Upton Recreation Ground

West Yorkshire Regionally Important Geological Site

Upton Recreation Ground STATUS: RIGS
OTHER DESIGNATIONS:
COUNTY: West Yorkshire
DISTRICT: Wakefield
OS GRID REF. SE 475 138
OS 1:50,000 Landranger 105 York and Selby
OS 1:25,000 EXPLORER 278 Sheffield and Barnsley
BGS 1:50,000 SHEET 78 Wakefield
FIRST DESIGNATED by West Yorkshire RIGS Group in 1996
DATE OF MOST RECENT SURVEY West Yorkshire Geology Trust in October 2007

SITE DESCRIPTION:
Extensive deposits of Permian Cadeby Formation (Lower Magnesian Limestone) are exposed along a 5m high cliff extending 200m in a north-west to south-east direction, adjacent to Upton Beacon at the back of Upton Recreation Ground, which is used by Quarry Lane Rugby Club.
The beds consist of approximately 4m of magnesian limestone with white bands of dolomite. There is cross bedding in some beds but many of the beds tend to wedge out.
The rocks show a variety of structures including algal growths, solution hollows with dolomite crystals and small faults.

Upton Recreation Ground HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS:
The Cadeby Formation was quarried for building stone and for aggregate (see Plate 8 p56 in the Wakefield memoir 1999, see reference below) which shows crushing and grading of the Cadeby Formation in a nearby quarry.
The 1940 Wakefield memoir p167 (reference below) has a comment that the Permian limestones were mainly used for lime burning and for local road pitching.
There is a reference in the Wakefield memoir 1940 p169 to the working of the Yellow Sands Formation (Basal Permian Sands) for building stone at this site. Though there is no exposure of the Yellow Sands Formation at Upton Recreation Ground, there may have been other quarries around Beacon Hill, which are now lost.

EDUCATIONAL VALUE:
This is an ideal site for educational groups to observe magnesian limestones.

AESTHETIC CHARACTERISTICS:
ACCESS AND SAFETY:
Parking is on site if the gates are open, or on Quarry Lane. The rugby clubhouse is open on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. The exposures are safe and are easily accessible over flat grassy ground. The bottom of the face is kept clear of vegetation as the road access for the rugby ground clubhouse runs along the base of the cliff.