Ambrose, K, Mcgrath, A, Weightman, G, Strange, P, Lattaway, S, Lott, G, Barrett, D, Dean, S, and Liddle, P. 2012. Exploring the landscape of The National Forest. A walkers’ guide to the landscape and natural environment of The National Forest. Keyworth, Nottingham: British Geological Survey.

The Guide and map is available to purchase from the BGS shop

Figures

Title Page

(Front cover). Cover photographs: Grand old oak tree at Calke Abbey, Derbyshire [SK 367 226]. Photo: Lesley Hextall, courtesy of the National Forest Company. Walking photograph © National Forest Company Underground gypsum mine photograph © BPB UK Ltd Staunton Harrold church photograph © Lesley Hextall, National Forest Company.

(Figure 1) Calke autumn colours. Photograph © Lesley Hextall, courtesy of NFC.

Geology

(Figure 2) Periods of geological time.

(Figure 3) Tectonic plates of the world.

(Figure 4) Reconstruction of the Precambrian subduction zone beneath England and Wales.

(Figure 5) Pyroclastic flow cascades down the mountain side of the Soufrière Hills volcano on Montserrat.

(Figure 6) Old John Tower in Bradgate Park with well-bedded tuffs in the foreground. Reproduced by permission of the Bradgate Park Trust.

(Figure 7) Charnia masoni, the first fossil to be found in Charnwood Forest.

(Figure 8) Polished slab of South Charnwood Diorite — ‘Markfieldite’.

(Figure 9) Swithland slate quarry in Swithland Wood. Note the cleavage.

(Figure 10) Position of various parts of the British Isles during Ordovician times.

(Figure 11) Cleavage and bedding in the Hallgate Member, Bradgate Park. Photograph © Annette McGrath, courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 12) Carboniferous limestone at Grace Dieu quarry.

(Figure 13) Sphenopteris, a typical fossil plant from the Coal Measures.

(Figure 14) Reconstruction of the Triassic braided river flowing around Charnwood Forest.

(Figure 15) Formation of sand dunes on the river bed in relation to the current flow. This shows how the inclination of the cross-bedding in rocks gives the direction of flow of the river that deposited them.

(Figure 16) Charnwood Forest and Mountsorrel could have resembled this Arabian landscape (Nabitah fault zone east of Bishah, Saudi Arabia) in Permian and Triassic times. Photograph © Saudi Geological Survey P.R. Johnson.

(Figure 17) Cubes that were originally salt crystals but have since been replaced by sediment in the Mercia Mudstone.

(Figure 18) Seams of gypsum in the Mercia Mudstone. The seam mined at the Fauld mine is about the thickness of the entire face. Photograph © BGS.

(Figure 19) Ancient wadi infilled with red Triassic sediments, New Cliffe Hill (Stanton) Quarry.

(Figure 20) Typical Thrussington Till.

(Figure 21) Woolly mammoths and rhinos like this may have roamed around The National Forest thousands of years ago. Inset: Typical fossil bones representing animals seen in the ice ages, including woolly mammoth tusk and reindeer antler.

(Figure 22) Crystals of calcite with sulphides (top); copper minerals from Bardon (middle); galena crystals in dolomitised limestone (bottom). Photograph © Gill Weightman, courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 23) Underground working at the Fauld gypsum mine. Photograph © BPB United Kingdom Limited.

(Figure 24) Alabaster tomb in St Peter’s Church, Yoxall. It is dated 1564 and was carved in Burton. Photograph © Robert Morris, courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 25) Southern part of Staunton Harold reservoir. Photograph © Lesley Hextall, courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 26) Disused water tower beside a Swithland Slate quarry in Swithland Wood. Photograph © Annette McGrath, courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 27) Willesley opencast pit, in 1971.

(Figure 28) Diagram of a typical bell pit.

(Figure 29) Aerial view of New Cliff Hill (Stanton) Quarry. This quarry has now ceased working and is being backfilled with overburden from Old Cliffe Hill Quarry which has reopened. Today, ‘New’ Cliffe Hill is referred to as ‘Stanton Quarry’ and ‘Old’ Cliffe Hill simply as ‘Cliffe Hill’.

(Figure 30) Lorry being filled with crushed aggregate, Cloud Hill Quarry.

(Figure 31) Sand and gravel workings in the Trent Valley at Newbold.

