reading rocks

Send us Fan MailThere can’t be another short walk in the country where you can search out the fossil plants and animals from hundreds of millions of years ago including the oldest recorded amphibian footprints, walk across evidence of ancient earthquakes, touch rocks that were once 1200° molten magma and see the debris left by the last ice sheet to cover England, stroll past the site of a 10,000 year old Stone Age house, search out the tree stumps of a drowned forest where those Mesolithic people hunted, gaze at reefs that wrecked over 20 ships, look enviably of the bathing house built by a Prime Minister who invented a different cup of tea, smell kippers been smoked and all the time be surrounded by amazing wildlife. 

Send us Fan MailThis the final part of this rail journey from close to the west coast of England to the east coast, starts in Hexham and finishes in Newcastle upon Tyne. On the way there's a little discussion about geological maps and their availability and accuracy. But mainly we'll be looking at the geology and landscape - the river deposits and the valley - the challenge such valley routes present to engineers and the coal that was is important to not only the economy of this line - but also to the invention of railways themselves. 

Send us Fan MailWe got as far as Brampton station last time. We have changed bedrock from the red Triassic sandstones of the west to 335 to 310 million year old Carboniferous strata – a repeating mix of layers of sandstone, shale, limestone and coal. A product of different past environments when the tectonic plate we were part of was on the Equator.  Back then the land and sea kept changing places. Shallow coral seas produced the limestones, when sea level fell the environment became brackish coastal muddy lagoons – laying down the shales, which were then covered by sand from large rivers – the sandstones, and in turn they were covered by vegetation and swamps – ultimately decaying and compacting to form coal seams.  That repeating sequence of rocks – initially with more marine deposits like limestone and as we get closer to Newcastle – more land deposits like sand, mud and coal – is the story of the Carboniferous. Not that we will see much of it directly, this rail journey takes us through a landscape who’s shape and sediments owes most to that last glaciation, its melting and the action of rivers and gravity since. 

Send us Fan MailOur journey starts in Carlisle and heads east. In a nutshell in terms of bedrock geology we begin on rock that is around 250 million years old from the Triassic period and as we head eastward travel over progressively older rocks crossing into 330 million year old Carboniferous strata around Brampton Station. Then we are on Carboniferous all the way to Newcastle – and once we get past Ovingham we start to cross younger Carboniferous rocks with many coal seams. That’s the bedrock geology – and natural rock outcrops are something we will rarely see – the biggest impact on the landscape we will travel through and most other northern landscapes are much younger deposits from the last glacial period 20000 years ago and the even younger river deposits that cover the glacial debris in the valleys. But that is more than enough of a preamble – time to head into Carlisle Citadel Station.

Send us Fan MailWelcome to the most remote and wildest part of our region. It’s a place where the skies are darker and the stars shine brighter. Where ospreys feel safe enough to hunt and nest. Where red squirrels, goshawks and pine martens all feel at home and where other long disappeared species may soon be encouraged to make a comeback. Its Kielder’s landscape that makes that possible and it is its rocks that are the literal foundation of that.This is a stunning place, one with a fascinating future and an amazing geological past. I’m hoping this podcast – and the accompanying booklet – will want to make you hike to these places, bike to them, or ride to them. You will visit some of the most out-of-the-way places in England and help you discover just how different our past and its environments have been.  

Send us Fan MailThese podcasts originally started as abstracts from some of the 260 places in the 5 rock books. They are themed differently to the books – by geological time, the relevance of rocks and most recently Series 3 and 4 took journeys along Hadrian’s frontier and down the 4 big northern rivers. Along the way podcasts have been evolving and some other geology not in the books has been getting a mention. My thinking is to continue that trend - , but first of all to do a taster – a bit of an easy cheat really because this trial episode draws heavily on an article I wrote for the Friends of the Settle to Carlisle Railway Line last year.If it works I will add some more podcasts to series 5, but because I will have to do a bit of travelling and writing they will probably appear interleaved with other stories in other different series – I’m working on the assumption that you listeners will just pick and choose from the series you want to hear. Shout if I haven’t got that right.  You might think that’s more than enough of a prelude – but there’s more. Let’s do that on board the train.

Send us Fan MailI know the River Wear starts at the confluence of several streams at the eponymous Wearhead, but we are going a little way up one of thse streams to Killhope. We will pick up a tale of lead mining there -  the geology related to the mineral wealth of the North Pennines will be the thread that joins a lot of the stories in first part this episode. Then after a little Whin Sill and some elegant Carboniferous monuments its time for some younger rocks – rocks for which Durham is world famous – The Permian

Send us Fan MailA journey from source to sea but this time the Irish sea. The River Eden starts in the south and flows north before turning west near Carlisle and heading to the Solway estuary. There are quite a few places we’ve already visited along the river in previous podcasts so we’ll do a quick recap and you can always click on the earlier episodes if you’d like to know more.

Send us Fan MailSince the last episode we and the  river have flowed past Newbrough with its definite Roam road and indefinite Roman fort and go and on through Hexham. Both places described in previous episodes. The Tyne is now a single river. Waters meet was passed at Acomb.  Hexham is worth a pause anyway. Its fine Abbey and medieval buildings – many made with robbed – sorry repurposed – Roman Stone described in series 3. from Corbridge also passed and its Roman Town Coria or Corstopitum -  with its main street made of cobbles from the River Tyne - The remaining Roman stones of its immense granaries and town buildings are a fraction of what was there after those medieval builders robbed the town to construct Hexham! Riding Mill and Stocksfield are behind us as well and we are now near Mickley, Eltringham to be precise.

Send us Fan MailWe begin quite a way up the South Tyne Valley – appropriately at a place called Tynehead to try to get to the bottom of the many stories about the Romans and silver mining in the north. The metals theme continues with stops and stories at a prehistoric barrow at Kirkhaugh and a Roman fort thought by some but not all to be positioned to protect Roman state lead mining. The episode ends beside the South Tyne at Beltingham -  which tells a different story about mining metals in the North Pennines.