Linton Quarry

Also within

Herefordshire County

Condition (Natural England)

Geology & landscape

Mining / Industrial: Quarry · Geological Period: Silurian · Rock Type: Limestone, Sandstone

Description

Area, 1.2 ha. 2.9 ac. Description Linton Quarry contains the most accessible, best available and best documented Silurian rocks in the Gorsley inlier, which are important in interpreting the palaeogeography and evolution of the southern Welsh Borderland during the Wenlock and Ludlow times. It exposes the Gorsley Limestone which forms the base of the succession in the quarry. Since the time of Murchison the Gorsley Limestone has been variously regarded as the equivalent of the Wenlock Limestone, or the equivalent of the younger Aymestrey Limestone Gorstian Stage, of mid Ludlow age Upper Silurian. Opinion is still somewhat divided though the consensus is that it is the same age as the Wenlock Limestone. Linton Quarry also exposes rocks of undisputed Ludlow age which are of particular interest in being very condensed compared with the more normal thickness of Ludlow deposits present in the adjacent Silurian inliers at Woolhope and May Hill. The Ludlow sequence at Linton Quarry, a six metres section comprising the Lower and Upper Siltstones, the Pridoli Upper Phosphatic Pebble Bed and Clifford’s Mesne Sandstone, provides evidence that this area was probably a depositional high the Gorsley Axis, or an area of active uplift during Ludlow times. This evidence is provided by the presence of unconformities major breaks in sedimentation between the formations. Additional interest is provided by the siltstones which contain large fragments of land plants and a diverse, abundant and well preserved spore assemblage.