx-marble or alabaster-onyx, or sometimes simply (and wrongly) as onyx . Egyptian alabaster has been worked extensively near Suez and Assiut . This stone variety is the "alabaster" of the ancient Egyptians and Bible and is often termed Oriental alabaster , since the early examples came from the Far East . The Greek name alabastrites is said to be derived from the town of Alabastron in Egypt , where

848-532: Is on display in Sir John Soane's Museum , London ; it is carved in a single block of translucent calcite alabaster from Alabastron. Algerian onyx-marble has been quarried largely in the province of Oran . Calcite alabaster was quarried in ancient Israel in the cave known as the Twins Cave near Beit Shemesh . Herod used this alabaster for baths in his palaces. In Mexico , there are famous deposits of

901-506: Is sent to Florence for figure-sculpture, while the common kinds are carved locally, into vases, lights, and various ornamental objects. These items are objects of extensive trade, especially in Florence, Pisa , and Livorno . In the 3rd century BC the Etruscans used the alabaster of Tuscany from the area of modern-day Volterra to produce funeral urns , possibly taught by Greek artists. During

954-526: Is so soft that a fingernail scratches it, while calcite (Mohs hardness 3) cannot be scratched in this way but yields to a knife. Moreover, calcite alabaster, being a carbonate, effervesces when treated with hydrochloric acid , while gypsum alabaster remains almost unaffected. The English word "alabaster" was borrowed from Old French alabastre , in turn derived from Latin alabaster , and that from Greek ἀλάβαστρος ( alábastros ) or ἀλάβαστος ( alábastos ). The Greek words denoted

1007-720: Is the Fuentes- Azaila area, in the Tertiary Ebro Basin. The other is the Calatayud -Teruel Basin, which divides the Iberian Range in two main sectors (NW and SE). The abundance of Aragonese alabaster was crucial for its use in architecture, sculpture and decoration. There is no record of use by pre-Roman cultures, so the first ones to use alabaster from Aragon may have been the Romans, who produced vessels from alabaster following

1060-527: Is the custodian of the brand, but responsibility for creating and maintaining each route lies with each local authority through which a route passes, although Scottish Natural Heritage provides some of the finance and publicity. There are 29 routes, offering 1,900 miles (3,000 km) of trails in total. Each of the routes is clearly waymarked with a dedicated symbol, and run largely off-road. They range in length from 24 to 214 miles (40 to 340 km), and are intended to be tackled over several days, either as

1113-571: The Aljafería Palace, together with other interesting elements like capitals, reliefs and inscriptions, were made using alabaster, but it was during the artistic and economic blossoming of the Renaissance that Aragonese alabaster reached its golden age. In the 16th century sculptors in Aragon chose alabaster for their best works. They were adept at exploiting its lighting qualities and generally speaking

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1166-521: The British Museum , are some of the best known. Gypsum alabaster was widely used for small sculpture for indoor use in the ancient world, especially in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia . Fine detail could be obtained in a material with an attractive finish without iron or steel tools. Alabaster was used for vessels dedicated for use in the cult of the deity Bast in the culture of the ancient Egyptians, and thousands of gypsum alabaster artifacts dating to

1219-617: The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels , dedicated in 2002 by the Los Angeles, California, Archdiocese . The cathedral incorporates special cooling to prevent the panes from overheating and turning opaque. The ancients used the calcite type, while the modern Los Angeles cathedral employs gypsum alabaster. There are also multiple examples of alabaster windows in ordinary village churches and monasteries in northern Spain. Calcite alabaster, harder than

1272-568: The Ebro Valley in Aragon , Spain , which has the world's largest known exploitable deposits. According to a brochure published by the Aragon government, alabaster has elsewhere either been depleted, or its extraction is so difficult that it has almost been abandoned or is carried out at a very high cost. There are two separate sites in Aragon, both are located in Tertiary basins. The most important site

1325-649: The English Reformation the making of altarpiece sets was discontinued, but funerary monument work in reliefs and statues continued. In addition to the carvings still in Britain (particularly the Nottingham Castle Museum , British Museum , and Victoria and Albert Museum ), trade in mineral alabaster (other than the antiques trade) is ongoing as far afield as the Musée de Cluny , Spain, and Scandinavia. Alabaster

1378-548: The Middle Ages the craft of alabaster was almost completely forgotten. A revival started in the mid-16th century, and until the beginning of the 17th century alabaster work was strictly artistic and did not expand to form a large industry. In the 17th and 18th centuries production of artistic, high-quality Renaissance-style artifacts stopped altogether, replaced by less sophisticated, cheaper items better suited for large-scale production and commerce. The new industry prospered, but

1431-464: The River Avill , is located half a mile from the village, and used to have a significant harbour, known as Dunster Haven, which was used for the export of wool from Saxon times; however, it was last used in the 17th century and has now disappeared among the dykes, meadows and marshes near the shore. The beach site has a number of privately owned beach huts (or chalets as some owners call them) along with

