The Crags in Conisbrough

 

An outcrop of the Cadeby Formation on The Crags

A few days after I had contributed to the recce of Burbage Valley with John and Trish of the Sheffield U3A Geology Group, which proved to my last formal connection with the group, I received an e-mail from Justyna, who had moved from Poland with her partner and had settled in Conisbrough several years before Brexit. 

 

The location of The Crags on the geological map

She was in her second year of studying geology with the Open University and, having been researching The Crags, she had been considering using the outcrops of the Cadeby Formation for a future fieldwork project. Noting various posts that I have written in my Language of Stone Blog, she wanted to know if it was possible to accompany me on a field trip.

 

The distribution of the Cadeby Formation around the Don Gorge

 

In a subsequent phone call, I explained that as the principal surveyor for the South Yorkshire RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) Group, and later for the Doncaster Geodiversity Assessment (DGA), I had visited many sites in Doncaster and had used several sites along the Don Gorge for field trips with the XP School in Doncaster and with the SUGG.

 

Conisbrough on the Ordnance Survey map

 

When researching one of my field trips with the SUGG in February 2022, which had to be abandoned at midday due to the approach of Storm Dudley, I had discovered the Friends of the Crags (FOTC) website and emailed them to ask for information but did not get a response. I therefore suggested to Justyna that we meet up at the playing field at Old Road and then she would show me around The Crags. 

 

The totem and information panel at Denaby Thicks

We first went down to Denaby Thicks at the west end of The Crags, where a 'totem' and an information board describes bell pits and the powder works, which were actually located several hundreds of metres away but nevertheless provides information on the local industrial history. 

 

A view towards Denaby Thicks

 

Taking just one photo of the plantation to the west of the totem, we took a quick look at Denaby Thicks and, although we could see no rock outcrops, the ground has obviously been worked in the past, as seen on the LIDAR map, and sandstone quarries are shown on the Building Stones Database of England map explorer. 

 

A LIDAR map showing the old quarry in Denaby Thicks

We then followed the public footpath eastwards until we entered an area of scrubland, with a network of paths criss-crossing it, but there were no obvious landmarks to pinpoint the location of the various outcrops of the Cadeby Formation, including irregular masses with no obvious bedding  that appear to be bryozoan reefs. 

 

A small outcrop of a bryozoan reef

When undertaking the LGA, I saw similar features that stood out on the hillside along Cadeby Cliff/Constitution Hill, albeit not as well developed as those seen at Hooton Pagnell and South Elmsall Quarry and at Maltby Crags in Rotherham.

 

A small outcrop of the Cadeby Formation

 

Several small outcrops, which I didn’t stop to closely examine, occur alongside the footpaths that Justyna was leading me around and these are actually noted on the 1903 edition of the Ordnance Survey 25 inch to the mile scale map.

 

An outcrop of the Cadeby Formation with thick irregular beds

Following one of the established and surfaced paths up the escarpment, on the way to North Cliff Quarry, we encountered a substantial outcrop of limestone, which has thick irregular bedding that distinguishes it from the reefs, but it lacks the very regular beds that are are a feature of the lower beds of the Cadeby Formation. 

 

A brief description of mammal bones found at The Crags

Although there is no totem or any mention of the locality, the FOTG website mentions that woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros and horse bones dating to the Quaternary Period – all of which had been gnawed by a hyena - were found in 1878, when the Doncaster Water Company was constructing tunnels and pipes to bring water from Thrybergh Reservoir. 

 

Sand and gravel in a rift at Nearcliff Wood Quarries

The bones are described as having been found in clay and washed down from caves, presumably based on contemporary discoveries at Creswell Crags, but it is quite likely that these were deposited along with glaciofluvial sand and gravel in rifts - as seen at Nearcliff Wood Quarries and at Levitt Hagg, where Colin Howes of the Doncaster Naturalists' Society has long since advocated that these rifts need further investigation. 

