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| Waste shale from a bell pit in Kimberworth |
My exploration of the geology of the area around Grange Park, near Kimberworth in Rotherham, had so far been very productive, with my investigation of the Thundercliffe Grange quarries and the discovery of coal smut in Ockley Bottom.
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| An old quarry face on Droppingwell Road |
Arriving at Droppingwell Road, I immediately encountered an isolated old quarry face at the northern end of Grange Moor Quarry, which I didn’t see during my geological survey for the South Yorkshire RIGS Group back in 1996.
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| Flaggy beds overlying massive sandstone at Grange Moor Quarry |
Spending only a minute to take photographs of the flaggy, cross-laminated beds that overlie a massive sandstone, which appeared identical to those that I had seen in Barber Wood half an hour earlier, I walked down to the main entrance of the quarry.
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| A general view in Grange Moor Quarry |
I was very surprised to discover that an extensive, clearly visible quarry face was now largely obscured by well established trees and shrubs, which prevented me from taking a good look at the large scale characteristics of what I now know to be the former Whinmoor Rock – another sandstone to which the British Geological Survey no longer assigns a name.
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| A section of Whinmoor Rock containing flattened nodules |
Nevertheless, I soon found a place where I could get easy access to a nearby quarry face and obtain a sample with my Estwing hammer. Although fine grained, like the previous specimen, it varies in colour from light grey/brown to yellowish in colour, which reflects its iron content and contains flattened nodules that have differentially weathered to leave voids in the sandstone.
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| A specimen of Whinmoor Rock from Grange Moor Quarry |
Leaving the quarry, I then made my way up Green Lane, where there is another sculpture by Marcela Livingston and good views along the escarpment formed by the Silkstone Rock, with the ridge of Grenoside Sandstone at Greno Woods clearly visible in the distance.
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| A view along the escarpment of the Silkstone Rock |
As with many of the walks that I had undertaken in Rotherham and Sheffield since the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic 13 months earlier, even though I didn’t see that many exposures of the Pennine Coal Measures Group rocks, I did get a good appreciation of the topography and it gave me a better understanding of the geological map of the region.
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| A map of the geology to the north of the Lower Don Valley |
At the top of Green Lane, there are also panoramic views to the south-west, where there is a good opportunity to appreciate the geomorphology of the area and it how it relates to the underlying geology – especially the effects of the Don Monocline at Wincobank, where the strike of the Silkstone Rock is SW-NE and the dip is up to 30 degrees to the south-east.
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| A panoramic view to the south-west from the top of Green Lane |
Finally arriving at the outskirts of the old village of Kimberworth, I got talking to one of the locals about the history of coal mining in the area, who then informed me that the area was also exploited for ironstone and, like the area around Grange Park, there were once numerous bell pits dug into the Claywood Ironstone below the Silkstone Rock.
Today, most of the area has since been landscaped and there is very little evidence of the mining industry around Kimberworth but, although I had not noticed them when I encountered another Marcela Livingston sculpture at the top of Green Lane, a few of them are still intact.
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| Bell pits in Kimberworth |
With plenty of time on my hands, I went to have a look for these bell pits and the Roman Rig, whose position is recorded on the Ordnance Survey map. Noting the line of the ancient dyke for further investigation, I then had a quick look at the mounds of waste from the bell pits and was interested to see that many pieces of the dark grey shale had a bright orange interior.
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| Waste shale at the Kimberworth bell pits |
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