1484-495: The 14th and 15th centuries the carving into small statues and sets of relief panels for altarpieces was a valuable local industry in Nottingham , as well as a major English export. These were usually painted, or partly painted. It was also used for the effigies, often life size, on tomb monuments , as the typical recumbent position suited the material's lack of strength, and it was cheaper and easier to work than good marble. After

1537-701: The Greek and Egyptian models. It seems that since the reconstruction of the Roman Wall in Zaragoza in the 3rd century AD with alabaster, the use of this material became common in building for centuries. Muslim Saraqusta (Zaragoza) was also called "Medina Albaida", the White City, due to the appearance of its alabaster walls and palaces, which stood out among gardens, groves and orchards by the Ebro and Huerva Rivers. The oldest remains in

1590-475: The National Trails each year and over 80,000 people complete a trail. Officially opens in 2025 When complete in around 2024 Treated as one path by National Trails Scotland's Great Trails are long-distance "people-powered" trails (predominantly hiking trails but including cycling, horse-riding and canoe routes) in Scotland. NatureScot maintains the official list of Scotland's Great Trails and

1643-494: The early 18th century supported by local wool merchants, although by 1797 the largest export was kelp made by burning seaweed for use in glass making. In the 19th century trade increased with the export of iron ore from the Brendon Hills , paper, flour and gypsum. Harbour trade was aided by the coming of the railway. In the mid-1860s two independent railways terminated at Watchet. The West Somerset Mineral Railway ran down from

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1696-745: The evolution of alabaster use after World War II are Volterran Umberto Borgna , the "first alabaster designer", and later on the architect and industrial designer Angelo Mangiarotti . Gypsum alabaster is a common mineral, which occurs in England in the Keuper marls of the Midlands , especially at Chellaston in Derbyshire , at Fauld in Staffordshire , and near Newark in Nottinghamshire . Deposits at all of these localities have been worked extensively. In

1749-496: The finished art pieces retained their natural color. In modern Europe , the centre of the alabaster trade is Florence, Italy . Tuscan alabaster occurs in nodular masses embedded in limestone, interstratified with marls of Miocene and Pliocene age. The mineral is worked largely by means of underground galleries, in the district of Volterra . Several varieties are recognized—veined, spotted, clouded, agatiform, and others. The finest kind, obtained principally from Castellina ,

1802-528: The good Rhaetian succession beneath are repeatedly affected by faulting, making it of interest to geologists and fossil hunters. It also displays coastal geomorphology which demonstrates a particularly well-developed series of intertidal shore platforms varying in width from about 200-600m. The cliff and beach are rich in reptile remains, including complete skeletons. Lilstock also yields ammonites , shells and fish remains. A unique specimen of an ichthyosaur , named Excalibosaurus costini MacGowan , in which

1855-450: The gypsum variety, was used in ancient Egypt and the wider Middle East (except Assyrian palace reliefs ), and also in modern times. It is found as either a stalagmitic deposit from the floor and walls of limestone caverns , or as a kind of travertine , similarly deposited in springs of calcareous water. Its deposition in successive layers gives rise to the banded appearance that the marble often shows on cross-section, from which its name

1908-547: The hamlet of Steart on the Steart Peninsula , and passes through the villages of Kilve , West Quantoxhead , Williton , Watchet , Blue Anchor , and Dunster beach to Minehead . The beach at Kilve was described by William Wordsworth , the Romantic poet, as "Kilve's delightful shore". Kilve Pill, where the stream from Holford runs into the sea, was once a tiny port, used for importing culm, an inferior type of coal which

1961-406: The historical use and application of alabaster for the production of carved, decorative artefacts and objets d’art . Calcite alabaster also is known as: onyx-marble , Egyptian alabaster , and Oriental alabaster , which terms usually describe either a compact, banded travertine stone or a stalagmitic limestone colored with swirling bands of cream and brown. In general, ancient alabaster

2014-471: The import of salt and wine from France . During the English Civil War Royalist reinforcements for the siege of Dunster Castle was sent by sea, but the tide was on the ebb and a troop of Roundheads rode into the shallows and forced the ship to surrender, so a ship at sea was taken by a troop of horse. The primitive jetty was damaged in a storm of 1659 and a larger, stronger pier was built in

2067-718: The iron mines on the Brendon Hills, and the West Somerset Railway came up from the Bristol & Exeter Railway at Norton Fitzwarren . Both lines made extensive use of the harbour at Watchet from where iron ore was shipped across the Bristol Channel for smelting at Ebbw Vale in South Wales . The foreshore at Watchet is rocky, with a high 6 metres (20 ft) tidal range . The cliffs between Watchet and Blue Anchor show