 

A view from the north edge of North Cliff Quarry

Continuing along the footpath, Justyna and I were very surprised to see that the part of the hillside had been set on fire and that this had happened too in North Cliff Quarry, which actually made it much easier to explore the quarry, which is littered with cans, bottles and rock waste and which, when overgrown, can be quite hazardous. I later reported this to Doncaster MBC and suggested that it might be a good idea to clear the rubbish, but no action was taken as far as I know.

 

A view of North Cliff Quarry

 

When I first visited this quarry back in 1997, several burnt out cars had been dumped here, which were subsequently removed when it was assigned RIGS status. Unfortunately, along with statutorily protected Sites of Special Scientific Interest, geological sites like these are not maintained and kept clear of rubbish – even when they are popular field trip locations.

 

Massive beds of limestone overlain by a bryozoan reef

Justyna had to instruct her Polish sheep dog to sit still, while we had a good look at the bryozoan reef and the thickly bedded limestone upon which it lies, which are oolitic in places and contain many small fossils of the bivalve Bakevellia. 

 

The north quarry face

 

We finished our brief exploration of The Crags by having a look at the quarry face in the south-west corner of the quarry, which is obscured by trees and which Justyna had not seen during a previous visit. where thickly bedded limestone is overlain by flaggy limestone. 

 

Massive and flaggy beds of limestone

A Further Exploration of Fulwood

 

The west end of Christ Church

The recce of Burbage Valley with Trish and John took just over 2½ hours to complete and, arriving back in Sheffield, instead of being dropped off at St. John’s church in Ranmoor where they had collected me in the morning, I decided to have a quick look around the churchyard of Christ Church – best known for the C20 alterations by George Gaze Pace and Ronald Sims. 

 

The north elevation 

 

When walking from Ranmoor to Ecclesall Road, via Fulwood, the Porter Valley and Endcliffe Park, in September 2022, I took a few general photos of the exterior, but building work was being undertaken at the time and there was limited access to parts of the churchyard. 

 

A memorial to Arthur Deakin and family

 

The first monument that caught my eye commemorates Arthur Deakin, Vera Ann Slater and Dorothy Weston – with none of these listed on the Find a Grave website - is made of Ross of Mull granite, with its distinctive dark red orthoclase feldspar and subsidiary green hornblende. 

 

Ross of Mull granite

I next encountered the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) headstone of 2nd Lieutenant G.F.C. Chatt of the Royal Corps of Signals, which is made of Botticino marble – a Jurassic limestone from Brescia in Italy that has only been used to replace headstones, with a CNC milling machine reproducing the original hand cut regimental crests and inscriptions. 

 

The regimental crest on the headstone of 2nd Lieutenant G.F.C. Chatt

 

The memorial to James Neill (d.1930), and several members of his family, is a simple cross made of white marble with grey veins that is probably the ‘Sicilian’ variety of Italian Carrara marble. I didn’t examine it closely, but marble like this is not very resistant to the British climate and memorials made in the C19 very often show saccharoidal weathering.

 

The memorial to James Neill and family

 

With the decision to have a look around the churchyard being spontaneous, I wandered randomly until I came across the headstone of Stoker 1st Class L. Green, who served on H.M.S. Vincent – a dreadnought battleship that participated in the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

 

The headstone of Stoker 1st Class L. Green

I didn’t have any interest in the Royal Navy crest, which I had seen very many times before, but immediately thought that it was another example of Botticino marble. Looking at the original worksheet, the stone used was Woodkirk Blue, but the worksheet for the replacement headstone quite surprisingly states that it is made from Portland stone.

 

The tomb of William Bissett

 

The table tomb of William Bissett (d.1888), a prominent builder who had built several prominent buildings in Sheffield and rebuilt St. John’s church in Ranmoor, is made of a yellowish sandstone with a very weathered marble breccia used for the colonnettes and pink granite – probably the Peterhead variety from the Aberdeenshire coast – for one of the inscribed panels.

