What are they
An intensely hard mass of flint pebbles (fossil beach shingle), cemented by a plain grey sandstone
Formed by the percolation of silica-rich water through sand deposits between flint pebbles

Definition - Encyclopaedia Britannica 1937
Conglomerate (Puddingstone) is a name given to any rock formed of consolidated gravel of shingle.
The component pebbles are rounded and water-worn.They may consist of any kind of rock, though usually of some hard and durable sort, such as quartz or quartz-rock.
A special name may be given according to the nature of the pebbles, as quartz-conglomerate, limestone-conglomerate, granite-conglomerate etc.
The paste or cementing matrix may consist of a hardened sand or clay, and may be siliceous, calcareous, argillaceous or ferruginous.
In the coarser conglomerates, where the blocks may exceed 6 feet in length, there is often little indication of stratification.
Except where the flatter stones show by their general parallelism the rude lines of deposit, it may be only when the mass of conglomerate is taken as a whole,
in its relation to the rocks below and above it, that its claim to be considered a stratified rock will be conceded.

Uses
Foundations esp churches
Protect corners of buildings from cartwheels
Indestructible benches (Lowndes Park)
Covering of graves
With flints on church walls
Add interest to village greens (when they are dug up now nobody knows what to do with them)
Quernstone

Folklore
Put on coffin lid of a witch to stop her escaping.
Give to couple on wedding day (fertility?).
Put in milking parlour to increase yield.
Farmers do not remove the stones from the fields because they believe they will multiply and grow.

Where to find them...

Ashley Green (1 stone)
Was in the vicarage garden until 1968.


Berkhamsted (Northchurch Lane)
The stone protects the corner of the house from traffic turning towards Marlin Chapel
AWAITING PHOTO

Bradenham (Church; Green; Great Cookshall Wood)
Bradenham Church (one stone built into the wall at the back of Bradenham‘s church St Botolph; One stone by the Church next to the mausoleum)


Bradenham Great Cookshall Wood (2 stones)


Bradenham Green (edge of green 20 stones, all around the green, weathered & overgrown...)






Chenies


Chesham Blackwell Hall Lane; Church; Lewins Yard; Little Germains, Lowndes Park; Pednormead End; Reynolds Yard)
Chesham Blackwell Hall Lane, Three stones at the entrance to a gated road
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Chesham Church




Chesham Lewins Yard (opp Skipton BS 2 stones)


Chesham, Little Germains, Fullers Hill (five stones at the driveway entrance)


Chesham Lowndes Park (middle and upper middle 2 stones)
The two stones were found in East Street Chesham in 1978 when the Douglas McMinn Centre was being built.



Chesham Pednormead End (opp the Queens Head 1 stone)


Chesham Reynolds Yard (near church towards the Queens Head 1 stone)


Cholesbury (on green near the Full Moon 3 stones piled up)
Two of the stones marked the entrance to the hill fort and later moved next to the cricket pavilion. Moved again in 2012 to the green. The third stone was dug up out of a nearby clay pit at H G Mathews brickworks in Bellingdon.


Great Gaddesden (church and graveyard)
Great Gaddesden Church. Stones in the church foundations, stones in the church walls instead of flints.


Great Gaddesden Graveyard. Two stones in the graveyard that were perhaps grave markers.


Latimer (on the green lots of little stones covering memorials)



Ley Hill (entrance to White End Lane from Blackwell Hall Lane)


Little Missenden (church)


Nash Mills (Long Deans Park)


Nettlebed (on green 2 stones)
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Moor Park (Sandy Lodge Road, Pinner Chalk Mine)
Sandy Lodge Road

Pinner Chalk Mine
Where there are beds of puddingstone. It is likely these stones came from a nearby chalk quarry.
AWAITING PHOTO

Sarratt (Church; Village Hall; War Memorial)
Sarratt Church




Sarratt Village Hall


Sarratt War Memorial
The war memorial stone was found at Rosehall Farm in the1950s.


St Albans (St Michael‘s Street; Verulanium Carpark)
St Albans St Michaels Street (near The Waffle House)
A large stone on the green near Kingsbury Mill.

St Albans Verulanium Carpark
A Sarsen stone with puddingstone inclusions next to the museum.


Stonar House
The house was built on the site of a prehistoric stone circle made up of a a mixture of sarsens and puddingstone.
AWAITING PHOTO

The Lee (on green opp the Cock & Rabbit 3 stones piled up)


Upton (St Laurence's Church)
Several of the walls are built of puddingstone (ref).
AWAITING PHOTO

Wendover (Back Street near roundabout 1 stone)




Credits
Hertfordshire Geological Society