Normanton Hill to Stradbroke Road

 

An outcrop of sandstone on Richmond Road

In week 43 of the COVID-19 Pandemic, 3 months after my last day out to Mexborough, I ventured out on a very cold, but bright and sunny day in early January - to take some long needed exercise and to further explore the geology of Sheffield.

 

A walk from Richmond Road to Treeton

On the way to Sheffield on the No. 73 bus, I had noted that an outcrop of Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation sandstone on Richmond Road - which I had discovered six months earlier - was now clearly exposed and I made this the starting point for a walk back to Treeton.

 

A detail of the outcrop of sandstone on Richmond Road

With the leaves of the trees and shrubs having been shed during the autumn, various features were more clearly visible, including the variation of the grain size and the presence of various tool marks – including a benchmark that was cut by the Ordnance Survey.

 

A detail of tool marks

After taking a few photographs, I then carried on down Richmond Road, noting the scarp and dip topography that is reflected by the undulations of the road, before turning sharply right onto Stradbroke Road and heading off towards Woodhouse.

 

Richmond Hill House

Until the building of the inter-war housing estates, where sandstone faced semi-detached houses are quite common, the area was an expanse of agricultural land with the unlisted Richmond Hill House, which has Rotherham Red sandstone window dressings, being the only historic building.

 

Rotherham Red sandstone dressings at Richmond Hill House

Stradbroke Road runs parallel to Normanton Hill, where there is a distinct escarpment, and follows the strike of another ridge of sandstone - this time from the younger Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation - which forms a prominent feature for more than a kilometre before petering out near Woodhouse.

 

The geology of the area around Richmond

Continuing down to the estate of council flats, which formed an easily recognisable landmark when seen from the entrance to Richmond Park during my walk down Normanton Hill, I was able to get a good appreciation of the topography and the dip and strike of the strata in the area.

A panoramic view of Coal Measures strata in Richmond

Although there are no rock outcrops to be seen, the panoramic view encompasses the boundary between the Langsettian and Duckmantian substages of the Coal Measures, which the British Geological Survey defines as "The base of the dark grey, fissile mudstone of the Vanderbeckei Marine Band, with eponymous fauna and/or other marine fossils".

 

A view of a ridge formed by the Parkgate Rock