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| A limestone reef on South Church Street |
To photograph the next few listed buildings on my list, during my afternoon in Bakewell, I had to head up past Yeld Road and then on to the Monyash Road, which I sometimes used when going out to survey the RIGS in the Peak District National Park - back in 1995, when I lived in the town.
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| The retaining wall to All Saints churchyard |
After taking a general photograph of the retaining wall of All Saints churchyard from the south side of South Church Street, I crossed over and continued up the path. The autumn leaves had started to fall and were accumulating at the base of the wall but, as a geologist, I was very quick to spot a very small outcrop of thinly bedded limestone poking out from beneath it.
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| A small outcrop of thinly bedded limestone |
A little further on, a larger outcrop of bedded limestone underpins a longer section of the boundary wall and at its western end spreads out into the pavement. Just beyond this, a few more small blocky outcrops of the same well bedded limestone can also be seen.
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| Outcrops on South Church Street |
Looking at the online version of the 1:50,000 British Geological Survey map, which is the most accurate map that I can refer to, the outcrop is at the point where the Monsal Dale Limestone Formation meets the overlying Eyam Limestone Formation.
No further than 25 metres from the place where I discovered my first outcrop, between the path up to the church and Church Lane, the limestone completely changes character – from a thinly bedded limestone to an irregular mass that has no obvious bedding.
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| An unbedded mass of limestone |
From its west end, perched precariously on the edge of an extremely narrow kerbed footpath, it appeared to be about 1 metre high with a generally 'brecciated' nature and I could see a small zone of near vertical fractures.
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| The reef on South Church Street |
I just took a single photograph and didn’t try to find fossils or collect a sample but, when crossing back over South Church Street to look at it from a distance, I could see that this was just the start of a larger irregular mass that is several metres long and which I think must be a small reef.
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| The reef on South Church Street |
Although none are marked on the geological map immediately around Bakewell, both flat and knoll reefs are a common feature of the Eyam Limestone Formation and, on the opposite side of the road, the holiday home is named Knoll Cottage.
Having never seen a natural limestone outcrop before in Bakewell, this was an unexpected surprise and I could easily have stopped my walk here; however, I still had to go and photograph Pinfold Cottage, the steps, railings and retaining walls to Mayfield Cottage and Westfield Cottage and the roadside boundary wall to the Old Vicarage.
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| The steps and railings at Mayfield Cottage and Westfield Cottage |
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