Newhey Quarry – The Seabed Walk

A group of young people, Silver circus members, Skylight staff and volunteers ventured out on a walk up to Newhey Quarry. This was just a try out of the route, we will be organising a bigger group once the guides are published and the Covid crisis allows, possibly September or October.

Prior to our trail we asked our young people to find out some information about the Quarry, this found that: 

Though it is a great place to explore, it is advised not to go climbing on the scree slopes below the unstable high cliff faces. The quarry is now disused  and used for recreational walks by the local community. More information about visiting the quarry can be found here https://ukfossils.co.uk/tag/newhey-quarry/

A young person in the group said

A Silver Circus member gave an insight into her walk to Newhey Quarry

Syke Moors 

Syke Moors is located in Rochdale, an area of moorland between Rochdale Town, Whitworth and Littleborough. This location was of particular importance to the group for one rather large exciting reason. Keep reading to hear about that! 

Due to the COVID – 19 pandemic, the trail with our young volunteers has been postponed, however, a few staff members and a young person ventured up to check the area out.

The walk up to the moors is in a beautiful pocket of the countryside, and during spring you often see many farm animals such as sheep, cows, horses and ducklings! It is a very hilly area with little hidden rivers. 

We have found a couple of academic papers on the geology of the area which describes lakes formed in the Littleborough, Rochdale and Whitworth areas by the glacial meltwaters, what must the area have looked like then? – we think it’s too wet with rain now! They will be available for download from the website, http://skylightcircusarts.com/news/rochdale-fossils.

The Rochdale Survey, B Pearson, J Price, V Tanner and J Walker,
The Geology of the Rossendale Anticline By W. B. Wright, M.I.M.E., R. L. Sherlock,
D.Sc., A.R.C.Sc., D. A. Wray, M.Sc., W. Lloyd, B.Sc., 69 L. H, Tonks, M.Sc. 1927
(chapter X, page 131, Glacial and recent deposits.)

A description on the glacial erosion of the area, focusing on Cheesden Brook, Heywood can be found here https://www.heywoodhistory.com/2016/07/ice-age-carving-cheesden-valley.html?m=1

The walk guides will be printed and available soon, also available as a download from the above link.

Hopefully, we will be leading the 3 walks with a socially distanced group in September/October socially distanced of course.

When Skylight meets Sue & the Mammoth Fossil

The reason for this location came from a very special person named Sue. Sue is a friend of Skylight and is the proud owner of a very rare fossil found on Syke Moors. Many years ago Sue’s brother had found what he thought was a bone of an old horse, Sue then went to explain it couldn’t be a horses hoof as they do not fossilise. Sue (a lover of elephants) then began to do a little more research of the fossil in online forums, she found that it was unlikely that it would be a dinosaur due to it being so far North, so Sue decided to venture down to Touchstones Rochdale who connected her with someone who may be able to help. 

A photo of the fossil was sent to all the museums in the North West, and shortly after Sue was contacted by Dr David Gelsorp who invited her to bring her fossil into the museum. Dr David Gelsorp knew straight away what the fossil was, it turned out to be a metacarpal from a Mammoth! Dr David Gelsorp estimated that the fossil arrived in Rochdale around 10 thousand years ago in the last ice age and the fossil itself dates back to about 15 – 20 thousand years old, he confirmed it was a very rare find! 

You can hear Sue telling her story to our group of young volunteers here: