New Hadley Brickpit

Also within

Shropshire County

Condition (Natural England)

Geology & landscape

Mining / Industrial: Quarry · Geological Period: Carboniferous

Landscape processes: Fluvial

Description

Description New Hadley Brickpit is nationally important and forms part of a network of sites in the English Midlands that contribute individually and collectively to the interpretation of the geological history of the southern margin of the Pennine Basin during the Late Carboniferous. New Hadley Brickpit is the only site selected in the Midlands that exhibits sediments belonging to the Etruria Marl Formation deposited in a high energy alluvial fan setting. General description New Hadley Brickpit is situated in the suburban setting of Hadley to the north west of Telford. The site lies to the north of the Hadley Road, which forms its southern boundary. The boundary comprises exposures of the Etruria formation which are part of the upper coal measures, and resulting from quarrying operations which have taken place over the last century to extract clay. New Hadley Brickpit is a site of outstanding importance for interpreting the geological history of the Late Carboniferous in Britain. The site shows a number of distinctive rock types in the Etruria Formation, of Westphalian Upper Carboniferous age. Of particular interest are channels filled with coarse sandstones and matrix supported conglomerates. Channel forms vary from steep to shallow sided and together with their fills are interpreted as debris flows deposited in alluvial fans at the margins of the basin of deposition. Such marginal deposits in the Etruria Formation are virtually confined to this area and may be attributed to an alluvial fan running off the nearby northeast Shropshire High, an area that was undergoing active uplift at that time This is the onlysite where these sediments and channel features can be clearly demonstrated.