Hull Geological Society

Mike Horne FGS

Unfinished Works

This is unfinished work that has not been edited or peer reviewed by the Society.

Notes on Rifle Butts SSSI ( 2006 )

 'Rifle Butts is a small disused quarry near Goodmanham, East Yorkshire [NGR SE 897 427]. It lies at the bottom of the chalk scarp at the western end of the Goodmanham Channel, glacial spillway, which was cut by glacial meltwaters during the Ice Age. '**

 'The quarry was opened in the 1860s ... It was later bought by a local farmer who then rented it to the local Rifle Club until the 1940s. Because geologists thought it to be of national importance the 0.3 hectare site was designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1952, and the designation has been confirmed in national reviews in 1981 and 1987. ' ** [note -  we were originally informed by the warden that the site was opened to provide material for the construction of the North Eastern Railway line from Market Weighton, but the warden has since told me that this is not true.]

 [I thought that John Neale had been involved in the move to get it designated as a SSSI in the early 1950s. He had started work on a Ph D thesis in the Market Weighton area and had spent some time on fieldwork and mapping, before abandoning the project and tackling the Speeton Clay instead. But Patti Neale tells me that John was not involved, but she thinks that Lewis Penny had something to do with it.]

 In 1962 'The [Hull Geological] Society gave a donation of £10 to the Rifle Butts Quarry Preservation Fund' *

 'The site was bought by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust on June 30th 1964 and was excavated at that time by the Yorkshire Geological Society. A concrete retaining wall was built which can still be seen at the left hand end of the site.'**

 'In 1987 a new and enlarged exposure was cut by the Nature Conservancy Council and Community Rural Aid.' ** The N C C approached the Hull Geological Society and requested that the Society adopt the site and that  members make regular visits to keep the exposure clear of vegetation.

 'After discussions with the Nature Conservancy Council, the Society agreed to 'informally adopt' the Rifle Butts Quarry SSSI" and annual conservation visits to the site started in 1988, as part of the Society's Centenary Summer Programme.

 By 1991 members realised that they were actually removing quite a lot of loose rock from the face that had been loosened by frost in the winter. After discussions the YWT warden tried putting straw over the face for the following winter, but that did not solve the problem. 

 We then thought that keeping the face dry would mean that there would be less moisture in the rock to be affected by the frost. Donald Beveridge and Harry Thompson came up with a proposal to build a roof over the site.

 'In 1993 a roof was erected over the exposure to protect it from rain and weathering. This project cost £6,500 and was funded by the Curry Fund of the Geologists' Association, English Nature and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. '**

The gate to the Nature Reserve was kept padlocked and the Secretary of the HGS became a designated keyholder and was allowed to lend the key to bona fide geological visitors and parties, as a condition of the grant from the Curry Fund.

 When applying for planning permission of the structure, Donald was asked if it was an agricultural building:- there is no VAT on the construction of agricultural buildings so we were able to increase the width (and thus area covered by the roof) by 15% for the same price!

 The roof was 'was erected in October 1993 and after a few problems the rock-filled gabions were installed in December, to support the bulging face of the original exposure. When the footings for the roof were being dug, samples of the blue Jurassic clay were collected and sent to interested scientists for dating. These results are eagerly awaited, extra material has been deposited at Hull Museum.' ***

 'The building work was carried out by Chris Marsden Structural and Civil Engineering of Brough on behalf of J.N.T. Engineering of Hull. Donald Beveridge, Lynden Emery and Mike Horne designed the notice board which was typeset by Hull University and made by Shelley Signs of Eaton-on-Tern in Shropshire..' *** The noticeboard is made of fibre glass coat about £1000 (I think).

 'An official re-opening of Rifle Butts was held on l9th March [1994]. The reopening was attended by Lesley Blainey of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Eric Robinson of the Geologists' Association and Mike Harley of English Nature. On behalf of the Hull Geological Society, Judith Bryce thanked these representatives of the funding bodies for their help. ' Following the re-opening in the morning,  Donald Beveridge and Mike Horne gave a talk to the Yorkshire Geological Society at their meeting in the Grammar School Museum in Hull, entitled "Conserving a SSSI".

 Since then The Hull G S has continued to include a "Spring Clean" visit to Rifle Butts to cut back the brambles before they start to grow again and clean loose material off the face.

 In 2005 the YWT removed the padlock from the gate and allowed open public access to the site, as a condition of a Lottery Grant for some other conservation work at the site.

 In recent years [dates ]  members have become concerned about the development of a slump in the chalky gravelly soil above the rock face under the roof. There is definite movement with a white chalk face developing just underneath the back footings of the roof and the wire mesh netting that is over the grassy slope being pulled tight. Parts of the soil, held together by plant roots, overhangs the face. We wondered about cleaning away the overhang but have decided that the removal of material from the toe of the rotational slump would accelerate the movement. The present slump is in from of the roof supports and there has been no movement in the roof or supports yet. Long term another rotation slump is likely to appear behind the present one and that is likely to bring the back of the roof down with it.

 Our knowledge of the exact nature of the geology of the site has been a bit vague at times. There is obviously  Cenomanian Lower Chalk [Ferriby Formation] and Albian Red Chalk there unconformably overlying Jurassic Rocks. Some authors have said that there is Carstone present (? Neale amoungst others I think). But I wonder if they thought that the ferruginous beds beneath the Red Chalk was the Carstone? There are certainly small lydian pebbles similar to the ones found in the Carstone in the lower parts of the Red Chalk at Rifle Butts.

 The opportunity to record the section at the base of Arras Hill on the Market Weighton By-pass during its construction in 1990 threw some light on the problem. 'On a later visit, in October [1990] (see Humberside Geologist no.8, page 26) Judith Bryce found a specimen of Dactyloceras tenuicostatum ([Hull Museums] specimen no. DB1990.8.82), preserved in an ironstone nodule from the blue and brown clays beneath the Red Chalk (NGR SE889415), suggesting an early Toarcian date for these beds.'  ****The beds seen at the by-pass were very similar to those seen at Rifle Butts, and although we do not have any biozoantion date for them at Rifle Butts we used the Toarcian date in the leaflets and notice board.

 References

* Horne M  1989, The History of the Hull Geological Society. Humberside Geologist 7. 40pp. 

 - 1991, [Rifle Butts SSSI]. Humberside Geologist 8, 30. 

**** - , L Emery , S Mitchell & F Whitham 1995. The geology of the Market Weighton bypass. Humberside Geologist 11, 25-33. 

 ***- 1995. Notes and Comments. Humberside Geologist 11, 69-70.  

** - & Dutton C 1999. Rifle Butts SSSI. Humberside Geologist 12, 37-39

[Robinson E] 1994. Rifle Butts, an everyday story of country folk in a geological sense. Geologists' Association Circular 904, 5-6 and front cover.

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