published 1988
"Do you want a charming place for a picnic combined with a geological ramble ? By all means go to Speeton" suggested the Reverend E. Maule Cole in 1883 and to start our Summer Programme in 1986 we followed his advice. Mr. Ian Alexander led the field excursion on Saturday l3th April and it got off to a good start when Lynden Emery found a vertebra of an ichthyosaur which was some 10cm in diameter. The party then went on to examine the cliff exposures which were much cleaner than they had been in previous years. As the tide went out we were fortunate to find a beach exposure of the lower C and upper D beds, and much time was spent searching in the pools as the tide came in hoping to find good 'Speeton Shrimps'.
Robin Hood's Bay on May 17th was literally a wash out, but despite the poor weather we had the chance to examine the beds of the oxynotum zone (Lower Lias) under the expert guidance of Richard Young and Jim Best from the University of Hull. We managed to find a bed of nodules containing fossil shrimps to keep Ian Alexander happy!
In June we visited Derbyshire in a minibus, led by Sheila Rogers. In the morning she took us to the Limestone reefs at Ricklow and showed us beds full of Gigantoproductids. In the afternoon we were shown round the old copper mines at Ecton Hill and saw how the ore was mined by hand. Members had the chance to pick over the old spoil heaps and view the beautiful scenery, which was as Tom Scott pointed out "a bit different from Holderness!"
In July the Society completed Felix Whitham's guided tour of the Corallian rocks of the Scarborough area (see Humberside Geologist No. 5 for the notes for this excursion). This time we visited Crossgates Quarry at Seamer, Spikers Hill Quarry, Ayton, Silpho Quarry, Suffield Quarry and ended up at Cayton Bay. Thus in the two years we had covered the whole of the Corallian succession in the area.
On September 20th. Mrs Sheila Rogers once more led the Society on a field meeting this time to study Quaternary gravels of Holderness. In the morning the party visited Sandsfield Pit at Brandesburton, where the Boulder Clay, sands and gravels were seen. Mrs. Rogers explained how these deposits were extracted and sorted by grain size. After lunch Mr. Doug Bridger joined the party and demonstrated the differences in the deposits found at Barmston. Members studied the orientation of the pebbles in the Boulder Clay with the aid of Sheila's knitting needles.
Also in September some of our members attended a field meeting of the Leeds Geological Association at Middlegate Quarry, South Ferriby, which was being led by Mike Horne and Felix Whitham.
The 1987 Summer Programme began with a field meeting of the revived "East Riding Boulder Committee", which was well attended. Mr. Richard Myerscough led the meeting on a rather damp and windy day. The leader explained the origins of the boulders and told the party what look for, shouting into the wind on the beach at Cowden. The party also visited Atwick at Barmston. A list of the erratics seen will be given in a future report of the 'Committee'.
In May we returned to Cayton Bay, again under the guidance of Mr. Felix Whitham, this time to look at the Jurassic beds below the Corallian. Many fossils were found in the Cornbrash and Kellaways Beds.
Leicester Museum was visited in June, by minibus. John Martin, the Keeper of Geology, and Dr. Patrick Boylan, Museums Director and Honorary Life Member of the Hull Geological Society, showed us around the exhibits, which include the impressive Cetiosaurus and some fine Jurassic marine reptiles. We were then shown behind the scenes to see how the specimens are prepared, conserved and stored. After lunch in a room provided and a quick look round the non-geological exhibits at the Museum, the party drove to Corby, where John Martin showed us the Middle Jurassic deposits of Cowthick Pit. Many small fossils were collected from the shelly oolites of Lincolnshire Limestone Formation.
On July 18th, Mike Horne led the field meeting to South Ferriby, only to find that we were not the only party there. We started at the Black Band and looked for the Actinocamax plenus belemnite, a specimen of which had been found a few weeks before by Felix Whitham. After studying the lower Turonian Chalk, the party walked down through the Cenomanian, which was rather unfossiliferous that day, to meet the party from the Open University Geology Society on the Red Chalk where we compared notes and chatted for a while. The Upper Jurassic clays proved to be more fossiliferous and soft I Because of the damp weather the afternoon visit to Ulceby was abandoned.
To end the season of field meetings, our President, Mr. Lynden Emery drove us to Rosedale in a minibus on September 27th 1987. Here he demonstrated his love for old railways as well as geology by showing the party the ironstone workings and the railways which served them. The party visited Rosedale Bank Top to see the disused kilns and remains of the railway buildings. After lunch we walked the old trackbed to Sheriffs Pit and tried to prove that it was really 250 feet deep by throwing stones down the shaft. Later we visited the workings on the west side of Rosedale to view the kilns; then we found some fossils which is why we did not get back to Hull until 8-30 pm.!
Once again the Society would like to record its thanks to the leaders of the field meetings, who have often put a lot of time and effort into preparing the trips and producing very professional handouts.
References :
Cole, E.M. 1883. Geological Rambles in Yorkshire. A Brown and Son, Hull. 112 pp.
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