Exploring the rocks and cobbles

In the area around where Tottington Mill once stood you can discover much about the history of the area and Britain.

Taking a closer look at the rocks in the cobbled paths

Beneath the superficial deposits of clays and sands are the solid rocks. There are no readily accessible exposures of these rocks along the line of the walk.

However material representative of these rocks is to be seen in many places along the walk. In particular there are sandstones, buff in colour and tough, which have been worked in local quarries and used extensively in building construction.

Specimens also occur as setts in old roadways and as individual blocks. The sandstones (and associated strata, which include seams of coal) belong to the Carboniferous Period of geological time, so are about 300 million years in age.

These rocks were formed as deposits of sand in a vast delta, in which subsidence allowed the accumulation of enormous thicknesses of sediment. Passage of underground water through the sands has introduced natural cementing materials, such as silica, which made these sandstones very tough.

The coal seams were formed as forest swamps. The magnetic properties of these Carboniferous rocks indicate that they were formed when Britain was on, or close to, the Equator.

... you are nearing the end of the walk...