In Search of the Wickersley Rock

 

The entrance to the Listerdale Estate

In the last week of March 2021, although the COVID-19 Pandemic restrictions were still limiting my options for a day out, I now owned an Estwing hammer and, following on from my investigation of the Quaternary Geology in Rotherham, I decided to investigate some of its Pennine Upper Coal Measures Formation strata.

The geology of the area around Wickersley

Many years ago, I was taken to an old quarry within the private Listerdale Estate, where the Wickersley Rock was extensively exploited for local building stone and for grindstones – which were once in great demand by the cutlery industry in Sheffield.

 

A LIDAR map showing old quarries in the Listerdale Estate

I have no records of having surveyed the area for the South Yorkshire RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) Group back in 1989, so I decided to investigate further. Having arrived at the Brecks on the X1 bus from Rotherham, I made my way through the housing estate to the area where the old quarries are quite clearly shown on a LIDAR map.

 

A view of the old quarried landscape in the Listerdale Estate

Although I encountered very many overgrown depressions that had obviously been small quarries, and there very many loose blocks of stone lying around, I recalled that the extensive quarry face that I had seen was below the escarpment, but I couldn’t see any sign of it

 

A general view of the Listerdale Estate

Perhaps, as with Canklow Woods, the old quarries had become so overgrown that they would be missed by a casual visitor and that it would need someone with a good knowledge of the area to point them out; however, on this occasion, I had a full itinerary and decided that my search for a piece of Wickersley Rock would have to wait for another day.

 

An area of woodland littered with blocks of sandstone