A Recce in Nottingham - Geology 1

 

The south-west end of the Park Tunnel

Arriving at the Phoenix Park Park & Ride with Paul May, to start our recce for a field trip in Nottingham 2 weeks later - to explore its Triassic geology and the various building stones used in its historic architecture – I didn’t think too much about the underlying geology, when we were working out how to buy our tickets. 

 

The topography around Nottingham

 

Phoenix Park tram stop is set on the Permian Edlington Formation, but on the route to the city centre - crossing various faults that throw the geological formations out of sequence - we passed over the Cadeby Formation, the Lenton Sandstone Formation and alluvium laid down by the River Leen before continuing on the Triassic Chester Formation until we reached Old Market Square. 

 

The geology around Nottingham

Starting at an elevation of 58 m, we reached a low point of 36 m at the tram depot in the Leen valley and then rose to a high point on the Chester Formation of 82 m at the High School stop, before dropping down to 44 m at Old Market Square. 

 

The Geology of the East Midlands

Having both enjoyed the up and down journey on the tram into Nottingham city centre, we firstly visited the Nottingham Tourist Centre, where the member of staff who helped us with our enquiries was exceptional, we located the public toilets and then headed up to Derby Road to find the entrance to the Grade II Listed Park Tunnel – a geological site that is on the front cover of the Geologists’ Association guide to the East Midlands. 

 

Triassic sandstone at the north-east entrance to the Park Tunnel

 

During the 3 years spent in Nottingham as an undergraduate geologist, I visited Ye Olde to Trip to Jerusalem a few times – which I took advantage of at the end of a very long day out in 2019 - but I didn’t make an effort to explore any more of  the geology of Nottingham and I was therefore looking forward to seeing this. 

 

The Park Tunnel

 

The Park Tunnel was built in 1855 for the 5th Duke of Newcastle, by Thomas Chambers Hine, to allow horse drawn carriages access between the Park Estate and Derby Road. The original requirement was for a maximum gradient of 1 in 14, but the actual gradient of 1 in 12 is too great for horse-drawn carriages so it was never used as originally intended. 

 

The Chester Formation in the central cutting

 

Passing through the car parking area to the block of offices and apartments and the partly brick lined first section of the tunnel, the first exposure of the Chester Formation, which was formerly called the Nottingham Castle Sandstone Formation, is seen in the cutting where a set of steps that lead up to The Ropewalk.

 

The steps to the Ropewalk

 

In Nottinghamshire, the formation comprises pinkish red or buff-grey, medium to coarse grained, pebbly, cross-bedded, friable sandstone. Near the base of the Park Tunnel section, cross-bedding occurs in sets nearly 2 m thick, bounded above and below by near horizontal erosional surfaces. 

 

The unlined section of the Park Tunnel

In the thicker beds, trough cross-bedding can be clearly seen and the three dimensional geometry of the cross-stratification within the sandstone is well displayed in the sides and arched roof of the tunnel. Towards the top of the section, thinner sets of cross-bedding predominate and the foresets mostly dip ENE, indicating current flow in that direction when the sediment was deposited. 

 

Examining the Chester Formation

Sediment was derived from erosion of contemporary Triassic uplands, notably the Variscan mountains that lay to the south of what is now Britain. Deposition took place in a huge braided river system that spread across the semi-arid inland basins occupying much of southern, north-western and north-eastern England, with various sized pebbles of liver coloured metaquartzite and white vein quartz being very common. 

 

A view up to No.18 Park Terrace

 

Continuing through the second tunnel, which has not been lined, I found quite a large piece of sandstone and, not having my Estwing hammer with me to break it, I threw it to the floor and was very surprised to see it disintegrate completely into a pile of sand.   

 

A disintegrated lump of sandstone

Diagenetic studies suggest that the sandstone was originally cemented by authigenic carbonates, sulphates and halite, but these were subsequently dissolved by circulating meteoric groundwater to produce the weakly cemented sandstone with extensive secondary porosity now seen. 

