A new geology panel is unveiled at Birkhams Quarry
On 11 July 2016 Mervyn Dodd unveiled two interpretation boards at Birkhams Quarry on St Bees Head. Mervyn, a founder member of Cumbria GeoConservation (CGC, then known as Cumbria RIGS) designated Birkhams Quarry as a RIGS site in 1997 (LGS 4/030) for its ‘fresh cross sections through fluvial sandstones which show sedimentary structures clearly’.
As befits a geologist, Mervyn first set the scene by walking the group to the north to give a view of the Barrowmouth unconformity. A change from purple to a buff colour on the wave cut platform far below shows the eroded surface of the Upper Carboniferous Whitehaven Sandstone, above which lies the Permian Brockram and Magnesian Limestone and shales and the overlying Triassic St Bees Sandstone which forms the present headland and cliffs.
The boards are the result of detailed collaboration, between CGC, Cumbria County Council planners, the quarry company Marshall Stancliffe and their agents Stephenson Halliday of Kendal who prepared the many documents for the planning application. Planning approval has now been given to extend the quarry back into the headland. The geological interpretation, text and block diagram, for the geology board was the work of Elizabeth Pickett and was designed by graphic designer Marcus Byron in line with the design brief of the National Trust’s Colourful Coast. Most of these people attended the formal unveiling at the quarry, as cloths were whisked off, champagne glasses were raised and rock cakes (what else?) were consumed, to the general interest of the many Coast to Coast walkers that morning.
The geology board shows an interpretation of the area 250 million years ago when the sandstone was laid down, and the quarry board explains the quarrying processes and products. Each board is placed on a cut face of a large sandstone block, chosen by CGC members and taken to Locharbriggs quarry near Dumfries to be cut and shaped. The blocks themselves show excellent examples of current bedding, ripple marks, mud clasts, reduced layers and small channels. A visit is strongly recommended.
In photograph: Mervyn Dodd (founder member of Cumbria RIGS, now Cumbria GeoConservation); Steve Boam (Quarry Manager, Birkham’s Quarry), Marcus Byron (Designer), Sylvia Woodhead (Geological Coordinator, Cumbria GeoConservation), David Forsyth (Landscape Architect, Stephenson Halliday), Elizabeth Pickett (Geological illustrator), Peter Woodhead (Chair, Conservation Group, Cumbria Wildlife Trust), Clive Boulter (Cumbria GeoConservation), Julie Harrald (Director, Geology Trusts and member of English Geodiversity Forum), Audrey Brown (Chair, Cumbria GeoConservation) and Chris Brown (Cumbria GeoConservation).
Photographer – Chris Thompson (Treasurer, Cumbria GeoConservation).
