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TechClunch is about using existing technologies that we can cobble together to get working solutions. Clunch is a building material made up of irregular lumps of rock. It is used as a poor substitute for stone in building.

This blog examines using existing and evolving technologies that can pulled together like clunch to create solutions as solid as a wall.

What is Clunch?

Clunch which often comes as irregular lumps of rock is used as a building material in eastern England and Normandy. It is usually chalk/clay based and is mixed in mortar to form walls.

It is often a very soft limestone. It can be rich in iron-bearing clays or be very fine and white — in effect just chalk. It is used in various parts ofEast Anglia, where more durable stone is uncommon, and can be seen quite a lot in and around Thetford — mostly now for property boundary walls as it is not a long-lasting material, but it is also used for some building walls, especially in traditional agricultural buildings. In Ely Cathedral it can be seen in some interior locations. The nearby village of Burwell has a Parish magazine named after the building material.

The term is sometimes used more generically in other parts of England for any soft and aggregate-based vernacular building material which is used as a poor substitute for stone. (see the wikipedia entry at Clunch)

.1.(Mining) Indurated clay. See Bind, n., 3.2.One of the hard beds of the lower chalk.