... -.>..,.. TECHNICAL REPORT WA/88/33 Geology and land-use planning: Morley-Rothwell-Castleford 1:lOOOO sheets SE22NE; SE32NW, NE, SE; and SE42NW: Part of 1:50000 sheet 78 (Wakefield) J R A Giles BRITISH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY TECHNICAL REPORT WA/88/33 Onshore Geology Series Geology and land-use planning: Morley-Rothwell-Castleford 1:lOOOO sheets SE22NE; SE32NW, NE, SE; and SE42NW: Part of 1:50000 sheet 78 (Wakefield) J R A Giles Geographical index UK, England, West Yorkshire Subject index Land-use planning, thematic maps, Quaternary, Carboniferous, Permian, resources, mining, engineering geology This study was commissionedby the Departmentof the Environ- ment, but theviews expressed in it are not necessarily those of the Department Bibliographic reference Giles, J R A. 1988. Geology and land-use planning: Morley- Rothwell-Castleford. British Geological Surwy Technical Report WAl88133. 61 Crown copyright 1988 Keyworth,Nottingham British GeologicalSurvey 1988 BRITISH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY The full range of Survey publications is available through the Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG Sales Desks at Keyworth and Murchison House, Edinburgh. e Plumtree (06077) 6111 Telex 378173 BGSKEY G Selected items can be bought at theBGS London Information Fax e 060 774602 Office, and orders are accepted here for all publications. The adjacent Geological Museum bookshop stocks the more popular Murchison House, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3LA books for sale over the counter. Most BGS books and reports e 031-667 1000 Telex 727343 SEISED G are listed in HMSO’s Sectional List 45, and canbe bought from Fax e 031468 2683 HMSO and through HMSO agents and retailers. Maps are listed in the BGS Map Catalogue and the Ordnance Survey’s London Information Office at the Geological Museum. 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St Just,30 Pennsylvania Road, Exeter EX4 6BX Maps and diagrams in thisbook use topography based on s Exeter (0392) 78312 Ordnance Survey mapping Bryn Eithyn Hall, Llanfarian, Aberystwyth,Dyfed SY23 4BY s Aberystwyth(0970) 611038 Fax s 0970-624822 Windsor Court, Windsor Terrace, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4HB e 091-2817088Fax e 091-281 9016 Geological Survey of Northern Ireland, 20 College Gardens, Belfast BT9 6BS e Belfast (0232) 666595 and 666752 Maclean Building, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, Oxfordshire OX10 8BB s Wallingford(0491) 38800 Telex 849365 HYDROL G Fax 0491-32256 Parent Body Natural Environment Research Council Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon, Wiltshire SN2 1EU z Swindon(0793) 411500 Telex 444293 EM‘RE G Fax e 0793-411501 PREFACE This account describes the geology of the district to the south-east of Leeds covered by the 1:lO 000 sheets SE 22 NE, SE 32 NW, NEand SE and SE42 NW; thearea lies withinthe Wakefield districtcovered by 1:50 000 geologicalsheet 78. The district was first surveyed at the six-inch scale by W T Aveline, A H Green, T V Holmes, J Lucas, R Russelland J C Ward, andthe mapswere published between 1873 and 1878. The district was re-surveyed by W Edwards, G H Mitchell and D A Wray between 1924 and 1935; both surveys were published on maps of the County series. The present survey was commissioned by the Department of the Environment in order to provideup-to-date geologicalmaps forthe area and to identify the implications for land-use planning, development and re-development posed by the geology of the district. Particularattention was paidto sand andgravel resources, and underground mineral workings for both coal and sandstone. Mapping was carried out between 1982 and -1986 by I CBurgess, J R A Giles,C G Godwin, A J Wadge and I TWilliamson, with I C Burgess, J I Chisholm and A J Wadge as programme managers. The ready cooperation of landowners and tenants during the re-survey and the assistance of BritishCoal Deep Mines and Opencast Executive has been essential to the project. Similarlythe help of officials of the West YorkshireMetropolitan County Council and the Leeds and Wakefield Metropolitan District Councils is gratefully acknowledged. F G Larminie, OBE, Director, British Geological Survey Keyworth Nottingham NG12 5GG October 1988 Limitations Data used preparingin this report and the associated maps Nationaltheheldarein Thisreport has beenproduced by the collation GeoscienceData Centre of theBritish Geological andinterpretation of geological, geotechnicaland Survey at Keyworth. relateddata from a wide variety of sources.The results of this work are contained in the maps and Notes reportslisted in Table 1 , eachgiving details of All National Gridreferences in this report lie in the various sources of the data. the 100 km square