Now! Then! The Rev Lower Carter leads members of Leeds Geological Association from Hyde Park Corner on a tour of Rowley and Co’s quarries in Meanwood Valley

27 July 1892: The Rev Lower Carter leads members of Leeds Geological Association from Hyde Park Corner on a tour of Rowley and Co’s quarries in Meanwood Valley

William Lower Carter. 1885. July 27th, 1892. Excursion to the Meanwood Valley. Leader, Mr. W.L. Carter, M.A., F.G.S. Transactions of the Leeds Geological Association Containing Abstracts of Papers Read and Reports of Field Excursions, during Sessions 1883-4-5, Vol. 1. Ed. Samuel A. Adamson. Leeds: Leeds Geological Association. Get it:

Excerpt

When the party reached the Ridge a short halt was made whilst the leader pointed out the general geological features of the far-stretching landscape. All the country within view was composed of Carboniferous rocks. A fault, which has been traced for a distance of ten miles, starts west of Weetwood, and passes through Meanwood in an easterly direction to Bramham Moor, bringing down the Lower Coal Measures on its southern side to the level of the middle grits of the Millstone Grit series. The Meanwood Beck, which rises on Adel Moor, after cutting for itself a picturesque gorge in the hard Millstone Grit beds, crosses this fault at Weetwood, and then flows in a wider valley through the softer grits and shales of the Coal Measure series. The ridges on either side of the Meanwood Valley are capped by the Elland flagstones, which lie fairly horizontal. Below this capping lie beds of shale and friable sandstone about 160 feet thick, and at the bottom of the valley the ganister beds proper are found.
The party then descended the Ridge by Batty Wood to visit the quarries of Messrs B. Rowley and Co. There are two ganister quarries worked in the valley, which are separated by a fault, the effect of which in the uplifting of the southern beds was very clearly seen some years back. The southern quarry, as the one which is at present being worked, was then examined, and an account of the beds was given by the leader. The whole section seen is about 36 feet in depth. Under 18 inches of surface soil there comes a thickness of 7 feet of stiff yellow clay, which encloses lenticular pockets of sand at intervals, and is full of angular and subangular pieces of ganister stone. Occasionally a boulder of coarse grit is found, well rounded and decomposed, probably derived from one of the grits of the Millstone Grit series. No foreign rock, excepting one small piece of chert, has been found in this clay, which has been generally considered as the ground moraine of a glacier which moved into the valley from the direction of Moortown. Under this deposit come the Lower Coal Measures or Ganister beds, which are pretty constant in thickness in the sections exposed from time to time. About 5 feet of yellow or brown shales overlie 2 feet 6 inches of black shale. These beds are unfossiliferous, and are frequently found contorted in a remarkable manner. The lower black shales are ridged up into folds wherever there is a hollow in the surface of the underlying ganister. Above these sharp ridges the yellow shales are bent in like manner, and often form a series of crumplings, the axes of which run in an easterly and westerly direction, and may be glacial in their origin. Underneath the shales come the ganister beds proper, which are well developed in this district. The uppermost bed is a hard, bluish-white, siliceous rock, false bedded, and containing few stigmaria (the roots of sigillaria). This bed is about three feet in thickness, and overlies ten feet of white and grey ganister, which shows much current-bedding, and is traversed by well preserved stigmaria, with whorls of leaf-like rootlets surrounding the central root, and forming at the point of their attachment the round pits which are so characteristic of these fossils. In this division many stumps of sigillarian trees have been found, with great roots stretching in all directions. Eleven have been unearthed during the last year’s quarrying at various levels. The largest one has, fortunately, been well revealed by a shot, instead of destroyed as is usually the case. It stands about the middle of the solid ganister rock, twenty-four feet from the surface. It is four feet in height, and eleven feet in circumference. The trunk is only marked by broad longitudinal flutings; but the large roots, four of which have been exposed to view, have the usual pittings which are characteristic of stigmaria.