2120-550: The late 4th millennium BC also have been found in Tell Brak (modern Nagar ), in Syria . In Mesopotamia, gypsum alabaster was the material of choice for figures of deities and devotees in temples, as in a figure believed to represent the deity Abu dating to the first half of the 3rd millennium BC, which is kept in New York. Much of the world's alabaster is extracted from the centre of

2173-458: The lime to spread on their fields. The limestone carrier Laurina was wrecked at Kilve in 1876. From Williton to Minehead the route is close to the track of the West Somerset Railway which opened in 1862 and was extended from Watchet to Minehead by the Minehead Railway in 1874. Although just a single track, improvements were needed in the first half of the twentieth century to accommodate

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2226-456: The local alabaster is known as "Patrick", it has been worked into ornaments under the name of "Derbyshire spar"―a term more properly applied to fluorspar . Black alabaster is a rare anhydrite form of the gypsum-based mineral. The black form is found in only three veins in the world, one each in United States , Italy , and China . Alabaster Caverns State Park , near Freedom, Oklahoma ,

2279-544: The lower jaw is shorter than the upper was found in the Lower Jurassic Sinemurian Stage , Lower Lias beds on the foreshore at Lilstock and is now in the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery . The Triassic cliffs have geological interest for the variety of fossils. The coloured alabaster found in the cliffs gave rise to the name of the colour "Watchet Blue". Dunster Beach, which includes the mouth of

2332-422: The needed size ("squaring"), and then are processed in different techniques: turned on a lathe for round shapes, carved into three-dimensional sculptures , chiselled to produce low relief figures or decoration; and then given an elaborate finish that reveals its transparency, colour, and texture. In order to diminish the translucency of the alabaster and to produce an opacity suggestive of true marble,

2385-584: The newly developed craft, artistic work became again possible, chiefly by Volterran sculptor Albino Funaioli . After a short slump, the industry was revived again by the sale of mass-produced mannerist Expressionist sculptures. It was further enhanced in the 1920s by a new branch that created ceiling and wall lamps in the Art Deco style, culminating in participation at the 1925 International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts in Paris . Important names in

2438-475: The north of modern Iraq , which was used for the Assyrian palace reliefs of the 9th to 7th centuries BC; these are the largest type of alabaster sculptures to have been regularly made. The relief is very low and the carving detailed, but large rooms were lined with continuous compositions on slabs around 7 feet (2.1 m) high. The Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal and military Lachish reliefs , both 7th century and in

2491-495: The reduced need for skilled craftsmen left few of them still working. The 19th century brought a boom to the industry, largely due to the "traveling artisans" who offered their wares to the palaces of Europe, as well as to America and the East. In the 19th century new processing technology was also introduced, allowing for the production of custom-made, unique pieces, as well as the combination of alabaster with other materials. Apart from

2544-667: The same place and time. This was the case with small flasks of the alabastron type made in Cyprus from the Bronze Age into the Classical period. When cut into thin sheets, alabaster is translucent enough to be used for small windows. It was used for this purpose in Byzantine churches and later in medieval ones, especially in Italy . Large sheets of Aragonese gypsum alabaster are used extensively in

2597-513: The significant number of tourists that wished to travel to the Somerset coast. Despite this traffic it was closed in 1971 but was then reopened in 1976 as a heritage railway . Watchet is a harbour town, which, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , was plundered by Danes led by Ohtor and Rhoald in 987 and 997. It is known that it was in frequent use by small boats in 1564 possibly for

2650-422: The statues are immersed in a bath of water and heated gradually—nearly to the boiling point—an operation requiring great care, because if the temperature is not regulated carefully, the stone acquires a dead-white, chalky appearance. The effect of heating appears to be a partial dehydration of the gypsum. If properly treated, it very closely resembles true marble and is known as " marmo di Castellina ". Alabaster

2703-482: The stone was quarried. The locality may owe its name to the mineral; though the origin of the mineral name is obscure The "Oriental" alabaster was highly esteemed for making small perfume bottles or ointment vases called alabastra ; the vessel name has been suggested as a possible source of the mineral name. In Egypt, craftsmen used alabaster for canopic jars and various other sacred and sepulchral objects. The sarcophagus of Seti I , found in his tomb near Thebes ,

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2756-491: The word alabaster . In archaeology, the term alabaster includes objects and artefacts made from two different minerals: (i) the fine-grained, massive type of gypsum , and (ii) the fine-grained, banded type of calcite . Chemically, gypsum is a hydrous sulfate of calcium , whereas calcite is a carbonate of calcium. As types of alabaster, gypsum and calcite have similar properties, such as light color, translucence, and soft stones that can be carved and sculpted ; thus

2809-412: Was used in the limeburning process. It was also the site for " glatting " which was the hunting of conger eels by dogs. On the shore a Saint Keyne serpent can be seen, which a local legend says is a snake turned to stone, but is in reality an ammonite . It is just possible to make out the remains of a stone jetty and the ruins of a lime kiln nearby. Here the limestone was burnt to provide farmers with

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