 

A specimen of Bulwell stone

 

Further along Tennis Mews, we stopped to examine the Bulwell stone, which has been used for boundary walling and various retaining walls above the Chester Formation. In one place, part of the masonry had fallen away and I obtained  a small sample to add to my rock collection. With a hand lens I can see the rhombohedral crystals of dolomite, which are characteristic of this rock and give a sparkle to the stone, when light is reflected from the crystal faces. 

 

A Bulwell stone boundary wall

 

Having had a good look at the various sedimentary structures and lithologies, which makes this such a good field trip location, we then retraced our steps and ascended the steps up to The Ropewalk and continued our recce at Newcastle Drive.

 

Bulwell stone retaining walls at the Park Tunnel

A Recce in Nottingham - Architecture 2

 

A detail of the former Guildhall

Continuing the recce for the Sheffield U3A Geology Group field trip to Nottingham, Paul May and I got back into the city centre from our brief exploration of the area around The Park and Castle Rock, just before it started to rain very heavily.

 

The Congregational Chapel on Castle Gate

 

Passing the Congregational Chapel (1863) on Castle Gate, we noted that the uniformly buff sandstone dressings are probably another example of Darley Dale stone, with its intricate detailing to the pediment, cornice and door and window surrounds still looking sharp and in good condition.

 

In the Nottingham Contemporary Gallery

 

Standing under shelter on Lister Gate, we quickly ate our lunch and continued to St. Peter’s church in the pouring rain but, having already had a good look at it, I briefly showed Paul the interior and we just waited patiently and talked until the rain finally stopped. We then headed up to the Lace Market – via the Nottingham Contemporary Gallery, where the current exhibition was entitled “Hollow Earth: Art, Caves & The Subterranean Imaginary.”

 

A detail of the porch at St. Mary's church

 

Continuing along High Pavement, we had a quick look at the old County Gaol and the adjoining Shire Hall, which I had surveyed in some detail on my previous day out to Nottingham, before moving on to St. Mary’s church, which essentially dates to the C15, but has some C14 remains.

A view up to the tower

We had spent so much time trying to avoid the rain at St. Peter’s church that it was 15:30 by the time we arrived at the south porch, only to find that it was closed. We had to satisfy ourselves with a brief look at the exterior, which has been subjected to many phases of restoration – including wholesale replacement of the mediaeval masonry by late Georgian and Victorian architects.

 

The tower

 

More recent restoration has concentrated on the essential replacement of highly weathered or otherwise defective masonry, with very many different types of sandstone having been used to try and match the original Triassic sandstone, which was quarried from the Tarporley Siltstone Formation at nearby Sneinton or Gedling.

 

A headstone made with Swithland slate

 

We simply didn’t have enough time to look for any of these and just had a quick look at some of the Swithland slate headstones in the churchyard. We then started to make our way back to the city centre through an area dominated by vast red brick factories and warehouses that were essential to the lace manufacturing industry, for which Nottingham was world famous.

 

An interpretation of the Fothergill Warehouse

 

In a couple of places we encountered inclined display panels, with braille translations, that comprise a relief sculpture carved in Italian Carrara marble, which depict the building that they are standing in front of - including the Fothergill Warehouse (1897) and the Adams and Page Building (1855) - but again there was no time to look at these buildings.

 

The entrance to No. 29 Stoney Street

 

The works and warehouse are essentially functional in their design, but they look very elegant and the entrances to several works have elaborately carved Jurassic Ancaster limestone door surrounds. They also have and varying degrees of figurative sculpture and there is a wide range of rustication and finishes to the masonry, which does sometimes include Derbyshire gritstone.

 

A detailing of the tooling on the Adams Building

An hour could have been spent exploring the Lace Market and we had apparently passed several buildings by the renowned Nottingham architect Thomas. Chambers Hine, but instead we carried on along Stoney Street to the top of Carlton Street and carried on down the hill along Pelham Street, until we reached the junction with Thurland Street.

 

The Thurland Hall public house

 

The Derbyshire gritstone Thurland Hall public house (1898-1900) stands on the east corner and on the other is the former Nottingham and Notts Bank, which was built from 1879 to 1882 to designs by Watson Fothergill and is considered to be his best work.

