Walks in April
Ogden Water
Ogden Water is a popular walking area with an active Friends group and plenty of information on its website. Perhaps that accounts for the 40 people who joined the West Yorkshire Geology Trust walk. We walked up to Ogden Kirk quarries and found many plant fossils on the abandoned blocks of Rough Rock there and then looked across Ogden Clough at exposures of mudstone near the stream. A walk across Ovenden Moor gave the large number of families and friends a chance to peer through the haze in the distance at the landscape of the Halifax area, so that the relationship between sandstones and mudstones and the hills and valleys could be seen.
Baildon Quarries and Shipley Glen
Bracken Hall Countryside Centre runs many events and walks during the school holidays and so West Yorkshire Geology Trust contributed a walk to see the Rough Rock in two local beauty spots. Shipley Glen has weathered scars of this coarse, resistant sandstone, much appreciated by Yorkshire folk for its gritty texture and dramatic landforms. The extensive quarries above Baildon Green were interesting, as we could see how the stone was exploited for building mills and houses in Shipley and Saltaire. As always on the Bracken Hall walks, the children added to the enjoyment by asking many intelligent questions, both about the rocks, plants and scenes they saw on the walk.
Plant branches of three different species were much admired at Ogden Kirk quarries.
The tree branch at Baildon