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.

Send us Fan MailThis is a journey from moors above the middle reaches of the River Tees near Barnard Castle to its mouth where it empties into Hartlepool Bay. Along the way the plan is to look at some prehistoric rock art at Barningham, celebrate the merits of sand and gravel and a hear a cautionary tale about flood risk, revisit the salt deposits of Teesside and in Hartlepool Bay hear about some graphic evidence of times when our coastline was very different 

Send us Fan MailThe first of our journeys is along the River Tees. The Tees has its headwaters way up in the Pennines, in the Carboniferous rocks just east of Cross Fell, but downstream of Cow Green Reservoir it cuts through some of the oldest rocks in Northern England – that’s why its the first or the rivers in this series. On our way downstream we will explore some different bits of the Whin Sill and some rocks it baked, the making pencils from ancient slates and take a closer look at High and Low Force, iconic sites of the Northern landscape. But let’s head for Widdybank Fell near the dam at Cow Green.

Send us Fan MailThe episode title of this section of the Roman Rock Trail isn’t perfect – as we are starting in west Durham in a place called Lanchester, then returning to the Wall at Heddon – a village which owes its position to its hard sandstone bedrock resisting glacial erosion more than the surrounding area. And then onto Benwell. A place not on the current Hadrian’s Wall Trail but from what I hear it will be in the near future. As will the final stop, South Shields Fort – popularly known as Arbeia. On the way we will look at Roman water engineering and perhaps iron production, examine some well exposed sandstone, delve more into the mysteries of the exploitation of coal and finish with a more obscure use of rocks – pigments.

Send us Fan MailThis episode initially takes us from Chesters on the Wall to Hexham. South of the Wall but very much a gateway and one with some important recycled Roman rocks. Then back to close to the Wall at Fallowfield before jumping back south to Roman Corbridge – Coria or sometimes Corstopitum. The geology will be as diverse as the geography. From the rocks that made millstones to a cavalryman's tombstone, 

Send us Fan MailAll of these podcasts are geological but this episode is three-quarters pure rock. First the plan is to look closely at the rock that provided the mortar for the wall – limestone – did the Romans use it to sweeten these northern soils too – they can be pretty acid. Next its more whin Sill – I am starting to wonder if there’s too much on this rock already, but it does play a huge role in the landscape and on Roman plans and they say you can’t get enough of a good thing. The Whin has a part to play in a trip to Coventinas Well too, but a subtle part. And finally we are off in search of a very modern rock – one that starts soft and goes hard and one the Romans had a very special job for. 

Send us Fan MailTime to descend into and out of one of the classic components of this frontier landscape - one of the "gaps". You have already experienced a few and today there will be a few more. But your legs need a break so we are going to deviate south of the Wall too. To see a ditch, then go find about two mineral resources that were used extensively by the Romans - coal and iron - but what do we know about them.

Send us Fan MailWe are starting at Bewcastle Fort around 10 kilometres north of Hadrians Wall – well that’s as the crow flies. But then we will be returning the Wall and some of its most dramatic landscapes and archaeology. From a ruined medieval Thirlwall Castle near Greenhead village – built completely of re-purposed Roman stones – we climb up onto the escarpment of the Whin Sill – 295 million years ago it was an intrusion of molten rock that then solidified into a hard rock called dolerite. It resisted erosion by 1000m thick ice sheets and stands proud as one of the rocky icons of the northern landscape. 

Send us Fan MailOur journey east continues, we are about one and a half kilometres north east of Lanercost just over the line dividing the red St Bees Sandstone bedrock from grey brown Carboniferous rocks – although there is no bedrock to see here – its covered by a variable thickness of glacial deposits. Those thick stony clays sand and gravels may well explain why the first incarnation of Hadrian’s Wall in the western sector was made of earth and turf and not stone. They also mean its essential to look at the building and wall stones to see get a feel for the bedrock. You could abandon the car and walk between the places in the 4 stories in this episode from Hare Hill to Appletree, Harrows Scar and Willowford Bridge. Its only around 8 km one way, pretty flat with great views and some brilliant archaeology including passing Birdoswald Fort. The dedicated Romanists and hikers amongst you could take in the Fort and the Roman inscriptions at Combcrag gorge on the way back - you’ll maybe remember that from Series 2.

Send us Fan MailSeries 3 is  an extended Hadrian’s Wall rock trail with little side trips and the first episode will start just north of a little seaside town called Maryport on the southern coast of the Solway Firth and head north and then east. We will take in salt making, how the Romans defended an estuary at Burgh Marsh, a large Roman building in Carlisle whose drains have produced a fantastic collection of semi-precious stones - intaglios; and finish at a Roman quarry in a gorge of the River Eden at a place called Wetheral. You could always follow along on Google Maps and maybe even get the car or bike or boots out and do it for real !

Send us Fan MailWe are so lucky in the north – apart from having far more open space than most people those open spaces have some of the most spectacular landscapes in Britain. Our northern landscapes are a result of our geology and their biodiversity and cultural heritage are profoundly influenced by our geodiversity. How to choose just 7 places to illustrate this?  Someone will rightly ask – how could he leave that out!. 

Send us Fan MailThe episode title does have a double meaning – the rocks and deposits that lie beneath us have a very strong controlling influence on what we do to our planet and what we don’t do and what we shouldn’t. They may take time to assert that influence but the fact is that ultimately nature will always win any fight we pick with it. I’m going to be talking about the experiences we humans have in interacting with the ground beneath our feet – the opportunities it presents and the hazards it poses, ones that can be mitigated and ones that in any practical sense, can’t. 