(Figure 32) a The Millhouse, Bardon Hill Quarry c.1910. b Steam drilling at Bardon Hill Quarry c.1920. Photographs a and b © Aggregate Industries UK. Used by kind permission.

(Figure 33) Swithland slate headstones.

(Figure 34) Great Pit, Swithland Wood.

(Figure 35) Recycled Swithland slate roof tiles. Note their highly irregular form.

(Figure 36) Sharpe’s pottery visitor centre in Swadlincote. Photograph C Christopher Beech courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 37) Ibstock brick quarry working the Mercia Mudstone Group.

(Figure 38) Western entrance of the Ticknall tramway tunnel going into the former limeworks.

(Figure 39) Painting of the former quarry at Dimminsdale in the Ticknall Limestone. Photograph © Leicestershire County Council Museums Service.

(Figure 40) Cave formed by limestone mining at Ticknall.

(Figure 41) Houses in Quorn built in Charnian stone with Swithland slate roofs.

(Figure 42) The church at Weston-on-Trent. This is built mainly of Bromsgrove Sandstone, with some Carboniferous sandstone.

(Figure 43) Breedon Brooch. Photograph © Leicestershire County Council Museum Service.

(Figure 44) Excavation showing Roman kilns at Ravenstone, Leicestershire. Photograph © Peter Liddle, courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 45) Grace Dieu priory.

(Figure 46) One of the Saxon carvings in Breedon Church. Photograph © Peter Liddle, courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 47) Ashby Castle. Note the thick wall built of rubble stone, with the smooth facing sandstone.

(Figure 48) Calke Abbey.

(Figure 49) Steam cooperage at Bass Brewery, Burton upon Trent and Breweries in Burton upon Trent from the River Trent. Photographs © The National Brewery Centre Archive.

(Figure 50) Landscape character areas of The National Forest.

(Figure 51) Bluebells at Burroughs Wood near Ratby, Leicestershire, a Woodland Trust site in The National Forest. Photograph © The National Forest Company.

(Figure 52) Tatenhill village. Photograph © The National Forest Company.

(Figure 53) Lount Nature Reserve — formerly Lount Colliery.

(Figure 54) Rolling landscape of the Melbourne parklands.

(Figure 55) Key to walk maps.

Walk 1: A walk from The National Forest Waterside Centre to Acresford

(Figure 56) Face of old quarry in the Kidderminster Formation at Acresford, showing sandstone, pebble sandstone and conglomerate. The face is about 8 m high.

(Figure 57) Walk 1 route map Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database rights 2011.

(Figure 58) Wall in Netherseal built on an outcrop of Bromsgrove Sandstone.

Walk 2: Black gold at the heart of The National Forest

(Figure 59) The ‘Conkachoo’ train connects the Conkers Waterside to the Discovery Visitor Centre. Photograph © Charlie James, courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 60) Hicks Lodge opencast site. Photograph © UK Coal.

(Figure 61) Walk 2 route map. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database rights 2011.

(Figure 62) Ashby Woulds Heritage Trail, the line of an old railway track.

(Figure 63) Meandering paths at Donisthorpe Woodland Park, created on the site of the former Donisthorpe Colliery, which closed in 1990.

(Figure 64) Reedbeds at ‘Thortit Lake’, Willesley Wood, another mining flash.

(Figure 65) Walking on one of the many paths through Willesley Wood. Photograph © Annette McGrath, courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 66) Section of the Ivanhoe Way long-distance footpath, as it enters the woodland of Newfield Colliery.Photograph © Annette McGrath, courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 67) View inside one of the old limekilns close to Moira Furnace and the Ashby Canal. Photograph © Annette McGrath, courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 68) The rewatered Ashby Canal between Conkers Waterside Visitor Centre and Moira Furnace. Sarah’s Wood can be seen on the far side of the canal. Photograph © Annette McGrath, courtesy of NFC.

Walk 3: Breedon to Melbourne and Staunton Harold

(Figure 69) Breedon church and quarry from the air.

(Figure 70) Walk 3 route map. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database rights 2011.

(Figure 71) Breedon quarry form the viewing area.

(Figure 72) Melbourne church.

(Figure 73) Melbourne Hall and gardens.

(Figure 74) Centre of Melbourne with a typical Georgian building in the background.

(Figure 75) Northern end of Staunton Harold reservoir.

(Figure 76) Pond at Melbourne with the parish church in the distance.