 

The former Nottingham and Notts Bank

It was now just past 4 o’clock in the afternoon and the sun was starting to sink in the sky, with most of the buildings now in shade and we had the best view of the Darley Dale sandstone ashlar, with band courses and alternate voussoirs on arches and colonnettes made in Red Mansfield dolomitic sandstone, although many of these have been restored with Triassic St. Bees sandstone from the Cumbrian coast. 

 

Details of the former Nottingham and Notts Bank

Several ‘granites’ have been used for the plinth and door surrounds, including Rubislaw granite from Aberdeen, pink/red Balmoral Red from Finland, the Blue Pearl variety of larvikite from Norway and a dark grey gneiss like rock that is also thought to have come from Norway.

 

A Portland stone frieze sculpture

 

High above street level there are three very finely carved white Portland stone frieze sculptures, along with a wide variety of grotesques and what is considered to be a monkey – a slang term for a mortgage, which reflects the fact that at one stage the bank owed money to Fothergill, who thus held a mortgage on the building and wanted this to be clearly recorded in stone.

 

The Brian Clough statue and No.11 King Street

 

We arrived too late in the day to really appreciate this fine building and, with a few more historic buildings to see in Nottingham before we finished for the day, we headed back down to Old Market Square and then up to King Street, where we stopped to admire the bronze statue of Brian Clough and No. 11 (1880-1890), by Alfred Waterhouse for the Prudential Assurance Co.

 

The Elite Building

Continuing up Queen Street to Upper Parliament Street, before continuing north along Goldsmith Street, I stopped to take a photo of the very impressive Grade II* Listed Elite Building (1921), a white faience clad steel framed building that was originally a cinema.

 

The Newton Building

 

Our next stop was the Portland stone clad Grade II* Listed Newton Building, at Nottingham Trent University, which was designed in 1952 and built in 1958. From the information that we had with us, we knew that the Portland stone displays some interesting fossils and so we just carried on down Burton Street to the former Guildhall (1888), which has caves beneath it.

 

The former Guildhall

This imposing building by Verity & Hunt of London provides yet another example of Darley Dale stone and, according to Horton and Lott in their report for the Mercian Geologist back in 2005, except for the low level plinth, the stone is an excellent condition. Although I didn’t spend any time looking at the stonework with Paul on this occasion, the detailing still looks crisp on my photos.

 

A detail of the former Guildhall

St. Andrew’s church (1869), by Robert Evans of Nottingham, is built with rock-faced Bulwell stone walling, with bands of thinly bedded, bluish-grey silty limestone - best known to me as the Blue Lias – with the plinth and dressings made of Ancaster stone.

 

The east end of St. Andrew's church

With it now gone 5 o’clock in the afternoon, I stopped to take a very quick photo of the Arkwright Building before we walked the final 125 metres to the Nottingham Trent University tram stop, from which we were very soon on the way back to Phoenix Park.

The Arkwright Building

A Recce in Nottingham - Architecture 1

 

A lion at the Nottingham Council House

 

Back in 2019, taking advantage of the very good weather forecast for the Easter Bank Holiday in April, I had a rare day out in Nottingham to look at St. Peter's and St. Mary's churches, the historic architecture around the Lace Market and exposures of the Triassic sandstone around The Nottingham Park Estate and Nottingham Castle.

 

The tram timetable for Phoenix Park

Having already organised a trip in Sheffield for the Sheffield U3A Geology Group and another trip to Leeds a couple of months earlier using the Park and Ride - to look at the building stones - I thought that I could easily arrange another trip for the group to Nottingham. 

 

Publications describing building stones in Nottingham

I already had enough professional knowledge of the various building stones that I had seen in Nottingham to make a good field trip, but a brief search on the Internet revealed publications by the late Graham Lott and colleagues at the British Geological Survey and Nottingham Trent University could be referred to if necessary. 