 

A memorial made of Shap granite

 

The next memorial that caught my eye was a tapering square column with an entablature and topped with an urn. I didn’t see the inscription, but it looks later Victorian and it is made with Shap granite from Cumbria, which has large phenocrysts of dark pink orthoclase feldspar.

 

Phenocrysts of orthoclase feldspar

The headstone of Serjeant A.G. Pinder of the York and Lancaster Regiment is made of Portland stone, which has been weathered to the extent that shell fragments stand proud; however, the details of the headstone appear on the same worksheet as Stoker L. Green, where Woodkirk Blue sandstone has been specified.

 

The headstone of Serjeant A.G. Pinder

Like many large churchyards, in addition to the numerous headstones made from the Greenmoor Rock from the quarries around Brincliffe Edge, there are many substantial Victorian and Edwardian memorials that are made with a variety of granites. Although I spent only spent 10 minutes, before walking past the war memorial to the bus stop on Fulwood Road, I thought that an introduction to geology could be undertaken here.

Fulwood war memorial

A Geological Recce of Burbage Valley

 

Burbage Quarry

 

My day out to Doncaster on 16th November, to briefly explore Bennetthorpe and to visit Hyde Park Cemetery, proved to be the last of 2024 and, having spent the winter months trying to catch up with my travels in my Language of Stone Blog, I was glad to finally get out again on 22nd February 2025 – on a recce for a Sheffield U3A Geology Group field trip to Burbage Valley.

 

The Ordnance Survey map of Burbage Valley

 

For several months, I had not been happy with the way that the group had been operating – especially the behaviour of a member who had been acting as the “co-ordinator and not geologist”, following the medical problems with the group leader - and I made the decision to leave the group after a set-to in January; however, I had previously arranged with John and Trish, who had helped me with the trip to Ilkley Moor the year before, to accompany them on their recce and point out the main points of geological interest on their walk. 

 

The geology of Burbage Valley and the surrounding area

Back in 1995, when assessing the geotourism potential of the RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) in the Peak District National Park, I surveyed several sites in and around the the Burbage Valley and it wasn't until 2015 that I returned to have another look at Carl Wark, Higger Tor, Burbage Rocks and Burbage Brook.

 

Sphagnum moss at a spring near Upper Burbage Bridge

I noted the very coarse grained deltaic sediments of the Chatsworth Grit, black shales from the Marsden Formation, peat from the Quaternary Period and spring lines, which were emphasised by the presence of Sphagnum moss and other bog loving plants – all of which I thought would make interesting stopping points on a field trip and had raised this at a couple of meetings when itineraries for the year were discussed.

 

Notes from a field trip led by Duncan Hawley of SAGT

 

John and Trish had recently attended a field trip organised by Duncan Hawley of SAGT (Sheffield Area Geology Trust) back in 2019, which highlighted the history and industrial archaeology of the area, and they wanted to repeat this for the Sheffield U3A Geology Group.

 

Longshaw Lodge

 

On the Saturday that we undertook our recce, the car park at the Longshaw Estate was completely full and we had to use the Wooden Pole car park at the south end of the estate, which enabled me take another photo of Longshaw Lodge for the British Listed Buildings website.

 

An unfinished stone trough

 

Our first stop was at the southern end of the old Burbage Quarry, which was cut into the Chatsworth Grit that forms Burbage Edge. Although millstones were the principal product here, there is an unfinished stone trough that was abandoned after it had developed a large crack.

Drill holes to accommodate plug and feathers wedges

In several places, loose blocks show drill holes, into which plug and feathers wedges were inserted to split massive blocks of stone into smaller sizes, from which the millstones were made. Unfinished millstones are scattered around the quarry, which reflects the extremely rapid decline in the industry due to the introduction of steam powered mills, the use of carborundum for making grindstones and a changing taste for eating white bread.

