 Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 19/01/2011(UTC)
Posts: 135
Location: Whaley Bridge
|
Geology is one of my primary interests so it's no surprise with 3 minor fault-lines crossing parallel through the town that miners discovered the seams of coal entrapped within the gritstone & sandstone layers we have beneath our feet. I've yet to rediscover an article which mentions Whaley having lead mines and another mineral being extracted from a handful of seams but i'm constantly on the look-out for any geological reference to the town given our geological & historical diversities.
I hadn't known of the Hockerley colliery's existence until today and it goes into explaining the pony-track which crosses the field above Hockerley Farm starting from looks like this ex-mine's entrance. Given the orientation is North-South I would also hazard a guess that it goes under part of the Persimmon Estate aswell. Tracking down a few articles this hour I've come up with this gem that gives a laymans terms of just what exactly is beneath our feet here in this part of Derbyshire..
http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924004049544/cu31924004049544_djvu.txt
Whaley Bridge ; 14. 20. 24. 44. 84.
Whaley Moor ; 16. 43.
We may now pass to the description of the Goyt Trough.
This trough has its origin in the moorlands north of HoUingworth,
where the beds begin to dip gently towards a central axis which passes
exactly through the village. South of the village of Mottram we find
in a brook course the outcrop of the Mottram coal ; then shales, suc-
ceeded by flags, and the rough rock of the Millstone series, dipping
towards the south-east ; and on the other side of the trough the same
grit dipping towards the west from the crest of Coomb's Edge. The
trough-like form of the district is also seen in the arrangement of the
beds north of New Mills. On the eastern side we find the first, second,
and third Grits rising to the east, and ending off in a series of fine escarp-
ments at Matley Moor, Lantern Pike, Ollerset Moor, and Chinley
Churn ; and on the western side the same grits, cropping out, though
less conspicuously, from Mellor, by Cobden Edge, New Mills, and
Whaley Mooi'. From this point southwards the trough becomes more
contracted, and regular in form, and the River Goyt very nearly coin-
cides with the axis. The appearance of the hills formed by the ridges
of grit, as they crop out in succession on both sides of the trough, has
already been described.
* The coal which overlies the Third Grit is generally present along the line of
country on both sides of the anticlinal fault. We find it at Longhurst, near Mellor,
cropping out on the bank, and covered by black shales containing Goniatites and other
fossils. It has been -worked in the valley west of Dissop Head, near Disley, and from
this point southward to Eainow, and again at Tegg's Nose, near Macclesfield. At
Spond's Hill it is 16 inches thick ; at Harrop Wood, near Shrigley, 14 inches, and
of good quality. On the eastern side of the saddle it has been traced continuously
from the reservoir south-west of Whaley up to the neighbourhood of Flash. At the
outcrop in Ladbatch Plantation i( is 16 inches in thickness, but farther south, near
Buxton, it reaches a thickness of 4 feet 6 inches.
The banks of the Goyt above Whaley Bridge offer several sections
of faults, accompanied with much disturbance of the beds. One of
these is seen below Knipe, and shows us certain dark and grey grits
thrown into a vertical position against a nearly horizontal bank of grit.
Another case occurs near the Powder Mills, where the basement beds
of the second Grit and the underlying shales ai-e brought up with a
curve against other beds of shale which dip gently away from the fault.
The escarpment of the third Grit forms a very marked feature along
the eastern margin of Sheet 81 N.W. The rock itself is often
extremely coarse, as at Matley Moor, and from the Chinley Hills south-
wards is generally of a red colour, and very coarse and massive. It
forms the fine cliff of Cracken Edge, and the summit of Eccles Pike,
1,225 feet. At Bugsworth this red grit is finely opened out in the
quarries. Beyond the base of th€ steep bank of shales which descends
from the ridge of the grit, the moorlands of the Kinder Scout Grit rise
gradually to the eastward till they culminate in the table-land of the
High Peak. In this district the Kinder Scout Grit consists of two
thick beds, separated by shales, the whole being of a thickness of 1,000
feet in the neighbourhood of Glossop, at the north-east extremity of the
district. Between Glossop and Hayfield there are many good sections
in quarries, as the rock produces excellent foundation stones, as well as
rough flags and paving stones. South of Hayfield the beds begin to
diminish in thickness, and become less coarse, and would scarcely be
recognized as the representatives of the grits of the Yorkshire moor-
lands. One of these grits may be seen in the quarry north of Combs
Head ; and the same grits crop out along both sides^ of the Saltersford
VaUey, and are shown in the section which crosses the east side of the
valley at Pym Chair.
We will next take in hand the country from Whaley Bridge south-
wards as far as a fault crossing the basin, which may be called the Cut
Thorn fault.
The fault branches from the anticlinal fault near Bull Greave. It is
beautifully shown in the valley from Greenaways to Bottom-of-the-
Oven, the beds along the lower part being everywhere vertical, or
nearly so. It is seen in the brook one-eighth of a mile south of Bottom-
|