Walk 4: Broombriggs and Woodhouse Eaves

(Figure 77) Windmill at the top of Windmill Hill, Woodhouse Eaves. Photograph © Gill Weightman, courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 78) Walk 4 route map. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database rights 2011.

(Figure 79) Charnian tuffs exposed at the top of Windmill Hill. Photograph © Gill Weightman, courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 80) Swithland Reservoir dam. Note the block of Mountsorrel granodiorite in the foreground. Photograph © Gill Weightman, courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 81) Pestilence Cottage, Woodhouse. Photograph © Gill Weightman, courtesy of NFC.

Walk 5: Hanbury to Fauld crater

(Figure 82) Fauld crater Photograph © Tony Waltham, courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 83) Walk 5 route map. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database rights 2011.

(Figure 84) Gypsum workings associated with Fauld mine. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database rights 2011. BPB United Kingdom Limited.

(Figure 85) Looking over the Dove valley.

(Figure 86) Greaves Wood.

Walk 6: Foremark Reservoir and Carver’s Rocks

(Figure 87) Carver's Rocks.

(Figure 88) Walk 6 route map. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database rights 2011.

(Figure 89) The southern end of Foremark Reservoir near carver;s Rock.

(Figure 90) Kidderminster Formation in the road cutting.

Walk 7: The former coal mines of Swannington and Snibston

(Figure 91) The former Snibston Colliery.

(Figure 93) Swannington incline today.

(Figure 95) View near Swannington looking across former opencast coal workings. Swannington windmill is in the distance.

(Figure 96) Model horse and winding gear for extracting coal from a bellpit. In the background is a former bellpit with winding gear.

(Figure 97) Headgear of the former Calcutta Pit, Swannington. This pumped all the water out of the Leicestershire coalfield up to 1991.

Walk 8: A walk to examine the building stones of Burton upon Trent walk

(Figure 98) Burton upon Trent from Tower Woods. Photograph C Christopher Beech courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 100) Contrasting sandstone building blocks: on the left, Millstone Grit in the wall of Trent Bridge, Burton. Note the clear parallel lamination and cross-bedding (pp.8 and 10) in the blocks. On the right, finer-grained Bromsgrove Sandstone, seen in several buildings.

(Figure 101) Lloyds Bank building in Burton High Street. This is constructed using Millstone Grit sandstione but note the distinctive columns made of Scottish granite.

(Figure 102) Market Hall in Burton with the distinctive carved bull’s head. The stone frontage is built of Millstone Grit sandstone.

(Figure 103) The war memorial in Burton upon Trent, built of Portland Stone.

(Figure 104) The newer, yellowed Portland Stone facade of the 1938–39 municipal offices with the older Victorian (1878) Town Hall clock tower facade of pale Lincolnshire Limestone (Ancaster Stone) and red brick.

(Figure 105) The ‘Abbey Inn’ with its Triassic dressed sandstone stone blockwork. It contains part of the original Benedictine Burton Abbey Infirmary. It is on the river just south of the Market Hall.

(Figure 106) St Chad’s church.

Walk 9: Thornton to Bagworth circular

(Figure 107) View over Thornton reservoir.

(Figure 108) Desford brick clay pit in the Mercia Mudstone Group.

(Figure 110) Concrete block marking the site of the Desford Colliery mine shaft. The manhole in the foreground covers the shaft.

(Figure 111) Bagworth church. The old Norman church here collapsed due to mining subsidence. It was rebuilt in 1968.

(Figure 112) Subsidence flash at Bagworth Heath with the old Desford Colliery headstock wheel on the island.

(Figure 113) Miners’ memorial at Bagworth Colliery.

Walk 10: Ticknall to Staunton Harold Hall and back

(Figure 114) Gigantoproductus. One of the fossils that may be found in the Ticknall limeyards.

(Figure 116) Well-bedded limestones and mudstones of the Ticknall Limestone Formation exposed in the former limeworks at Ticknall.

(Figure 117) Collapsed block of limestone in the Ticknall limeyards.

(Figure 118) Calke Abbey church.

(Figure 119) Snowdrops at Dimminsdale, a nature reserve near Calke. The reserve is owned by Severn Trent Water and managed by the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust. Photograph C Christopher Beech courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 120) Staunton Harold Hall.

The National Forest

(Figure 121) Cycling by The Greenheart Lake. Photograph C Christopher Beech courtesy of NFC.

(Figure 122) A selection of walk leaflets.

(Rear cover).