Farrant, A R. 2008.A walkers’ guide to the geology and landscape of eastern Mendip. Book and map at 1:25 000 scale. (Keyworth, Nottingham: British Geological Survey.)

This guide is available to purchase from the British Geological Survey https://shop.bgs.ac.uk/Shop/Product/BSP_BEMEND

Figures

(Not numbered in the original work).

(Figure 1) Contact the mendip hills image.

(Figure 2) Geological timescale.

(Figure 3) The Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat.

(Figure 4) Block diagram of a pericline.

(Figure 5) Diagram of a thrust fault.

(Figure 6) Portishead Formation (Old Red Sandstone), Avon Group (Lower Limestone Shale), Black Rock Limestone Subgroup,Burrington Oolite Subgroup

(Figure 7) Clifton Down Limestone Formation; Oxwich Head Limestone Formation; Quartzitic Sandstone and Coal Measures; Dolomitic Conglomerate; Mercia Mudstone Group

(Figure 8) Penarth Group Langport Member/Westbury Formation; The Lias Group; Chilcote Stone; Inferior Oolite Group (Doulting Stone)

(Figure 9) Limits of glaciation (Map).

(Figure 10) Cave bear.

(Figure 11) A diorama of ice-age life in the Mendips.

(Figure 12) Stone gang at Downside Quarry, Windsor Hill. Courtesy National Stone Centre.

(Figure 13) Dipping Black Rock Limestone, Whatley Quarry. © David Roche Geoconsulting.

(Figure 14) Aerial phototograph of the Great Elm and Vallis Vale area area.

(Figure 15) Disused quarry tramway, Bedlam.

(Figure 16) Recently restored limekiln, Vallis Vale.

(Figure 17) The classic De la Beche unconformity at Vallis Vale. Here the horizontal yellow Inferior Oolite rests upon dipping grey Carboniferous Limestone.

(Figure 18) Dipping Black Rock Limestone with chert nodules, Egford Quarry.

(Figure 19) Clumps of hart’s-tongue fern thrive in the damp shady woodland.

(Figure 20) Formation of an unconformity.

(Figure 21) Aerial photograph of the Mells and the Wadbury Valley area.

(Figure 22) Water pumped from Whatley Quarry being discharged into the River Mells.

(Figure 23) Plan, section and cross-section of the Mells River sink, adapted from the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society Proceedings, Vol. 16(2), 1982.

(Figure 24) Fussell’s Lower Iron Works, Mells, taken probably in the early 20th century. Courtesy National Stone Centre.

(Figure 25) The remarkably flat Jurassic unconformity exposed at Tedbury Camp Quarry. © Martin Whiteley, Barrisdale Ltd.

(Figure 26) Close up of the Carboniferous Limestone just below the unconformity surface bored and encrusted by Jurassic organisms. © Martin Whiteley, Barrisdale Ltd.

(Figure 27) Brittle bladder-fern. © Sharon Pilkington.

(Figure 28) Aerial photograph of the Mells and the Whatley area.

(Figure 29) View of Whatley Quarry from the west. Somerset County Council Geodiversity Audit. © David Roche Geoconsulting.

(Figure 30) The use of limestone.

(Figure 31) Whatley Quarry rail link. Courtesy Somerset County Council Geodiversity Audit. © David Roche Geoconsulting.

(Figure 32) Whatley outfall.

(Figure 33) Dumper truck, Whatley Quarry.

(Figure 34) Aerial photograph of the Vobster area.

(Figure 35) Vobster Quarry before it was flooded, showing the contorted Carboniferous Limestone.

(Figure 36) Wainwright’s Newbury Colliery showing the extensive coke ovens and some of Wainwright’s privately owned rail wagons. Courtesy of the John Cornwell collection.

(Figure 37) Newbury Colliery workforce, 1900–1912. Courtesy John Cornwell collection.

(Figure 38) Map of the old collieries, quarries, tramways, railways and canals around Vobster.

(Figure 39) The remains of a bank of coking ovens, Vobster Breach Colliery.

(Figure 40) Vobster Breach Colliery workings, displaying contorted and faulted coal seams (named). Adapted from a mine plan in the John Cornwell collection. Vertical sections of workings Vobster Breach Quarry (Approx 1860 – 1870).

(Figure 41) Aerial photograph of the Stoke St Michael and Oakhill area.

(Figure 42) Water sinking into the entrance of Stoke Lane Slocker, an extensive cave system.

(Figure 43) Schematic cross-section showing how cave systems develop.

(Figure 44) Green-winged orchid. © Sharon Pilkington.

(Figure 45) Steeply dipping limestone, Cooks Wood Quarry.3

(Figure 46) Carboniferous ‘tree boles’ forming hollows on the surface of a bedding plane, Whitehole Quarry.

(Figure 47) Tufa cascades formed by the precipitation of calcium carbonate, encrusting moss, sticks and stones.

