Geology at Whitehill Lane in Brinsworth

 

An exposure of Rotherham Red sandstone on Whitehill Lane

A couple of days after my brief exploration of the geology and historic architecture of Wickersley and Bramley, I decided to make the most of a sunny August afternoon to investigate a small outcrop of the Rotherham Red variety of the Mexborough Rock on Whitehill Lane in Brinsworth.

 

The outcrop of Mexborough Rock on Whitehill Lane

As part of the cuts and mergers of the various bus routes that served Brinsworth, Catcliffe and Treeton, the No. 73 had quite annoyingly been diverted along Howarth Road but, on one occasion when I was not reading a book or newspaper while sitting on the top deck of the bus, I noticed that there were sporadic exposures of sandstone at the base of a short section of the retaining wall on the west side of Whitehill Lane.

 

The west side of Whitehill Lane

Over a distance of no more than 75 metres, either side of the junction with Howarth Road, the exposure is at the edge of a downthrown block of the Mexborough Rock to the west of the River Rother, which is detached from the main outcrop that runs from Moorgate down to Harthill.

 

The west side of Whitehill Lane

When first visiting Rotherham to see a friend from Nottingham University, where I studied geology from 1979-1982, I was introduced to the Rotherham Red variety of the Mexborough Rock – at Boston Park and Rotherham Minster.

An exposure of Rotherham Red sandstone on Whitehill Lane

Since becoming involved with geological conservation in South Yorkshire, when I was the principal surveyor and a one time Chairman and Treasurer of the South Yorkshire RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) Group, I have got to know this sandstone formation very well in Rotherham, which includes surveys of several old quarries and very many historic buildings, and also in Doncaster and Barnsley, where the Mexborough Rock is not red.

 

Trough cross-bedding in an outcrop of Rotherham Red sandstone

I had seen various examples of large scale cross-bedding formed as dunes at the bottom of a large river channel, cross-laminated flaggy beds where the flow regime is much faster and thin conglomeratic beds – full of fossil plants - which were obviously laid down by a great flood event, which is also seen in the light brown variety of Mexborough Rock in Darfield Quarry.

 

A detail of the trough cross-bedding

Here, the main point of interest is the display of well defined trough cross-bedding, where the lower surfaces are curved or scoop shaped and truncate the underlying beds. The pattern of cross-bedding helps the geologist to determine the depositional environment, the direction of the palaeocurrent and even the environmental conditions at the time of deposition.

 

Samples of Rotherham Red sandstone from Whitehill Lane

 

I collected a few small samples with my Estwing hammer and expected the sandstone to have the typical red/purple colouration of Rotherham Red sandstone. Much to my surprise, these included yellow/red variegated sandstone, which I had seen in various historic buildings and boundary walls, but which I hadn’t encountered before in a rock outcrop.

 

Colour variation in the sandstone used for the retaining wall

 

Briefly noting that much of the sandstone used in the retaining wall has this yellow/red variegation, having taken only 6 minutes to record my observations of this very interesting outcrop, I made my way up to the brow of the hill on Whitehill Lane and then walked down into Catcliffe.

 

Catcliffe Primary school and the Manor House

 

Firstly stopping at Catcliffe Primary School, which I presume to have been one of the later Victorian Rotherham Board Schools, I then wandered down Old School Lane to photograph the Grade II Listed Manor Farmhouse for the British Listed Buildings website, before retracing my steps to No. 8, where two presumably salvaged headstops, of unknown provenance, have been incorporated into the walling to either side of the entrance to its back garden.

 

Headstops on Old School Lane