Meadowhead to Brincliffe Edge - Part 1

A section of the Greenmoor Rock at Morrisons supermarket

At the end of 2018, I unexpectedly came across an unusual outcrop of Greenmoor Rock and in the Blog post Further Surveys of the Greenmoor Rock, I postulated that it might be possible to organise a field trip for the Sheffield U3A Geology Group, based on various outcrops of this formation that I had seen in Sheffield.

Geological sites on the Greenmoor Rock

At the January meeting of the Group, an itinerary for 2019 was drafted but a field trip for October had not yet arranged so, following our reconnaissance of Monsal Dale, Paul May and I walked from Graves Park to Brincliffe Edge to see if this might be feasible.

The access to the old quarry face behind Morrisons supermarket

Parking at the Morrisons supermarket at Meadowhead, where I knew that some exposures were still visible in an old quarry face, we discovered another mesh covered rock face to the far side of the building and, when leaving the car park, noticed a large well exposed old quarry face in the delivery area at the rear.

Exposures of Greenmoor Rock to the rear of Morrisons supermarket

Being behind a high fence and a locked gate, the rock face could not be viewed from a publicly accessible area but, calling in at the customer service point and then talking to the manager, we were given permission to go and look at the quarry faces accompanied by a member of staff.

Reddened Greenmoor Rock at Morrisons supermarket

With sections of more than 6 metres in place, there are good exposures of massive and flaggy beds with a well developed soil horizon, evidence of folding and shearing and highly reddened beds. Explaining that this would be a one off event and that we wouldn’t be interfering with deliveries, we were asked to make a formal request to their Community Champion, which would be passed on to higher management.

The old quarry in Cobnar Wood

Crossing the main road to an entrance to Graves Park that I had not used before, we then came across an old quarry in Cobnar Wood that was once converted into an outdoor theatre, but which has long since dismantled. Here, differential weathering of the near horizontal beds highlights the stone that would have been suitable for general walling stone, paving or stone roof tiles.

The path down through Cobnar Wood

Moving on to the head of the small stream that begins just beyond the east end of Charles Ashmore Road, we then followed the progressively steepening valley down to Woodseats – taking the time along the way, to investigate a thin bed of clay that we noticed in the stream bed.

An exposure of clay in the stream bed

Continuing down to the north entrance to Graves Park, the small open space next to Woodseats Playground seemed to be a good place for the Group to have lunch – which was one of my main concerns for this potential field trip.

Graves Park