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| Greenmoor Rock from the old quarry behind Rustlings View |
The day after my trip to Sheffield, to look at some of the architectural sculpture by Frank Tory, I set off from Treeton to meet my friend Stuart from the Sheffield U3A Geology Group, who I had last met at the end of April when undertaking a recce for the June field trip to Tideswell Dale, Tansley Dale and Cressbrook Dale.
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| Ecclesall Road on the 1894 and 1905 OS maps |
Alighting from the No. 81 bus at the Ecclesall Road/Junction Road stop with several minutes to spare before meeting him outside the Trinity United Reformed Church, I had a quick look at some of the semi-deatched and terraced houses that had been built on the site of an old quarry on the Greenmoor Rock, sometime between the publication of the 1894 and 1905 editions of the Ordnance Survey (OS) map.
The Greenmoor Rock at Brocco Bank, Ecclesall Road and Brincliffe Edge was quarried extensively for building stone and for use in headstones, with the John Gregory and Son Ltd. brickworks exploiting the mudstones that are often predominant in this formation.
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| No. 715 Ecclesall Road |
Over the years, I have explored this part of Sheffield in some detail and have led field trips with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group and as part of the Nether Edge Festival to look at the geology that can still be seen in the old quarries and in many substantial Victorian villas in Nether Edge and late Victorian and Edwardian terraced houses on Ecclesall Road.
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| An old quarry face in the back garden |
In a few places, along Kenilworth Place, gennels in the terraced houses and spaces between the semi-detached houses, partly overgrown quarry faces can be seen at the back gardens and loose stone has been used for rockeries in the front gardens.
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| A rockery at No. 707 Ecclesall Road |
Although some of the sandstone produced for grindstones was described as Brincliffe Blue, due to the reduced oxidation state of its iron bearing minerals, much of the sandstone used for the substantial terraced houses on Ecclesall Road actually has a green/grey colour.
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| Edwardian terraced houses |
Making my way up to Marmion Road, I spent a few minutes exploring the area to the rear of Rustlings View, I was interested to see a small exposure of Greenmoor Rock in a remannt of an old quarry face next to the electricity substation.
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| An old quarry face to the rear of Rustlings View |
Walking up the steps and scrambling up the loose material at the base of the quarry face, I managed to obtain a couple of specimens with my Estwing hammer and, retracing my steps back to Ecclesall Road, I took a photo of the modest terraced houses further up the hill before going back to the church to wait for Stuart to arrive.
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| Late Victorian terrraced houses |
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