When I first visited Rotherham 35 years ago - as an undergraduate geologist - I became aware of the very distinctive variety of Mexborough Rock that is known locally as “Rotherham Red” sandstone, which has been used extensively as a building stone in Rotherham and the villages in the south of the borough where it outcrops.
A view of the landscape around Hooton Roberts |
Especially when there are no crops growing, the red staining of the soil is obvious and, having since surveyed much of the geology of Rotherham and its historic buildings, I have always thought that the village of Hooton Roberts was built on or very near to this rock.
Red sandstones in Hooton Roberts |
Continuing with my investigation of the mediaeval churches of Rotherham, when I planned my first visit to St. John the Baptist's church – whose oldest externally visible fabric is built out of very strongly coloured red sandstone - I was surprised to discover that it is shown on the British Geological Survey map viewer as a Pennine Upper Coal Measures Formation sandstone.
Yellow sandstone in boundary walls at Hooton Roberts and Thrybergh |
This generic name is used to describe a rock formation that does not possess physical or palaeontological characteristics – or is not sufficiently extensive or prominent as a landform – to make it so distinctive from another sandstone to give it its own name.
Cleaned samples of "Rotherham Red" sandstone and "Dalton Rock" |
Without having the resources of the British Geological Survey at your fingertips, and access to the vast collection of rocks and other information that has been acquired over the years – or full authority to enter upon land without objection – it is not easy to contest the findings of an institution that leads the world.
An investigation of the "Hooton Roberts Rock" |
My copy of the 1989 reprint of the 1947 edition BGS memoir, which accompanies the Institute of Geological Sciences map - Barnsley (Sheet 87) enlarged to 1:50,000 scale and reprinted in 1976 - describes the sandstone underlying Hooton Roberts as either Dalton/Brierley/Great Houghton/Cadeby or Hooton Roberts Rock.
Bullrushes and other water loving plants growing on a spring line |
Getting off the X78 bus at the first stop after Hooton Roberts, on the way to Conisbrough and Doncaster, I walked down the hill to the village and stopped several times to take photographs of mapped areas of Mexborough Rock, a spring line and various boundary walls - from which I collected a few samples of loose stone.
Foundations of the churchyard wall at Hooton Roberts |
Finally arriving at St. John the Baptist's church, I examined the bedrock that forms the foundations of one of its boundary walls and - having had a conversation with an owner of one of the surrounding houses where excavation in the basement revealed a very red sandstone - I decided that it was time to invest in a new compass/clinometer to make some dip and strike readings.
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