Horbury Quarry, Wakefield

Geological Sites | Leeds | Bradford | Calderdale | Kirklees | Wakefield

SITE DESCRIPTION: Exposures of Horbury Rock sandstones of Upper Carboniferous (Middle Coal Measures) age are revealed in a 15m high abandoned quarry face. The 100m long exposure illustrates a range of sedimentary features, including cross bedding, jointing, leisegang rings and iron nodules. The rock is fine-grained and well-cemented, exhibiting massive, blocky and flaggy bedding. Whilst the eastern section of the exposure is well bedded, the western end of the site shows a transition toward more fracturing and irregular jointing. The Quarry Inn is built at the eastern end and has a small rock face in the car park which shows some interesting structures.

HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS: Plate 4 of the Wakefield Memoir (1999 – see reference below) shows a similar sandstone, the Thornhill Rock, being worked at Brittania Quarries, Morley, for building stone. The waste would have been used for aggregates for local roads, as would have happened at Horbury. There is a comment in the Huddersfield and Halifax memoir 1930 p187 (details below) that the Horbury Rock has been quarried in the past for building and walling, but it is inferior to the Thornhill Rock.

EDUCATIONAL VALUE: As one of the few large quarries in the Wakefield area, Horbury Quarry is valuable for use at all levels. This is a suitable site to study sedimentary structures, deformation of rock formations and interpretation of sand body deposition of the Coal Measure sandstones.

AESTHETIC CHARACTERISTICS:

ACCESS AND SAFETY: Cars can be parked on Hawking Croft Road off Quarry Hill. Access is by a footpath from the west side of the site between two rows of terraced houses. The site is partly overgrown but is accessible. The face looks unstable so should not be used without hard hats being worn.