Stairfoot Brickworks

Also within

South Yorkshire County

Condition (Natural England)

Description

Description Stairfoot Brickworks lies about three kilometres east south east of Barnsley. The site contains exposures of the Aegiranum Marine Band which marks the Duckmantian Bolsovian stage boundary of the Westphalian Series. The marine band is about four metres thick and consists of black and blue grey shales and mudstones which overlie a thin coal and seatearth. While the lower and upper parts of the marine band only contain fish fragments and Naiadites bivalves, the middle part of the marine band contains a fauna which includes an assemblage of ammonoids including the index species Donetzoceras aegiranum, as well as numerous nautiloids, pectinoid bivalves, gastropods and crinoids. The site provides the best available exposure of the Aegiranum Marine Band within the Pennine Basin as well as the best known exposure of the ammonoid bearing part of the marine band in the world. The site is particularly good for the study of the index species Donetzoceras aegiranum and numerous well preserved adults and juveniles are preserved. The Aegiranum Marine Band at Stairfoot Brickworks is an internationally important horizon for the stratigraphical correlation of the Westphalian Series across much of north west Europe.