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Date: |
Friday 4th November 2005 |
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Location: |
Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire |
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Leader: |
Dr Jill Eyres |
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Author: |
Don Cameron |
The rain, it raineth all the day……… After our luck in not getting too bogged down in the sandpits the previous day, the heavens decided to open as we headed off to Buckingham where we eventually squelched in to the old sandpit. Most of the sand had been extracted but a few traces were visible in the boulder clay face. Buckinghamshire RIGS group have cleaned up the site, removing rubbish, creating a pond for newts and building walkways and steps to allow access to the quarry faces. Thus, we were able to see that the sand was in the form of lenses within the clay and it was a coarse, relatively unsorted deposit compared to the sands of the previous day, although bedding was visible.
Above left: lens of sand in unsorted glacial till of Anglian age. Above right:: Coombs Quarry, in the rain. Photos © Don Cameron.
We retired to the pub for a long lunch and then braved the torrents on Buckingham High Street back to the carpark and off to Coombs Quarry. We ‘lost’ some attendees in the rain at this point and Jill decided not to walk round the barrows, but to head straight to the quarry. A lone hiker striding across the fields turned out to be one of our number who had walked round the barrows while waiting for the rest of us to arrive. Past the lone pike fisherman under the bridge, across the fields, we entered the Jurassic. The Blisworth Limestone at the Quarry is overlain by the Cornbrash, which is faulted down against it in part of the site and some fossils were found. Despite the weather we looked round the site before Jill’s debrief to set the scene. Then back to the car park, and home, and, inevitably, the rain stopping! Thanks again to Jill for leading a very interesting trip to a new part of the country, and hopefully if we go down to those parts again, the weather might be better.