Recce No. 2 in Cressbrook Dale

 

A view of Peter's Stone on the path from Wardlow Mires to Mires Lane

Arriving in Cressbrook Dale, after having a good look at the geology and extensive remains of the lead mining industry in Tansley Dale, which is a Scheduled Monument, Stuart and I continued with our recce for the Sheffield U3A Geology Group June 2024 field trip. 

 

A view of Cressbrook Dale from the bottom of Tansley Dale

 

On the recce that I had undertaken with the group leader Paul in February, we had parked at Wardlow Mires and had only managed to explore the south side of Cressbrook Dale up to just beyond Peter’s Stone, where we found the Cressbrook Dale Lava along the footpath, before we aborted the day due to the flooding of the valley and a prior injury to Paul’s foot.

 

The stream crossing

 

Crossing the stream and passing the area of disturbed ground on the east side of the valley, which is also associated with lead mining, we continued north along the public footpath and stopped to look at the streambed, which is usually dry from this point to Wardlow Mires. 

 

A view of the dry streambed

 

The rocks, moss and other vegetation along the length of the streambed were lightly covered with a deposit of calcium carbonate, which reflects its nature as a winterbourne - as I had seen in February after an expended period of heavy rain. 

 

A dry valley cut by a tributary

 

Continuing northwards, we stopped to look at the dry tributary valley to Cressbrook Dale, where very subtle changes in the slope and the vegetation show areas where there has been soil creep down the valley. While looking at this, we were treated with a view of boxing hares on the hillside, but they were well out of reach of the zoom lens on my camera. 

 

An outcrop of the MDLF with Lithostrotion corals

 

Reaching the outcrop of Cressbrook Dale Lava in the path, where I found more outcrops that I had not noticed on the previous recce, we made our way up to Peter’s Stone, an example of a translational landslide, where I showed Stuart the examples of Lithostrotion corals in the Monsal Dale Limestone Formation (MDLF) that I had previously found and took in the panoramic view along the valley towards Wardlow Mires. 

 

A panoramic view of the north end of Cressbrook Dale

Following the path down to the valley, we encountered another part of the now dry streambed where the tufa like deposits were more like the encrustations that are developed in an extreme form in petrifying springs like the one at Matlock Bath. 

 

Tufa like encrustations in the streambed

 

We then looked for an opening in the dry stone wall that runs along the valley floor, with the intention of exploring the outcrops of the MDLF that are easily accessible on the north side of the valley. When visiting Cressbrook Dale back in 1995, as part of my assessment of the geotourism value of the Regional Important Geological Sites in the Peak District National Park, I found some spectacular silicified Lithostrotion coral and large blocks of cemented scree. 

 

Looking for Lithostrotion corals

 

From memory, I recall that I had seen these at quite a low level, where the dip of the MDLF is such that there are plenty of exposures not far from the valley bottom. We had a good look but were unable to find any corals or blocks of scree, but we did find a bed that was packed with brachiopod shells that Stuart described to me as a "death bed". 

 

The discovery of a "death bed"

 

Crossing back over the stream to the south side of Cressbrook Dale, we investigated a differentially weathered bed that looks very much like one that we had seen on the High Peak Trail a couple of years earlier, which proved to be a clay wayboard, but we found no evidence of weathered volcanic ash and carried on to Wardlow Mires. 

 

A view of Peter's Stone on the path from Wardlow Mires to Mires Lane

 

We walked for a short distance along the very busy A623 road, where there is no path, until we reached a public footpath that would take us across the fields and bring us on to Mires Lane. From here we had good views of Cressbrook Dale in both directions and particularly of Peter’s Stone from a completely different perspective.

 

A view down Cressbrook Dale

 
Arriving at Mires Lane, we were surprised to be stopped by a young African woman who asked to have her picture taken using her mobile phone, with Peter’s Stone in the background, before pausing at a layby to get views along the valley to Wardlow Mires and of the outline of the Cressbrook Dale Lava and Litton Tuff to the south and then heading back to Litton. 

 

A view up Cressbrook Dale from a layby on Mires Lane