Send us Fan MailThere are so many places across the north of England that show us how the human race has depended on rocks that I felt  this topic needed at least 2 episodes. The last episode explored the origins of stone axes, copper, iron and lead ores, coal and graphite. This one visits 6 more places that have examples of very different uses for the geological resources of our planet. First we are off to the City of Durham.

Send us Fan MailIt is difficult to overstate how dependent we humans are on the resources geology – rocks – provide. It was rock that first provided prehistoric people with shelter and with the raw materials for their tools and weapons, jewellery and pots. Stones built their monuments and the tombs for their dead. Making fire is one of the things that distinguished us humans from animals – we struck two rocks to take that evolutionary step. Our ancestors’ connection with the landscape and its rocks was deep and all-pervasive.They recognised the hardness and sharp edges of flint, chert and quartz for cutting tools. The durability of hard rocks for hammers and axes. Stones with the right roughness were used for milling grain or sharpening tools. Rocks with layers were skilfully split into slabs and panels. Clay was used everywhere to make pottery. Local ores were prospected, mined and smelted and then turned into weapons, utensils and ornaments. Coal and peat were exploited as fuels for homes and industry. Rocks permeated early societies’ rituals and aesthetics: white gypsum on henges, ochre and hematite as pigments. The fact that these stones were traded so widely and valued so highly underlines their esteem.It’s tempting to think humans are less dependent on rocks today but we are not, we just use far more of them differently. From the environmental pariahs: coal, oil and gas; to the steel, copper and glass in our buildings; crushed rock, sand and gravel and gypsum in our infrastructure; limestone in toothpaste; salt in food; and barium in medicines. Without these and many others, especially the critical and rare minerals we are using more of in our digital devices, our lives would be a lot less civilised. We just have to find ways of using the Earth’s limited resources much more responsibly.

Send us Fan MailThis second episode explores those northern rocks that are the domain of palaeontologists – rocks that contain fossils. These remains of lives long ago from sea shells to dinosaurs are one of the three aspects of geology that - along with earthquakes and volcanoes - excite the general public more than any others. How many geologists were seduced into the science by their fascination with these traces of ancient life.

Send us Fan MailThis first episode of Series two - called a restless north - takes a look at how dynamic our land has been (and still is!). At least once or twice a year we are reminded of the awesome but terrifying power of the planet by catastrophic earthquakes occurring around the globe. Earthquakes happen here too – but on a more subdued level. But we have evidence in the north that they were once rather more assertive.  How our rocks have been bent, broken and moved is the challenge of structural geologists, they are the ones who try to untangle this super complex earth size natural rubik's cube 

Send us Fan MailPart two of this short geo-fiction story looks forward 40 years and 100,000 years. It may be a speculative look into our future but it draws nonetheless on forensic climate projections and impacts which have been generated by reputable scientists. Reading the story of the Earth through its rocks has been likened to reading a book with 90% of its pages missing. An incredible tale and fertile ground for the imagination for sure. But everything in this short story is based on sound scientific, archaeological and historical evidence. 

Send us Fan MailReading the story of the Earth through its rocks has been likened to reading a book with 90% of its pages missing. An incredible tale and fertile ground for the imagination for sure. But everything in this two-part short story is based on sound scientific, archaeological and historical evidence. Part Two - the final two chapters of the story - may be a speculative look into our future four decades and 100,000 years ahead, but they draw nonetheless on forensic climate projections and impacts which have been generated by reputable scientists.

Send us Fan MailIts time to get to grips with how people and rocks connect. And first in ancient societies. So we will be occupying the overlap – more no-mans-land – between geology and archaeology. The two subjects  - just like rocks and humans - are inextricably linked. Our ancient ancestors relationship with their natural landscape – that is its rocks – was intimate. Rocks and sediments provided them with shelter, water and tools. It influenced how they used the landscape – their settlements and defences and routeways. Rocks were the foundation of their beliefs and rituals.

Send us Fan MailOur tectonic plates continued their erratic waltz north. All the while billions of tonnes of sediments were deposited, turned to rock, tilted up here and there and then eroded away. 60 million years ago lava started to pour out of an enormous rift that was to become the Atlantic Ocean. North America and Europe have been drifting apart ever since.  2.6 million years ago the Earth‘s temperature began to fluctuate again; we cooled and then warmed, repeatedly – the Ice Age – and we are still in it. Ice caps extended to lower latitudes, glaciers grew and then retreated and as they did trees and plants recolonised the landscape. Humans emerged and began to exert their influence on the county, clearing forests and settling in the valleys – but that’s for next time

Send us Fan MailThis episode starts with injection of molten rock across northern England a rock that is responsible for a huge chunk of our tourist economy. Then it takes a tour of hot deserts, evaporating salty seas,  and finally our secret bit of every fossil hunters dream rock. On the way we’ll hear about plots to blow up a famous stone circle, dispose of nuclear waste, a mass global extinction and a more recent awful tragedy. Sounds dismal, but its really not!

Send us Fan MailA virtual tour of six rocky places across the north of England that help us understand exactly what the environment was like around 330 million years ago in the Carboniferous period. The land we now call Britain wasn't 55 degrees north then, we were close to the Equator and our landscape alternated between steamy swamps, coastal lagoons, huge lazy rivers, and even coral seas. The story is written in our rocks.

Send us Fan MailThis is the first episode of the first season of these podcasts. They are based on my five books about northern rocks and their connections with our landscape ….and us. The stories of this first season – Time travelling - begin almost 500 million years ago and end with the Roman conquest of the north. Episode one begins deep in a southern ocean ....and on a hill in the Lake District of England.