View source for Whitsuntide excursion to Nottingham. May 9th to 14th, 1913 - Geologists' Association excursion

== Wednesday, May 14th. Nottingham district and Kimberley ==

'''DIRECTORS''': PROFESSOR H. H. SWINNERTON AND J. W. CARR.

Breakfast at 8. Drive from the Hotel. leaving at 9.30. Luggage must he put ready and labelled before starting. Take sandwiches for lunch.

Examine the section described and figured in the Survey memoir for sheet 126. The beds are divided into upper and lower portions by a thin conglomerate (Bed 6) usually called the "Keuper Conglomerate." In an unpublished note Mr. Edward Wilson speaks of the upper beds as Normal Keuper and the lower as Abnormal Keuper, and lays stress on the peculiar bluish or greenish tinge of the latter as opposed to the yellow sandstones of the upper. He regards all the lower as Keuper. Mr. Shipman drew the line between Keuper and Bunter below certain portions of the sands in bed 5, which dry to a pure white. The Survey class the whole as Bunter. Numerous excavations in the north of the City during the last two years have thrown much light on this question. Though most of these are now closed, it is hoped that such fragmentary exposures as remain will suffice to enable visitors to piece together a sound opinion of their own as to which is the correct interpretation.

Visit the pits of the Nottingham Brick Co. on Carlton Road. These are situated in typical Lower Keuper Marls. At the top there is a thick skerry. Salt pseudomorphs and fibrous gypsum are common.

Drive up Carlton Road and Thorneywood Lane to the Mapperley brick pits. On the way note the steep-sided valley in Waterstones; also the plateau-like character of the higher ground. This is duc to a thick skerry band which is well seen, capping the clay in the pits. In these pits, gypsum is absent, and pseudomorphs are rare. Much of the skerry waste shows the peculiar contorted laminar structure described by Mr. B. Smith (1910).

Walk through the pits, and on to Woodthorpe, where some shallow, road cuttings show the same beds as those seen at Sneinton. Unfortunately neither place shows the junction with undoubted Bunter.

Drive from Scout Lane to Sherwood, and thence, via Hucknall Road, to Bulwell. At Sherwood there are several shallow exposures showing the actual junction of Keuper with undoubted Bunter. There is also a fine road section of typical Water. stones, from which footprints and ,fossil fishes have been obtained. At one point, Hucknall Road runs through a deep cutting in Bunter.

Near Bulwell church is a pit in gravel, which contains a few dreikanters, and rests on deep red Lower Bunter.

The quarries at Bulwell are in Magnesian Limestone, and the brick and pottery pits are in Permian Marl. The Marl is overlain by soft red sandstone, usually taken to be Bunter; but though the Marl is the Middle Permian Marl, there is no sign of a break between it and the sandstone. A few minutes' walk away is a fine exposure of Lower Mottled Sandstone close to the G.N.R.

Walk to Anderhill, and drive thence to Kimberley. Tea at the Great Northern Hotel, 1s. each.

In the Great Northern Railway cutting and goods yard the Marl Slates and Permian Breccia are well exposed, but the underlying Coal Measures are now masked.

Drive back to Nottingham; Cost of drive, 2s. 6d. Return train to London 7.14, due Marylebone 9.55. Restaurant car on train.