SE. Grid references to specific Thereport aims to provide a general description localitiesare given to eight figures (accurate to of thegeological factors relevant toland-use within 10 m); more general locations are given to planningand development. The data on which it six figures. is based arenot comprehensive and do varyin Eachborehole or shaft registered with BGS is quality,and this is inevitablyreflected in the identifiedfour-element a by code (e.g. report.Local features and conditions maynot be SE 42 NW 15). The first two elements define the represented,and many boundaries shown maybe 10 km square (of the National Grid) in which the onlyapproximate. The dates of the geological borehole is situated; the third element defines the mapping are shown in Table 1 and no information quadrant of thatsquare, and the fourth is the subsequentto these dates has beentaken into accession number of theborehole. In thetext of account.For this reason:- thereport, boreholea orshaft is normally This report provides only general indications of referredto by thelast three elements alone (e.g. ground conditions and must not be relied upon as 42NW 15) a source ofdetailed information about specific areas, or asa substitute forsite investigations or ground surveys. Users must satisfy themselves, by seeking appropriate professional advice and by carrying out ground surveys and site investigations if necessary, that ground conditions are suitable for any particular land use or development. CONTENTS Executive Summary 1 Tables Introduction 3 1. Map and reports prepared during the project 4 Land Stability and Safety 5 2. Geological informationrelevant to Mining 5 Structure Planpolicies 4 Slope Stability 10 3. Worked coals arranged in stratigraphical order PoorlyConsolidated Ground 10 with the style of working shown 6 BuriedChannels 11 4. The location of known areas of bell-pit Mineral and Water Resources 11 mining7 MineralResources 1 1 5. Coals arrangedin stratigraphical order Water Resources 18 showing the minimum and maximum thickness recorded in boreholes and shafts in the Geology 22 district 30 Coal Measures22 6. The sand and gravel resources of the PermianRocks 32 district 48 Structure 34 SuperficialDeposits 35 Figures Conclusion and Recommendations 38 1. Sketch map showing location of district References 39 facing I Glossary 14 2. Localitymap of thedistrict 12 3. Distribution of coalmining 14 Annex 1. Main Collieries 42 4. Distribution of sandmining 16 Annex 2. Opencast Coal 43 5. Distribution of madeground 18 6. Distribution of BC Opencastexploration Annex 3. Sand and Gravel Resources 45 areas 20 7. Simplifiedmap of solid geology 22 8. Simplifiedmap of drift geology 24 9. Generalisedvertical section 26 10. Generalised diagram illustrating the relationships of the major Westphalian depositionalenvironments 27 11. Thickness of drift deposits 28 12. Distribution of sand and gravel resources 29 Plates 1. Pillar-and-stallworking in the Sharlston Muck Coal, exposed in St Johns Opencast Coal Mine 17 2. Theeffect of subsidenceon a building caused by mine induced reactivation of a fault 17 3. Pillar and stall mine in Basal Permian Sand, (courtesy of John Hodgkins) 21 4. Sharlston Group of Coals exposed in Goose HillRailway Cutting. Figure is standingin shaft of old bell-pit 21 Cover photograph St JohnsOpencast Mine viewed from the southeast I I I I 40 50 J KEY Motorway/Major Trunk Road Principal River Urban Area 0 5 10km 1 *-w Location of main figure Figure 1. Sketch map showing ]cation of district Geology and land use planning, Morley-Rothwell-Castleford I EXECUTIVE SUMMARY onextant records orplans, their presence is difficultto predict and in manycases, is only Thisreport embodies the result of studya provedby detailed site investigation. Inaddition between 1982 and 1986 funded by the Department theseto shallow mines, numerous abandoned of theEnvironment. The study has providedan shafts are recorded in the district, although many up-to-date geologicalmap andaccount of the more unrecorded ones almost certainly exist. solid andsuperficial geology of thestudy area, andidentified and reported on the implications In parts of the district the Basal Permian Sand has for land-useplanning. The study derived its beenmined. This mining has usually takenthe information from two main sources:- form of aditsdriven into the deposit from outcrop.The adits opened into pillar-and-stall a) archival materiala) comprising mine mines which extended for distances of up to seven abandonment opencastminingplans, hundredmetres. During the last two centuries completionplans, quarry plans, borehole and numeroussmall mines may have exploited the shaftrecords, tip plans anddata held inthe reserves, butonly a few plans of thelater and NationalGeoscience Data Centre at BGS, moreextensive mines survive.