We have just hosted a regional meeting for the amateur geological groups in Yorkshire who take part in Yorkshire Geology Month.    It was very interesting to see the different approach that other groups take to geological conservation and we picked up lots of ideas from them.     In the afternoon we took the delegates over Castle Hill, using the new leaflet and were able to get some opinions from them on its effectiveness.     We will be involved in Yorkshire Geology Month again in May 2007, so if you have any ideas about activities that we could offer to raise the awareness of geology in this area, we would be very grateful.

The next West Yorkshire R.I.G.S meeting is in room F9 in Greenhead College on Thursday 7th December at 5.30 - 7.00, with refreshments.     We would welcome anyone who is interested in geological conservation in the West Yorkshire area to contribute to the work of this small but successful group, which meets about four times a year.     For more information see www.wyrigs.org.uk

R.I.G.S = Regionally Important Geological and Geomorphological Sites

This is a long term project, funded by the Heritage Fund, largely produced by the Stone Walling group and published by the Kirklees Countryside Unit.     However, Alison would welcome some help and ideas from other members of the Huddersfield Geology Group on how best to go about producing a leaflet like this.     We would also like to have some information on the extraction of stone in the Marsden quarries, as well as the social history of the area.

If you can contribute, please contact Alison Quarterman.

About 12 of us had a very intense geological session in the Pule Hill area looking at shales and sandstones and working out the environments in which they were deposited.     Ian Chisholm had taken us on a similar trip last year, so it was interesting to go to the same sites without him and discuss his ideas.     We visited the clough off Mount Road about Marsden to investigate the marine band and the evidence for shallowing waters at that time.     Plenty of interesting ideas were discussed, so it was a very stimulating afternoon.

Meet at the top of Short Bank Rd, Skipton (SE 0016 5117) at 10.00
A circular walk of about 6 miles over high grassy moorland.
Packed lunch and waterproofs required.
Contact Neil or on 01943 839087 for more further information.

The focal point of Clitheroe in the Ribble Valley is the ancient Norman Keep which sits proudly on top of one of the famous Waulsortian mud mounds, which typify this part of the Craven Basin (Bowland Basin).     The mud mounds and surrounding facies are composed predominantly of carbonate sediment with limestone being the dominant rock type.     The quarries of Clitheroe are internationally famous for their rich and diverse crinoid fauna with Salthill Quarry Nature Reserve, Coplow Quarry and Bellman Quarry attaining SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) status for their exceptional crinoid fauna.

The genesis and development of the Carboniferous basins of northern England has continued to attract much debate.     Recent seismic reflection data have proved consistent with the extensional model for basin formation.     The early Mississippian is characterised by rift basins, half-grabens and tilt blocks.     This diverse structural topography probably reflects the underlying pre-Carboniferous basement.     Late Mississippian to Pennsylvanian is characterised by less frequent rifting and more widespread thermal subsidence and deposition typically characterised by the large influx of clastic sediment from the Millstone Grit Group.

Mississippian crinoid remains in the form of dissociated plates, fragments of stems and masses of crinoidal limestone have, from early times, attracted the attention of both the naturalist and the curious and such names as "Screw Stones" and "St. Cuthbert's Beads" were given to them.     Not until the beginning of the 19th Century did any detailed investigation as to their significance take place.    The first serious scientific work on crinoids appeared in 1821 by J.S. Miller "A Natural History of the Crinoids".     Miller's specimens though came from the Bristol area.     The real merit of Miller's work is that the morphology and classification of the crinoids are discussed and the genera and species placed on a sound basis.     Of more local interest and significance was the appearance in 1836 of John Phillip's second volume of "Illustrations of the Geology of Yorkshire - The Mountain Limestone District" in which Plates III and IV contain figures of 32 species of crinoids from this district.     Thereafter in this country, in the USA and in Europe, the study of the Mississippian crinoids gathered momentum resulting in an extensive bibliography (Wright 1949).     So far as the local fauna is concerned it is to James Wright and Stanley Westhead that we are indebted for their meticulous investigation into the Crinoidea of the Clitheroe limestone's.