 

A discarded millstone

 

We stopped for our lunch in the part of the quarry, which is popular with rock climbers, where a large rock fall occurred in November 2023 and destroyed some of the climbing routes. Due to the instability of one of the remaining sections, the Eastern Moors Partnership have since dislodged loose blocks by a process known in rock climbing circles as trundling.

 

The rock fall at Burbage Quarry

 

Here, I pointed out to John and Trish how the section of Chatsworth Grit changed from being massively bedded in its lower part to much thinner flaggy beds in the uppermost part, where the cross-bedding is highlighted by sub-aerial weathering.

 

A quarry face showing massive and flaggy beds

From 1941 to 1944, during WWII, the Burbage Valley was widely used for military training by many units and very many of the massive loose boulders below the quarry show bullet holes and damage caused by mortar shells. In particular, uphill assaults were practised here and this explains why the bullet holes are seen on only one side of the rocks, where the targets were set up.

 

A large block of Chatsworth grit with bullet holes

After finding a few more examples of rocks damaged by ammunition, we made our way along the marked public footpath to Carl Wark and stopped briefly at the Grade II listed packhorse bridge (c.1750) over Burbage Brook, which I also photographed for the British Listed Buildings website.

 

The packhorse bridge

A short distance downstream from the bridge, the last point of interest was the stream bank exposure of black shale, which is the only exposure of the Marsden Formation that I have seen along Burbage Valley, where the bedrock is covered with head and some peat. 

 

The outcrop of shale along Burbage Brook

 

The geological map shows that the Verneulites sigma Marine Band occurs in the vicinity, but there is nowhere where the outcrop can be accessed without standing in the brook with waders, to see if it contains goniatite fossils. 

 

Thin beds of sandstone laid down by turbidity currents

 

We had to be content with viewing the outcrop from the opposite side of Burbage Brook, but we could still see that the shale contains a few very thin beds of sandstone, which were deposited by turbidity currents generated by slumping of sediment forming the delta front. Having identified most of the points on Duncan Hawley’s sketch, we made our way through some boggy ground back to the main path and headed back to the car park.

 

A view of Carl Wark (L) and Higger Tor (R)

 

Hyde Park Cemetery in Doncaster

 

The monument to John Waller

Continuing my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge in Doncaster, after briefly exploring Bennetthorpe, the next three buildings on my list were the Grand St. Leger Hotel (1801), The Dome (1989) and the mid C19 Hamilton Lodge – none of which are of interest to this Language of Stone Blog – and I continued along Carr House Road until I reached Hyde Park Cemetery. 

 

The lodge at Hyde Park Cemetery

Stopping briefly to photograph the lodge, which is built in dolomitic limestone from the Upper Permian Cadeby Formation, I entered the cemetery and immediately came to the Cross of Sacrifice, which War Memorials Online describes as being made of Portland stone. 

 

The Cross of Sacrifice

I didn’t look at this closely but from a photo that I took of its south side, when the sun came out for the first time, it looks like a medium grained gritstone such as Stancliffe Darley Dale stone (SDD) from the Corbar Grit (Ashover Grit), which I have seen used for several of these crosses. 

 

The Cross of Sacrifice

The last building on my Photo Challenge was the Carr Grange Cemetery chapel (c.1855), which was apparently designed by Robert James Johnson of Newcastle, but this was converted into the Welch Chapel Apartments in 2023. It provides another example of the use of dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation, but I didn’t examine it closely. 

 

The former Carr Grange Cemetery chapel

 

I then stopped to photograph the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) headstone of Second Lieutenant W. Crabtree of the Lincolnshire Regiment, where the regimental crest has been cut with a CNC milling machine and which the memorial mason’s worksheet (2002) on the CWGC states is made with SDD stone. 

