The Faunal Succession in the Carboniferous Limestone and Bowland Shales at Clitheroe and Pendle Hill, (Lancashire)

Abstract

The present paper records an attempt to establish a faunal sequence in the Carboniferous deposits in the Clitheroe district of North-East Lancashire. The area dealt with forms a small part of the large spread of Carboniferous strata lying south of the Craven Faults. The rocks of this region have been thrown into a series of more or less parallel folds with a general trend from east-north-east to west-south-west. The most important upfold is the Clitheroe Anticline, dissected by the Ribble, which runs west-south-westwards in the neighbourhood of Clitheroe, exposing the Carboniferous Limestone along the axis. On the north-western flank the synclinal Millstone-Grit hills of Longridge, Waddington, and Grindleton connect the Clitheroe Anticline with that of Slaidburn, in Bowland; while on the south-east there is a continuous succession through the grits of the Pendle Range to the Coal Measures of the Burnley Basin. The ground which has been mapped in detail forms that portion of the south-eastern limb of the Clitheroe Anticline which is included between the Twiston and Clitheroe Faults, along with most of the scarp-face of Pendle Hill below the Pendle Top Grit. Two small patches occur on the Yorkshire side of the county boundary. The low ground between the Ribble and Pendle Hill is occupied by the Clitheroe Limestone and the overlying ‘Shales-with-Limestone’ or Worston Shale Series. The upper part of the Clitheroe Limestone contains some of the typical reef-knolls which rise abruptly above the general level of the ground. One of these, Worsaw Hill, attains a height

The Age of the Reef-Limestones in the Lower Carboniferous of North Derbyshire

“…There is, indeed, much evidence for the view that the Avonian reefs were built up in more than one way. Thus the reef knolls in the C zone of the Clitheroe-Bowland district appear to be discrete accumulations enveloped in shales (Parkinson, 1926(Parkinson, , 1935, whereas the Cracoe knolls have been interpreted as erosion features in a once continuous zone of limestone which Hudson (1930Hudson ( , 1932Hudson ( , 1933 has named the Craven Reef Belt.…”

The relationship of the Bowland shales to the pendleside limestone in the Clitheroe, Slaidburn and Sykes Anticlines

“…tenuisepta (Phillips). At Pendle Hill these two fossils occur together in the Ravensholme Limestone (P,,) and also at the top of the Pendleside Limestone in Little Mearley Clough (Parkinson 1926). It was later suggested (Parkinson 1935) that the Little Mearley bed was in the B zone, and in fact the re-survey has shown that it comes within the restricted range of the Phillibole aff.…”

Some Features of the Lower Carboniferous Reef Limestones of Clitheroe, Lancashire

“…1) the non-reef deposits greatly predominate, but owing to the drift cover, exposures are few. TJie strata (Parkinson, 1926) were subdivided into the Coplow Series below and the Salt Hill-Worsaw Series above. Beneath the Coplow beds are the black Chatburn Limestone, the whole constituting the Clitheroe Limestone of Tiddeman (1875).…”

“…It lies in the north-east of Clitheroe and west of the tract of country stretching from Worston to Twiston which includes the largest reef knolls of the Clitheroe anticline (Parkinson, 1926(Parkinson, , 1943.…”