Apedale Geotrail

APEDALE GEOTRAIL

Apedale is Staffordshire's newest country park with open meadows, woodland, ponds, wildlife & rich in paths & nature trails. The area was formerly mined for coal & other minerals but this industrial past has all but vanished.

Special thanks to Drs. I. Stimpson & P. Knight of Keele University who inspired this cache during a field trip organised in Oct 2007. Thanks also to Bob Fletcher, who’s article “How Grey Was My Valley” in the 84th edition of the NSGGA bulletin, filled the gaps in my own knowledge.

SUGGESTED ROUTE

The suggested route for this cache is ca. 4 miles long following public footpaths & clearly marked pathways previously used to support mining during the industrial revolution. The route starts & finishes at the Apedale Heritage Centre, where you will find parking & refreshments. It also takes you on a journey through the geological heritage of the area.

You can find instructions for the suggested route with a downloadable memory map overlay file here However, please bear in mind, the tasks of the earthcache can be completed by taking a slightly shorter direct route if you prefer.

The co-ordinates above are for the car park. There are very good footpaths all around the site. Please do not veer from these footpaths. The fenced areas provide protection for wildlife & hide a maze of mine shafts not marked on official OS maps.

TO LOG THE CACHE YOU MUST COMPLETE 6 TASKS FROM AMONGST THE FOLLOWING STAGES & EMAIL THE ANSWERS TO THE CACHE OWNER VIA GC.COM.

Stage 1 – Apedale Heritage Centre – N53°01.949' W002°15.958'

The Apedale Heritage Centre is a museum to the mining industry in North Staffordshire. It also presides over the site which was once used to mine the Great Row to Bassey Mine coals. If you wish to take a tour down the mine it takes ca. 1 hour & costs £4 for adults & £2 for children & concessions. From here you can see an excellent section through a coal seam with the ironstone roof & soft clay underneath. The combination of coal, ironstone & clay in such close proximity is typical of the blackband ironstones found in North Staffordshire. The Great Row coal was particularly advantageous to the potters since it burnt with a long flame & distributed the termperature evenly within the kiln. (The museum also holds information about the Roman settlement at nearby Holditch dating back to the first century).

TASK – Apedale Country Park has grown out of old opencast land which was once heavily mined for coal. It was not until the early 1990s that opencast workings in the valley finally ceased. However, coal was not the only mineral that was mined in Apedale. In the Heritage centre you will find information about two other materials which were mined at Apedale. What were they?

Stage 2 – Cannel Row Coal Seem - N53°01.995' W002°15.985'

When you come out of the heritage centre you will see a small reserve to your right at the base of a small cliff, showing the weathered exposure of a coal seam. If you look to the top of the cliff you should be able to identify the black layer of the Cannel Row Coal seam. This coal seam lies in the upper coal measures lying closest to the surface of the ground. Its name is derived from “Candle” meaning this coal has a very high hydrogen content & burns very brightly. In times gone by candles were carved from this coal because it burns so brightly.

Stage 3 – The Giant Club-Moss - N53°02.009' W002°15.984'

A little further in to this mini reserve you will see a topograph. Embedded in the walls of the topograph are plaster casts of various fossils found during excavations at Apedale. One of these casts is the fossil of what is known to be the bark of a giant club-moss.

Stage 4 – Ironstone - N53°02.494' W002°16.318'

In addition to the coal measures the various ironstones found at apedale proved to be of equal importance to the industrial heritage & prosperity of the region. with the building of the first blast furnace in 1785, the birth of pig iron production began. by 1839, 600 workers were recorded to be working on the site. this continued to increase as iron production was supported through the building of coking ovens & eventually the apedale canal. (Although the apedale canal no longer exists you can still see the turning basin known as “gresley pool” at N53°02.563' W002°16.289'.)

At N53°02.209' W002°15.960' you will find a piece of Ironstone typical of that mined in the last 2 centuries.

TASK - At N53°02.494' W002°16.318' you will find a piece of rock containing Iron nodules which looks like the picture below. The Ironstone nodules in this picture would have been too insignificant to mine. Roughly how wide (in cm) is the largest of these Ironstone nodules?

Stage 5 – Rocky Outcrop - N53°02.599' W002°16.766'

As you continue along this path you will pass the Apedale Road to Chesterton which passes through several clay pits which have fed the brick factory at Holditch. The best current example in the area of these Etruria Marls can be found at N53°01.139' W002°15.659' (although this Marl Pit is not included on this walk).

Eventually, you will come to a rocky outcrop on your left. This outcrop shows the boundary of the Banbury coal seam. This sandstone is a mature sediment carried by river from France resulting in very even grains in the stone.

Stage 6 – The Apedale Volcano - N53°02.583' W002°17.048'

At the above co-ordinates you will find a style. Do not cross the style, but do take a look at the view. You are now stood in the mouth of the Apedale Volcano, which was live over 300 million years ago!

In 1920/21 Sir John Cadman embarked on a drilling programme seeking oil in North Staffordshire. An exploratory borehole was sunk to 1294m near to Stage 8. No oil was found but instead evidence of what we now know to be a Volcano.

TASK - Much more recently (only 20000 years ago!) the current landscape was formed by the rolling glaciers of the last ice age. Look out over the style & see if you can imagine the ice cliff of a huge glacier to the West, behind a pool of glacial meltwater. It might have looked something like this!

You are also now stood on a central drainage channel, which you will pick up again at Stage 8.

Stage 7 – The Chimney - N53°02.181' W002°16.482'

Robert Edensor Heathcote was the mine & major landowner at Apedale. He was resident in Apedale Hall which is now demolished. However, an unofficial monument to Robert heatchote Esq. remains in the form of a chimney which can be found in Watermills Woods.

The original height of the chimney was 186ft & its purpose was to provide a ventilation shaft for the mine. Only the decorated base remains which bears inscriptions on all four sides.

TASK - What do the four inscriptions on each side of the Chimney say?

At the time of writing the chimney was covered in Scaffold. Let’s hope it’s being restored! Until the scaffold is removed it may be necessary to do some internet research to answer this question.)

Stage 8 – The Apedale Fault - N53°01.874' W002°16.375'

Apedale Fault is a major fault running through North Staffordshire, & possibly beyond. It runs the length of the valley & here has a maximum displacement of around 600m. The start of this walk follows the trail of the Apedale fault through the Apedale valley. It can be seen clearly from this waypoint.

From this viewpoint we again pick up the central drainage channel (or watershed) first referred to at Stage 6. Rainwater falling to the left of this ridge will drain across the cheshire plains & out into the Irish Sea. Rainwater falling to the right will drain into the river Trent & eventually out into the North Sea.

These channels have all been carved out by meltwater from the glaciers which stretched across the West of England from the Irish Sea ca. 20000 years ago. Silverdale, Apedale & Lymedale amongst others were all carved by the meltwater that ran off these glaciers.

TASK - On top of the hill by the mining memorial you will see a circle of railway sleepers each offering a different viewpoint. Using the names on the railway sleeper markers can you identify the names of the features which also lie on the watershed just a few miles to the north & south of this memorial?