 

Old Market Square and the Nottingham Council House

 

The day after my brief exploration of St. John’s church in Penistone and a short walk in the Penistone Conservation Area, Paul May and I drove down the M1 to Phoenix Park and caught the tram to Old Market Square in Nottingham, where the concrete paving slabs had been replaced with four types of granite, from Portugal and China, back in 2007. 

 

A Portland stone lion at the west end of the Nottingham Council House

 

As with my trip to Leeds, my plan was to look at the use of British building stones, particularly those from the East Midlands, in Nottingham’s historic architecture – especially the work of Watson Fothergill and Thomas Chambers Hine - and not undertake a rock spotting exercise.

 

A view of St. Barnabas Roman Catholic Cathedral

After taking a quick look at the Portland stone lion and the Cornish granite plinth and steps at the west end of the Nottingham Council House (1929), we headed up Derby Road to look at the St. Barnabas Roman Catholic Cathedral (1844). 

 

Another view of St. Barnabas

 

The cathedral was designed by Augustus Pugin, the Victorian architect probably best known for the interior of the Palace of Westminster,  and built in Darley Dale stone from the Ashover Grit – a renowned building stone that has been used in many of Nottingham’s buildings. 

 

A view of the rear of houses on Park Terrace from Park Steps

Continuing up Derby Road to the Park Tunnel, the first of several exposures of Triassic sandstone that will be described later, we then walked up the steps and continued along Park Terrace, which mainly consists of late Georgian stucco houses with several Grade II Listed man made caves cut into the cliff, until we reached Park Steps. 

 

The garden wall at the bottom of Park Steps

 

Descending Park Steps to Park Valley, we stopped briefly to look at the fractures and movement in the garden wall, which is built with Bulwell stone – a sandy dolostone once produced in the Bulwell/Linby area and has been used ubiquitously in Nottingham for garden walls and for churches and vernacular architecture in the area where it was quarried. 

 

A photomicrograph of Abbey stone from the Linby quarry

 

This very distinctive, yellow/brown to orange-coloured variation of the Permian Cadeby Formation occurs at the southern end of the Magnesian Limestone escarpment and the well developed rhombohedral crystals of dolomite, which incorporate small grains of quartz, are clearly seen with a hand lens and feel rough to the touch. 

 

The entrance to Arundel House

Carrying on south down Park Valley, we stopped to look at the entrance to Arundel House - which has Bulwell stone walling - but the dressings to the doorway are made of a material that has a very different uniform colour. 

 

A detail of the artificial stone door surround at Arundel House

 

Just as we were about to take a better look, the owner came out of one of the doors and we were all startled. Once we had explained our curiosity about her house, she explained that these were actually artificial stone and, on close inspection, small air bubbles can be seen. 

 

White Mansfield stone walling

 

Moving on to the junction with Lenton Road, the stone used for the boundary wall changes from Bulwell stone to the pale buff/yellow White Mansfield stone, another variety of the Cadeby Formation that is classified as a dolomitic sandstone rather than a sandy dolostone. A characteristic of this stone is the presence of very thin beds of green clay, which quickly weathers out to give a texture that looks like crinkled old leather. 

 

The retaining wall to the Memorial Nurses' Home

We then a quick diversion up Lenton Road to look at the war memorial and retaining wall to the Memorial Nurses' Home. The high wall is built in Jurassic Ancaster stone, an oolitic limestone from Lincolnshire that is frequently seen in the historic buildings of Nottinghamshire. 

 

Bulwell stone walling and pink granite setts

 

We then made way along Peveril Drive at the base of Castle Rock and, not being tempted by Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, walked up Castle Road to the entrance of Nottingham Castle, where there is a further example of Bulwell stone, with vughs, in the walling and pink granite roads setts, which are probably from the area around Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire. 

 

The Church of St. Nicholas

Before heading back to the city centre, where we would have our lunch, we briefly stopped at the Grade II* Listed Church of St. Nicholas, a red brick church with White Mansfield stone quoins and dressings, which dates to 1682 but has had several subsequent alterations and restorations.

 

White Mansfield stone quoins at the Church of St. Nicholas