(Figure 48) The underground hydrology of the St Dunstan’s well system.

(Figure 49) A piped cave entrance, Fairy Cave Quarry. The quarry face to the left of the cave entrance is formed along the Withybrook Fault.

(Figure 50) Cross-section through the northern side of the Beacon Hill Pericline.

(Figure 51) Shatter Cave. © Peter Glanvill.

(Figure 52) Aerial photograph of the Nettlebridge Valley area.

(Figure 53) Mendip Colliery, 1962, with the winding gear still intact. Courtesy John Cornwell collection.

(Figure 54) Map of the old coal mines, canals and tramways in the Nettlebridge Valley.

(Figure 55) Hummocky ground left behind after old surface coal workings, Benter.

(Figure 56) Ramsons, a common woodland plant. © Sharon Pilkington.

(Figure 57) Bluebells and stoggle in Harridge Wood. © Sharon Pilkington.

(Figure 58) Disused canal bridge, Edford.

(Figure 59) Aerial photograph of the Gurney Slade and Emborough area.

(Figure 60) Dipping Carboniferous Limestone, Gurney Slade Quarry. Courtesy Somerset Geodiversity Audit.

(Figure 61) Generalised schematic geological cross-section across the northern flank of the Beacon Hill Pericline.

(Figure 62) Unconformity (dotted line) between the dipping Carboniferous Limestone and the overlying Jurassic Downside Stone, Gurney Slade Quarry. Courtesy Somerset Geodiversity Audit.

(Figure 63) Gurney Slade Forge, with tilt hammer. Dr P R Reid, 1933. Courtesy of the John Cornwell collection.

(Figure 64) Kuehneosaurus, a Triassic flying reptile.

(Figure 65) Crags of Clifton Down Limestone exposed in Binegar Quarry.

(Figure 66) Aerial photograph of the Beacon Hill area.

(Figure 67) Conglomeratic sandstone of the Portishead Formation, Beacon Hill.

(Figure 68) Schematic cross-section of a volcano similar to that which produced the Coalbrookdale Formation volcanic rocks.

(Figure 69) A modern day volcano on Montserrat, producing pyroclastic ash-fall deposits similar to the Moon’s Hill volcano.

(Figure 70) Silurian volcanic rocks exposed in Moon’s Hill Quarry. Courtesy Somerset Geodiversity Audit.

(Figure 71) Locomotive on the Waterlip railway at Cranmore, operated by Roads Reconstruction Ltd, circa 1936. Courtesy National Stone Centre, F Davies collection.

(Figure 72) Cranmore Tower.

(Figure 73) Aerial photograph of the Shepton Mallet and the Doulting area.

(Figure 74) Downside Stone exposed in an old quarry, Ham Woods, Croscombe.

(Figure 75) Schematic geological cross-section across the southern limb of the Beacon Hill Pericline, showing the relationship of the Carboniferous, Triassic and Jurassic rocks.

(Figure 76) Doulting Quarry in operation. Courtesy National Stone Centre, F Davies collection.

(Figure 77) Oligokyphus, a mammal-like reptile from the Lower Jurassic.

(Figure 78) St Aldhelm’s Well, Doulting.

(Figure 79) The Inferior Oolite, known locally as Doulting Stone.

(Figure 80) The Inferior Oolite, known locally as Doulting Stone. [Inset].

(Figure 81) Aerial photograph of the Torr Works and Asham Wood area.

(Figure 82) Torr Works Quarry.

(Figure 83) The hydrogeology of the Torr Works to Asham Wood area, showing the movement of groundwater proved by tracer testing using fluorescent dyes. Adapted from University of Bristol Spelaeological Society Proceedings, Vol. 19(1), 1991.

(Figure 84) The Whatley Brook flowing through Asham Woods. The stream here is augmented by pumping from Torr Works.

(Figure 86) Asham Quarry.

(Figure 88) Aerial photograph of the Holwell and Nunney area

(Figure 89) Map of the Holwell quarries, showing the location of the Triassic and Jurassic fissures.

(Figure 90) Neptunian dykes schematic.

(Figure 91) A fissure in the Carboniferous Limestone, infilled with Triassic Mercia Mudstone. Cloford Quarry. © Michael Simms.

(Figure 92) Haramiya, one of the earliest known mammals.

(Figure 93) Haramiya teeth.

(Figure 94) Sketch of the Jurassic unconformity exposed on the Holwell–Whatley road.

(Figure 95) Nunney Castle.

(Figure 96) River Mells, Great Elm.

(Figure 97) Cranmore Woods.

(Figure 98) Moorewood Colliery incline, near Gurney Slade.

(Figure 99) Lepidodendron bark impression, Coal Measures, Radstock.

(Figure 100) Calcite crystals on a Neptunian dyke, Cloford Quarry.

(Figure 103) Vallis Vale.

(Figure 106) Old mill waterworks, Harridge Wood.

(Front cover) Front cover.

(Rear cover) Rear cover.