2015 Landscape Trust Weekend Seminar
Rocks, Landforms & Soils - Arnside & Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Saturday May 9th (lectures & field trips) Sunday May 10th 2015 (optional extra field trips)
Venue - Arnside Educational Institute, Church Hill, Arnside. The lecture hall in this well located, community run,
venue can accommodate 100 people and has excellent audio-visual facilities. There is plenty of exhibition space.
Format – this seminar forms part of a series of annual educational events organised by the Landscape Trust, a charity
with 1000 members who support the work of the Arnside & Silverdale AONB. Previous seminars, held at the Arnside
EI, have studied the Kent Estuary (June 2012), Ecology (May 2013) and Landscape History (May 2014). The format of
the event includes short lectures, several field trips and a major weekend exhibition which opens to the public, once
the lectures are finished. This format has proved extremely popular with previous attendees.
Plan for 2015 – The purpose of the weekend is to bring together a group of distinguished speakers to deliver short
educational talks on geology, landforms and soils that are relevant to the AONB. The field trip leaders will then use
some of the wonderful local sites to explore these topics further. We are particularly privileged that Professor Frank
Oldfield will be one of our key speakers. Frank is internationally famous for his work on the dating of palaeoenvironments and he used to live in the Yealands. His 1960 classic paper on later quaternary changes in climate, sea
level and vegetation was based on research at Leighton Moss and Arnside, Silverdale and Thrang Mosses.
Who is this seminar for? The content of the weekend will not be too academic and is aimed at anyone who is keen
to learn more about how our physical landscapes formed. Beginners and geological experts are equally welcome.
Exhibition - This will be open to the public on Saturday from 2.30pm-6.30pm and all day Sunday from 11am-5pm.
Organiser/Chair – Peter Standing, Fell End, Storth, LA7 7LJ Tel 015395 63112 peterstanding@btinternet.com
time LECTURES SATURDAY MORNING MAY 9TH 2015 9.30AM - 1PM
0900 Doors open for registration
Making of the Landscape – tropical marine origins of limestones, different
characteristics of Dalton, Park and Urswick units, shifting plates and migration
0930
northwards, changes in structure during the Variscan Orogeny, introduction to
weathering and erosion and links to our present karst landscapes.
Water – from Rain to Resurgence. How acidified water dissolves bare and sub-soil
limestone to form karst and karren landscapes. How water flow through conduits
1005 and caves to reach the AONB’s springs and resurgences. How much calcium is
dissolved and why some is re-deposited as tufa. The dependence of human
settlements on water from springs, wells and tanks.
Foreign Rocky Visitors. After a recap on the general geology of the Lake District
and its south flowing glaciers, the origins of our local erratic rocks will be explored
1035 including Silurian Rocks, BVGs and Shap Granite. The weathering and erosion
patterns and biofilms of these erratics is very different to bedrock limestone. The
manmade ‘geology’ of the iron work slag deposits will also be explored.
1100 Coffee and Exhibition
Soils, the Earth’s Living Skin – Soil formation and distribution across the AONB
1130 and adjoining areas. How soils links with ecology and biodiversity. The impact of
man on soils through agriculture, drainage, afforestation and pollution.
Palaeo-environments – history of sediment studies at Leighton Moss and Hawes
1200 Water; what the records tell us; the importance of Hawes Water as one of the
UK’s most important quaternary sites; how climate and sea levels have changed.
Man and Rock – the impact of man on our landscapes caused by searching for
1230 iron, quarrying limestone and cemented screes, harvesting limestone pavements,
burning lime, building walls, gates and houses.
1300 Lunch Break and exhibition
Speakers
Dr Peter Standing
Landscape
Geographer
Dr Allan Pentecost
Geo-Microbiologist
Karst Hydrologist
Duncan Woodcock
Geologist
Lancaster University
Prof John Quinton
Soils Scientist
Lancaster University
Prof Frank Oldfield
Liverpool University
Dr Brian Jones
Industrial Historian
The Field Trips
These excursions will complement the lecture programmes and introduce some of the area’s most dramatic and
intriguing geological sites.
At past seminars about 75% of attendees have come to the field trips. On Saturday afternoon the plan is to examine
the geology, geomorphology, hydrology and palaeo-environmental record of the Hawes Water area. In order to
make this possible we will have six field leaders and will split people into two groups. We will coordinate shared car
transport to and from Arnside Educational Institute.
