Mathon Walk
25th February 2015
Led by Jim Handley & Dick Harris
Overview
This walk was a mostly a repeat of the one done in July 2012. This time the emphasis was on matching the landscape to the underlying geology. This theme arose during the 2014 new members meetings as a subject of interest and may lead to the formation of a new subgroup.
The Walk
The walk followed the same route as in 2012 but with the emphasis changed to matching landscape to specific geological features. The walk started by Mathon Church on Devonian Red Sandstone moving up to the Silurian ridge and Cockshot Hill Quarry with its mixture of Upper and Lower Ludlow Shales and Aymestry Limestone. The line of the Colwall Fault was identified and followed back down into Mathon valley where we studied the old sand and gravel workings and how these had been deposited by the pre-Anglian ice age ‘Mathon River’, the subsequent glacial till and finally solifluction from the surrounding hills (including the Malverns). It was then explained how the pre-Anglian drainage had been modified by the glaciation resulting in the present Cradley Brook flowing in the opposite direction to the earlier ‘Mathon River’.
Finally the eclectic mix of the building stones of Mathon Church were identified revealing examples of most local rocks (Red and Green Sandstones, Malvern Complex, Aymestry Limestone and Calcrete) as well as examples from the Cotswolds and further afield.
Fossil Hunting in the Quarry Quarry Fossils (Brachiopods)
For more details see the write up for July 2012 (click here) .
Dick Harris
February 2015