Hornsleasow Quarry

Hornsleasow Quarry
Site of Special Scientific Interest

Location within Gloucestershire
Area of Search	Gloucestershire
Grid reference	SP131322
Coordinates	51°59′19″N 1°48′36″W / 51.98855°N 1.809915°W / 51.98855; -1.809915Coordinates: 51°59′19″N 1°48′36″W / 51.98855°N 1.809915°W / 51.98855; -1.809915
Interest	Geological
Area	3.5 hectare
Notification	1974
Natural England website

Hornsleasow Quarry (grid reference SP131322) is a 3.5-hectare (8.6-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1974.^[1]^[2] The site is listed in the 'Cotswold District' Local Plan 2001-2011 (on line) as a Regionally Important Geological Site (RIGS).^[3]

Location and geology

The quarry (Snowshill Hill) lies in the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and exposes a relatively thick sequence of Bathonian (Middle Jurassic) oolitic limestones, and thin clays of significant importance in correlating similar sequences in north Gloucestershire. The rocks, which belong to the Clypeus Grit, Chipping Norton Formation, Sharps Hill Formation and the Taynton Limetone Formation, are considered to have been laid down c. 170 million years ago. This would have been in a warm, shallow sea which covered much of the Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire areas. The conditions then would have been similar to those in the present day Bahama Banks in the Caribbean.^[1]

Evidence for the dating is provided by the sedimentary structures and the type of fossils found within the rocks which are well preserved. Hornsleasow Quarry is important, therefore, for the reconstruction of an ancient sea.^[1]

References

SSSI Source

External links

Natural England (SSSI information)

Geological Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire

Summarised data for all sites (biological and geological)

Alderton Hill Quarry Bull Cross, The Frith and Juniper Hill Campden Tunnel Gravel Pit Cleeve Common Coaley Wood Quarries Crickley Hill and Barrow Wake Easter Park Farm Quarry Edgehills Quarry Foss Cross Quarry Garden Cliff Hampen Railway Cutting Haresfield Beacon Harford Railway Cutting Hobbs Quarry Hornsleasow Quarry Huntsman's Quarry Jackdaw Quarry Kemble Railway Cuttings Knap House Quarry, Birdlip Land Grove Quarry, Mitcheldean Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common Longhope Hill Lower Woods Lower Wye Gorge Lydney Cliff May Hill Meezy Hurst Minchinhampton Common New Park Quarry Nibley Knoll Notgrove Railway Cutting Oakenhill Railway Cutting Puddlebrook Quarry River Wye Robin's Wood Hill Quarry Rodborough Common Salmonsbury Meadows Scully Grove Quarry Severn Estuary Slade Brook Stenders Quarry Stony Furlong Railway Cutting Swift's Hill Upper Severn Estuary The Malvern Hills Purton Passage Selsley Common Upper Wye Gorge Veizey's Quarry Wainlode Cliff Wellacre Quarry Wood Green Quarry & Railway Cutting Wotton Hill

Neighbouring areas Avon Hereford and Worcester Oxfordshire Wiltshire

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