The Friends of Judy Woods asked us to lead a walk to show them the geology
in the Royds Hall Beck, which has exposures of sandstones, mudstones and ironstone
nodules. There are small coal seams in the bed of the stream and, in spite
of the fact that they are not easy to see, we were able to find an exposure.
The site has a long history of mining and quarrying for coal and ironstone,
both in bell pits and shaft mines. The whole area has contributed to the economy
of the Bradford area and the history of the Low Moor ironworks is tied up with
Judy Woods and its minerals.
In
the centre of Upton, looking at the memorial stone to the miners
who lost their lives in Upton Colliery between 1926 and 1964 |
Upton Walk
7 of us met in poor weather to have a look at the wonderful geology
of Upton village, Wakefield. The yellow limestones at the top of
Upton Beacon are exposed in an old quarry at Upton Beacon, now the
home of Upton Rugby Football Club. After a close look at the rocks
and structures in the quarry face, we walked down to the Upton
Colliery site, now a Local Nature Reserve, crossing mudstones and sandstones.
We were able to work out where these were, using a combination of
local knowledge of springs in the village and a geology map from
1932.
In the old railway cutting next to the colliery site, Wakefield
Metropolitan District Council have excavated an exposure of sands
and clays, which probably
mark the junction between Carboniferous and Permian rocks, about
300 million years ago. West Yorkshire Geology Trust is in touch
with geology experts from the British Geological Survey to find
out more
about the significance of this discovery. So Upton has some rocks
to be really proud of, as well as the fact that geology has contributed
to the present importance of the village which was based on stone
quarrying, brick manufacture and coal mining.
|
 Launch
of the West Yorkshire Geodiversity Action Plan
We celebrated 6 months of hard and challenging preparation of the Action
Plan and the completion of the ALSF project at the Quarry Inn, Horbury
in early March. Visitors from Bradford, Leeds, Wakefield, Calderdale
and Huddersfield were there to enjoy an excellent meal and talk to old
and new acquaintances and friends .We had time to explore the Horbury
Rock in the quarry after lunch. This special site has a large cliff of
sandstone, which has been used widely for building in the area, and is
one of about 70 Regionally Important Geological Sites in West Yorkshire.
 Bracken
Hall Countryside Centre, Bradford
Two events took place at Bracken Hall during the Easter holiday. Our
Rocky Roadshow includes activities with rock, mineral and fossil samples
and plenty of drawing and modelling of dinosaurs with talks about how
they lived, died and were fossilised. More than 70 people came to the
centre next to Shipley Glen on Wednesday afternoon. Later in the week,
three families with children of various ages enjoyed a gentle walk around
Shipley Glen and Baildon Bank quarries looking at rock faces (without
getting too close) and finding plant fossils in walls and building stones.
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