Roxbury Pudding Stone

This type of stone forms when fast moving water carries rocks and mud along and then suddenly deposits the material. Spring floods create the conditions needed. Faster water carries bigger rocks.

Roxbury Pudding Stone is found as far inland as Worcester, MA. Pudding Stone with the largest rocks are located to the east, while pudding stone with smaller rocks are in the west. These facts suggest that the floods depositing the rocks came from the east, a fact that has puzzled geologists for years. After all, there are no mountains to the east to create fast moving water.

During the last twenty years, a new theory has been developed. This theory states that Roxbury pudding stone was formed around 500 million years ago on what is now the west coast of Africa. Similar formations are found there today and the big rocks are to the east and the smaller ones to the west.

The Earth's crust is made of enormous plates, and these plates have shifted over the years – and are still moving. In the Cambrian period, when the pudding stone was formed, the Atlantic Ocean didn't exist. As the plates moved, the Atlantic Ocean was formed. We therefore have Roxbury Pudding Stone, like you see in the picture, one mile from the Persson Pub and Inn. It forms a bond between New England and Africa.

Earlier settlers saw this rock and thought it would be the perfect building material. The sediments holding the cobbles together are not always strong enough for building and may disintegrate over time. Nevertheless, in many areas, the rock was strong enough for building. St. Peter's Church in Dorchester is built with Roxbury pudding stone excavated from the very site on which the church now stands. Many other churches and buildings of the same era were constructed from this conglomerate rock.

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Contents copyright 2005 by Dr. A. V. Persson and ParaComp, Inc. All rights reserved.

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