Frodsham Railway and Road Cuttings

Site of Special Scientific Interest · 53.2974, -2.7229

Also within

Cheshire County

Condition (Natural England)

Favourable (3)
UnitFeatureConditionArea (ha)Assessed
SJ518773 Favourable 1.36 2010-05-19
SJ519780 Favourable 1.36 2010-05-19
SJ520780 Favourable 1.36 2010-05-19

Climate exposure

This is about exposure to a nationwide pressure this habitat type carries — not a verdict on this site's own management.

Coastal

Coastal habitats are exposed to sea-level rise and storm erosion. Where hard sea defences sit behind them, there's nowhere landward to retreat to — a squeeze that keeps compressing the habitat no matter how well it's managed.

Geology & landscape

Geological Period: Triassic · Rock Type: Sandstone, Siltstone

Landscape processes: Coastal, Fluvial

Description

Area, 0.9 ha. 2.2 ac. Description The site consists of three separate exposures of the Frodsham Member, a sequence of sandstones representing the upper part of the Triassic Helsby Sandstone Formation. Sedimentary structures present include large scale cross bedding interpreted as having been formed in large dome shaped and transverse desert dunes. Foreset orientations in these dunes indicate that the winds responsible for their formation blew from the east and southeast. At Pinmill Brow the desert dunes are overlain by the Tarporley Siltstone Formation which had a very different origin, being laid down by either marine intertidal or fluvial deposition.