FIELD TRIPS - SATURDAY AFTERNOON, SUNDAY MORNING & AFTERNOON
Field Leaders
1 Saturday
Frank Oldfield
Allan Pentecost
John Quinton
Brian Jones
Peter Standing
Duncan Woodcock
2.15pm -5pm
2 Sunday
9.30am – 12noon
3 Sunday
9.30am-11am
4 Sunday
2pm - 4pm
5 Sunday
2pm – 3.30pm
Other Options
Hawes Water Area – formation of Hawes Water & Little Hawes Water,
marl lakes and chara, ancient fresh water molluscs, current hydrology &
springs, palaeo-environmental records and coring demonstration. Soils.
Faults and monoclines, vertical Urswick beds at White Scar, Woodbine
Shale, glacial till, limestone erratic boulders & non-calcareous erratics.
Thomas Middleton’s 1620 New Park enclosure wall.
Grade – easy walking 1-2 miles in a stunningly beautiful area
Arnside coastal geology and geomorphology – features our three local
limestone formations - Dalton, Park and Urswick plus fossil beds, faults,
folds, estuaries and saltmarsh.
Grade – up to 3 miles with some rough ground and ascent up to 160m
Crooklands Millennium Wall and Drumlins (near HQ of the National
Dry Stone Walling Association) The wall includes a wonderful cross
section of British walling stones with explanations of their geology. The
surrounding drumlin field is one of the finest in England.
Grade – short easy walk on level in a very charming location that not
too many people have discovered
Keer Estuary – the slag deposits from the former Carnforth Iron Works
have produced an astonishing display of manmade geology which
demonstrates many classic features of volcanic rocks. The walk also
explores the Keer Estuary and offers an overview of Warton Crag.
Grade – easy level walking mostly on tracks; 1-2 miles
Trowbarrow Quarry – a view inside the Silverdale Disturbance
monocline with vertical and overturned beds of Urswick limestone, the
eroded trough of Woodbine Shale, palaeokarst and fossils - all in a
spectacular location.
Grade – easy level walk of 1mile -1.5 miles
Gait Barrows - depending on demand, there may be an extra field trip
covering the formation of limestone pavements, grikes, clints, runnels
and kamenitzas and other karren features and erosion rates.
Peter Standing
Brian Jones
Duncan Woodcock
Duncan Woodcock
Peter Standing
The Exhibition – Cliffs, Coasts and Mosses of the AONB
The exhibition will also complement the lectures and field trips and showcase the area’s most dramatic geological
sites. We have gathered a collection of stunning landscape images which will be displayed in location based groups.
Cumbria - Arnside Coast, Storth and Sandside, Beetham and Hale, Holme Park and Hutton Roof, Whitbarrow.
Lancashire – Gait Barrows, Hawes Water, Trowbarrow Quarry, Warton Crag, the Yealands, Silverdale Coast, Keer
Estuary.
Local geological societies and conservation bodies will also have displays.
Booking Form
Rocks, Landforms and Soils Study Weekend - Arnside & Silverdale AONB
May 9th 10th 2015, Arnside Educational Institute, Church Hill, Arnside
Saturday field trip to Hawes Water limited to 50 places in two groups
Sunday field trips limited to 20 places for each trip
All the field trips will share some common ground and will demonstrate the rocks, landforms and soils of
the sites visited. But the trips will have different focuses building on the material presented during the
morning lectures. Pre- booking for the Saturday afternoon Hawes Water trip is essential. If field trips aren’t
for you, it is fine just to book for the lectures. And if you only want to attend the lectures and Saturday
afternoon field trips that is ok – the Sunday field trips are optional extras.
AONB ROCKS, LANDFORMS & SOILS STUDY
WEEKEND
BOOKING FORM
Name (s)
Confirmation of booking and any final briefings and pre-study
material will be sent out by e-mail.
For those without e-mail, confirmation will be by telephone.
Address
Telephone
E-mail
Are you a member of the Landscape Trust?
Lecture Places required
Field Trip Places required
Any preferences for field trips?
Where did you hear about this event?
I enclose payment for
……... Lecture Places at £6 per person
….….. Field Trip Places at £5 per person (this is per weekend not per trip) for non-members Total……………………
of the Landscape Trust. If you join the landscape Trust by May 10th this £5 will be refunded.
….….. Field Trip Places are free for LT members who have booked for the lectures
Please make cheques payable to The Arnside/Silverdale AONB Landscape Trust
Please send or deliver your completed booking form and payment to
Landscape Trust 2015 May Seminar, AONB Office, Old Station Building, Arnside, Cumbria LA5 0HG
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Saturday
Sunday
Sunday
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Sunday
Afternoon
Morning
Morning
Afternoon
Afternoon
Hawes Water Area – six field leaders
Arnside Coastal geology and geomorphology – Peter Standing
Crooklands Millennium Wall and Drumlins – Brian Jones
Keer Estuary – Duncan Woodcock
Trowbarrow Quarry – Peter Standing