The Carboniferous Succession in the Slaidburn District, Yorkshire

Abstract

I. Introduction The district which forms the subject of this paper covers an area of about 30 square miles in north-western Yorkshire, and comprises the north-eastern part of the region known as “Bolland” or “Bowland”. It lies almost entirely within the valley of the Hodder, a tributary of the Ribble, but the water-shed is crossed in the north-east, where the streams flow directly into the Ribble. The reservoir recently constructed by the Fylde Water Board is situated within the area, this part of the ground having been examined before submergence. The area is bounded on the north and west by the grit hills of Bowland Forest, which rise to altitudes of from 1400 to 1800 feet, and on the south-east by the grits of Easington, Newton, and Waddington Fells. The steep hillsides below the grit escarpments are occupied by the Bowland Shales, whilst the lower ground is usually Carboniferous Limestone with its associated shales; the harder rock sometimes forms prominent features, of which the more notable are knolls of reef-limestone. The stratigraphical sequence is as shown on the diagram (Pl. XXIV). It varies in detail from place to place as a result of facies changes and non-sequences, but is similar in a general way to that in the type area of Clitheroe-Pendle to the south-south-east. Figure 1 illustrates the variation in thickness and the positions of the non-sequences in different localities within the area to be described (Pendle being included for comparison). Bolland is noted geologically by reason of the

Revision of the Dinantian stratigraphy of the Craven Basin, N England

“…Locally this relationship is markedly angular. Besides this, we confirm the existence of the unconformity described by Parkinson (1936) at the base of the Bowland Shales at Lamb Hill House, N of Slaidburn; and that identified by Hudson & Mitchell (1937) at the base of the Embsay Limestone in the Skipton anticline.…”

“…Of these the most important is present in the Airton and Eshton-Hetton anticlines, where Mallardale < Shales-with-Limestones (Hudson & Dunnington, 1945) rest directly on Hetton Limestones (Booker & Hudson, 1926). In the Slaidburn anticline N of Slaidburn, Phynis Shales (Parkinson, 1936) and an associated reef rest unconformably on limestones mapped by Parkinson as Clitheroe Limestone. Locally this relationship is markedly angular.…”

“…Fewtrell & Smith have based their classification on the well known sections of the Pendle Hill-Chatburn-Clitheroe area, and have applied it to other parts of the basin largely on the basis of published work, notably that of Booker & Hudson (1926), Hudson (1944), Hudson & Mitchell (1937), Hudson & Dunnington (1945) and Parkinson (1926Parkinson ( , 1936. Apart from their recognition (following Miller & Grayson, 1972) of the Clitheroe reefs and their associated sediments as a separate formation -the Clitheroe Limestone Formation -their division of the sequence differs little from that of Earp et al (1961).…”

“…Undoubtedly slump-ball structures do exist within the sequence, but in the boulder beds described, for example, from the lower part of the Embsay Limestone in Halton Gill, near Skipton, by Hudson & Mitchell (1937); at the base of the Mallardale Shales-with-Limestones at Coniston Cold and Haw Crag by Hudson & Dunnington (1945); and at the base of the Bowland Shales of the Slaidburn area by Parkinson (1936), the debris was clearly derived from lithified sediments.…”

Revision of the Dinantian stratigraphy of the Craven Basin, N England

“…For these reasons a large number of local rock names of informal status has accumulated and it will be difficult ever to formalize the nomenclature satisfactorily. Also, the base of the Worston Shales is restored to the horizon at which Parkinson (1926) first defined it, as the top of the Clitheroe Limestone (Formation) has always been recognized as a regionally mappable horizon (e.g. Faulting affects all the Carboniferous rocks to an unknown extent and river alluvium mantles much of the area.…”