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Original

JULY 27TH, 1892.
EXCURSION TO THE MEANWOOD VALLEY.
Leader, Mr. W. L. CARTER, M.A., F.G.S.
The members of the Leeds Geological Association on Wednesday evening, July 27th, met at Hyde Park Corner, under the leadership of Mr. W. L. Carter, M.A., for an inspection of the quarries in the Meanwood Valley. When the party reached the Ridge a short halt was made whilst the leader pointed out the general geological features of the far-stretching landscape. All the country within view was composed of Carboniferous rocks. A fault, which has been traced for a distance of ten miles, starts west of Weetwood, and passes through Meanwood in an easterly direction to Bramham Moor, bringing down the Lower Coal Measures on its southern side to the level of the middle grits of the Millstone Grit series.
The Meanwood Beck, which rises on Adel Moor, after cutting for itself a picturesque gorge in the hard Millstone Grit beds, crosses this fault at Weetwood, and then flows in a wider valley through the softer grits and shales of the Coal Measure series. The ridges on either side of the Meanwood Valley are capped by the Elland flagstones, which lie fairly horizontal. Below this capping lie beds of shale and friable sandstone about 160 feet thick, and at the bottom of the valley the ganister beds proper are found.
The party then descended the Ridge by Batty Wood to visit the quarries of Messrs. B. Rowley and Co. There are two ganister quarries worked in the valley, which are separated by a fault, the effect of which in the uplifting of the southern beds was very clearly seen some years back. The southern quarry, as the one which is at present being worked, was then examined, and an account of the beds was given by the leader. The whole section seen is about 36 feet in depth. Under 18 inches of surface soil there comes a thickness of 7 feet of stiff yellow clay, which encloses lenticular pockets of sand at intervals, and is full of angular and subangular pieces of ganister stone. Occasionally a boulder of coarse grit is found, well rounded and decomposed, probably derived from one of the grits of the Millstone Grit series. No foreign rock, excepting one small piece of chert, has been found in this clay, which has been generally considered as the ground moraine of a glacier which moved into the valley from the direction of Moortown. Under this deposit come the Lower Coal Measures or Ganister beds, which are pretty constant in thickness in the sections exposed from time to time. About 5 feet of yellow or brown shales overlie 2 feet 6 inches of black shale. These beds are unfossiliferous, and are frequently found contorted in a remarkable manner. The lower black shales are ridged up into folds wherever there is a hollow in the surface of the underlying ganister. Above these sharp ridges the yellow shales are bent in like manner, and often form a series of crumplings, the axes of which run in an easterly and westerly direction, and may be glacial in their origin. Underneath the shales come the ganister beds proper, which are well developed in this district. The uppermost bed is a hard, bluish-white, siliceous rock, false bedded, and containing few stigmaria (the roots of sigillaria). This bed is about three feet in thickness, and overlies ten feet of white and grey ganister, which shows much current-bedding, and is traversed by well preserved stigmaria, with whorls of leaf-like rootlets surrounding the central root, and forming at the point of their attachment the round pits which are so characteristic of these fossils. In this division many stumps of sigillarian trees have been found, with great roots stretching in all directions. Eleven have been unearthed during the last year’s quarrying at various levels. The largest one has, fortunately, been well revealed by a shot, instead of destroyed as is usually the case. It stands about the middle of the solid ganister rock, twenty-four feet from the surface. It is four feet in height, and eleven feet in circumference. The trunk is only marked by broad longitudinal flutings; but the large roots, four of which have been exposed to view, have the usual pittings which are characteristic of stigmaria. The largest root was blown off by the shot which revealed the tree, but its course can be traced by the impression it has left on the rock beneath. This cast shows that the first bifurcation took place about 1ft. 9in. from the junction with the trunk on the under-side, but 9in. farther away at the outer edge. This is shown by a very definite cast of the outline of the root, giving a central ridge about 9in. long, with grooves passing off from it to the right and left. The northerly branch appears to have crossed over the next root, and has left an impression on its surface. The other large root, which is well preserved and exposed, bifurcates for the first time about 2ft. from the trunk, on the upper side, and the two branch roots stretch out along the plane of bedding. The second bifurcation of one of them is seen, and takes place 4ft. 6in. from the trunk. Another root is partially exposed on each side. the bottom of these beds of grey ganister there comes a black bed, which is full of stigmaria, calamites, and other plant remains. Under this comes a seam of coal, about 9in. in thickness, which maintains an even thickness over an undulating surface of underlying fire-clay. This coal seam is frequently traversed by stigmaria which form ribs, as it were, of sandstone, running through the coal. This coal is considered to be the equivalent, in the district, of the Hard Bed Band (48 yards) Coal, which is much more fully developed in the south-west of Yorkshire. Underneath the coal seam come the fire-clay beds, which consist of 1ft. 6in, of hard black ganister, and 3ft. 6in. of softer fire-clay. In these beds two or three trees have been found, and they are traversed in all directions by stigmaria. The whole series is underlaid by a considerable thickness of black shales, which are not worked.
After this quarry had been thoroughly inspected, and specimens obtained, the party took a walk through the pretty village of Meanwood to Mr. Bradley’s quarries in Meanwood Wood, where the Third Grits of the Millstone Grit series are worked for building stone. The shades of evening, however, prevented more than a casual examination of these beds, but before the party set off on their return journey hearty votes of thanks were accorded to Mr. Rowley and Mr. Bradley for their kind permission to inspect their interesting quarries.
NOTE: Since the date of the above excursion excavations have been continued in the ganister quarries belonging to Messrs. B. Rowley and Co., and the foldings mentioned above have been traced further. A fault runs between the two quarries but the folds did not appear to have any relation to it at the time of the above examination. These crumplings were then attributed to the movement of a tongue of glacier-ice from the direction of Moortown, which it was supposed had ground away the outcrop of the ganister beds in that direction and left the surface bed of stony clay when it melted. During the summer of 1893. however, other rapid flexures of the shales were found which were, in this case, clearly attributable to the movement of a small fault along a joint face, and parallel to the main fault which comes a few yards to the southward. No faulting has been yet proved along the line of the fold described in the above excursion, but until further evidence is forthcoming the theory of the glacial origin of the fold and the stony clay must be held in abeyance.-W.L.C.

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