 

The headstone of Second Lieutenant W. Crabtree

I had seen this regimental crest many times before and I was more interested in the pebbles that are scattered in the soil. The geological map shows that the Triassic Chester Formation, which underlies most of Doncaster, is covered in Pleistocene glaciofluvial sand and gravel.

The geological map of the area around Hyde Park Cemetery

The monument to John Waller (d.1876) and members of his family provides another example of the dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation - which outcrops in the western part of Doncaster and forms a distinct escarpment that runs from Nottingham to Sunderland - with Welsh slate used for inscribed panels on each of its six sides. 

 

The monument to John Waller

In the Larger than life guided walk, produced by the Friends of Hyde Park Cemetery (FOHPC), there is speculation that this monument may be a feature that was salvaged from the mediaeval St. George’s church, after it burned down in 1853. 

 

A dislodged panel of Welsh slate

 

When walking around the cemetery, I noted that a very high proportion of the various monuments seemed to have suffered from settlement, with many of these having broken or fallen over. In all cemeteries and graveyards, some settlement is very often seen, but Hyde Park Cemetery is set upon a moderate slope and it is quite likely that the creep of the unconsolidated glaciofluvial sand and gravel has contributed to this disruption. 

 

A view of various monuments that have experienced settlement

 

Using the plot map of the cemetery, downloaded from the FOHPC website, I went in search of the CWGC headstones with regimental crests that I had not encountered before and the first of these was Private M. Millwood of the Royal Defence Corps. 

 

A detail of the headstone of Private M. Millwood

Although the worksheet makes no reference to the sandstone used, it looks like SDD stone and this is recorded as being used for the headstone of Corporal T.E. Oliver of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, where weathering and the development of a patina over more than 80 years gives these headstones a very similar appearance. 

 

A detail of the headstone of Corporal T.E.Oliver

The headstone of Serjeant W.A. Bower of the Manchester Regiment is another one that replaces the original and has been inscribed and the regimental crest cut with a CNC milling machine. As with the headstone of W. Crabtree, mentioned above, it has not acquired a patina and the SDD stone still appears quite fresh and retains its buff/light brown colour. 

 

A detail of the headstone of Serjeant W.A. Bower

 

A CNC milling machine makes the replacement headstones much cheaper to produce than the original hand cut regimental crests, but these seem to lack the individual character that is seen on the older headstones and very often toolmarks provide evidence of their machine made nature. 

 

A detail of the headstone of Private A. Reed

 

The next headstone that I found, commemorating Private A. Reed of the 11th (Prince Albert’s Own) Hussars, is again a replacement made with a CNC milling machine but the stone used for this is Botticino ‘marble’, a Jurassic limestone from Brescia in Lombardy, Italy. 

 

A detail of the headstone of Corporal G.W. Robinson

 

SDD stone has again been used for the headstone of Corporal G.W. Robinson of the Royal Army Dental Corps and, judging from the 60 headstones in the cemetery that I found, this was used for the vast majority of the vast majority of the 112 CWGC headstones that are recorded here – with the headstone of Private P.C. Mitchell of the South Irish Horse providing another example. 

 

A detail of the headstone of Private P.C. Mitchell

 

The last regimental crest that I wanted to find was that of the 6th Reserve Regiment of Cavalry, on the headstone of Private S. Bell. The crest comprises the Royal Coat of Arms, which has extremely fine detailing that is not easy to cut into the medium grained SDD stone and would be seen to better effect if cut into a limestone. 

 

A detail of the headstone of Private S. Bell

Despite criss-crossing the cemetery and having a plot map to help me to locate the headstones, those made of SDD stone are much harder to spot than those made of Portland stone and other limestones and I was unable to find a few that were on my list. 

 

The headstone of Private C.L. Squire

 

The only headstone made of Portland stone that I found was of Private C.L. Squire of the York and Lancaster Regiment, which has weathered to the extent that the details of the regimental crest are no longer very sharp and fragments of the oyster shells are clearly exposed. 

 

A detail of the headstone of Private C.L. Squire