Staffordshire « Hypo-theses

Wrong Rock II

I’ve just finished preparing a presentation I’m giving at the 15th European Meeting of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics of the Near Surface Geoscience Division of EAGE (or Near Surface 2009). I’m so used to talking for a micro-century (~50 minutes) in lectures, it is hard to discipline one’s self to a 15 minute slot. [...]

Ossum’s Hill

Recently I attended a geological walk lead by Mike Allen from the South Peak Estate of the National Trust to have a look at a new geological section that has been opened upon the side of Ossum’s Hill above the Manifold Valley in the Staffordshire part of the Peak District. The geology of the area [...]

Wrong Rock

I’d like to introduce the concept of ‘stone miles’. A bit like ‘food miles’, building stones are often transported great distances (in some cases halfway around the world) when local ones will do, often much better. David Williams from ‘Stories in Stone‘ recently posted about the slate used for the new café at the [...]

Hollington

The Red Hole, Hollington

My squelchy summer fieldwork continues with a visit to the Red Hole Quarry at Hollington, Staffordshire. Hollington Stone is Staffordshire’s most important building stone and has been used for many important buildings around the county including Lichfield Cathedral. It is Lower Triassic in age and at the same stratigraphic level as [...]

Fieldwork and the Great British Summer

It’s raining again. This is this morning’s rain radar image from raintoday.co.uk

The Great British Summer – www.raintoday.co.uk

You are not going to get the Great British public believing in global warming until we start getting those Mediterranean summers that we were promised.

This week I went into the field and got absolutely soaked, despite having some expensive [...]