Tilton and Holwell, Sunday September 14^th 2003

In keeping with our record of excellent weather for almost all of our 2003 excursion programme, September 14^th also proved to be blessed with superb weather. We were also fortunate that this excursion took us to the prettier parts of our county of Leicestershire, and that we had the services of Roy Clements as leader, someone who knows the rocks of Tilton and Holwell probably as well as anyone. The party of 18 started the day in the long abandoned railway cutting near Tilton on the Hill, which is owned and managed by the Leicestershire and Rutland Trust for Nature Conservation for its excellent exposures of the middle and higher levels of the Lower Jurassic Lias Group (Dyrham, Marlstone Rock and Whitby Mudstone formations). The cutting is managed to show four separate faces which expose the various parts of the sequence, starting with the oldest at the western end and progressing with the prevailing dip to the youngest at the eastern end. Although nature seemed to be taking a particular interest in reclaiming this cutting as her own, there was still much of interest to be seen, and thoughts were stimulated to make us wonder how the conditions fluctuated so markedly to produce such a variety of facies and breaks in deposition, and, indeed, to wonder how on earth ironstones were formed?

Much the same thoughts stayed with us for the visit to the Holwell quarries. But first we had to drive through the best of east Leicestershire (so little appreciated it’s always seemed to me, but especially attractive on such a wonderful day) and through Melton Mowbray to the area of hillocks (caused by ironstone extraction) near the Holwell quarries. Here we took an al fresco lunch. So warm was the sun and so pleasant the surroundings that it was quite an effort to get ourselves into the first stop, Brown’s Hill Quarry. But it was well worth the effort, for, despite duplicating to a certain extent what we’d seen at Tilton, there were sufficient differences and new features to engage everyone. The ‘belemnite pavement’ on top of the Marlstone Rock Formation excited much interest, also the ‘fish bed’ which lay immediately above it and the innumerable small fossils weathered out of the Whitby Mudstone on the bank at the top of the quarry.

Enjoying the geology, and weather, in Brown’s Hill Quarry, Holwell © Andrew Swift

After Brown’s Hill we made the short walk to North Quarry, where the Whitby Mudstone Formation was exposed in a long face. Despite becoming overgrown, enough could be seen to discern the nature of the rocks, and their extremely fossiliferous character. And so, with the bright sun still shining, we thanked our leader for his thorough guidance, and made our way back to our various homes.

Andrew Swift