Amazing day out for a small (but beautiful) group of TVGS members (pictured in front of the main bedding plane at Memorial Crags).

Mike Howe (BGS) was allocated as host, mentor and tour leader for this famous geological area.

A shaken squash bottle of motley sediments illustrated how layers form in water.

 

A pristine display of local rocks and some casts of Precambrian fossils, including the world famous Charnia masoni, set us up for the day’s events.

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We inspected the walls of Mount St Bernard Abbey,

We visited Precambrian outcrops of the Blackbrook Group and saw the impressive unconformity in Morley Quarry

 

 

 

A car ride to The Bomb Rocks on a heathland Nature Reserve preceded a quick lunch at the Abbey Tea Rooms. (Note from Julie–this is now considered to be boulders in a poorly sorted matrix – we actually think it’s a debris flow, not volcanic bombs)

 

 

The afternoon was spent in Bradgate Park once the home of Lady Jane Grey.  Allegedly the ancient oaks were pollarded simultaneously with her beheading.

 

Some of the park crags are a spectacular development of the

Sliding Stone Slump Breccia and Hanging Rock Formations and those of us struggling with the geological definitions were beguiled by these names.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ended the trip, exhausted and exhilarated with a specially arranged visit to an exclusive fossil site.  The fossil bearing bedding plane covers 25m2 with some 50 fossil impressions.  What a privilege and what a wonderful day out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our sincere thanks to Mike Howe of BGS.

 

 

 

 

This ‘Rotator’ shows more pictures

Thanks to Harriet (Howell) for this piece, with pictures from Lucy (Cornelius) and help from Julie (Harrald) in matching them to the text.