View of the rockface as Julie starts work clearing some debris

As part of our ongoing work as Geo-Champions, some of the group went to Rose Hill Quarry to carry out a clearance session, led by the Lickey Hills Ranger team and with the assistance of a few Duke of Edinburgh volunteers. Prior to this work day, the rangers had been into the quarry to start cutting down a lot of trees and laurel, and had begun building a dead hedge and a wildlife pit. Through doing this work they also uncovered a small exposure of rocks to the western end of the quarry.
 
This was my first time at Rose Hill Quarry – I didn’t realise just how big it is! We focused on a small part of the main rock face, but it extends for some distance towards the east. With the help of the Duke of Edinburgh group we moved a lot of vegetation and a huge dead tree, and then we tackled the main area which was obscured by a scree slope. We cleared a lot of loose dirt and fragments of quartzite that had fallen off the rock face, and also removed some small trees from the rock face to prevent them falling at a later date. In the first part of the morning the aim was to clear away the scree and make a small platform so that people could get up to the rocks to look at them. After our tea break we continued the work westwards and extended this ledge. We cleared quite a lot! In some parts we dug down about 4 feet. The before and after picture (at bottom of post) shows the ‘dirt line’ when we started the work and again at the end of the session, with a garden fork for scale.

Creation of a ‘dead hedge’ using felled vegetation

We will be returning to Rose Hill Quarry at the end of March to continue this work and hopefully remove more scree and dig down further. We have an article written by Professor W.S. Boulton (Birmingham University) in 1928 that suggests there is a thrust fault in this quarry and we are eager to uncover it and have it back on display! There is lots of work to do here and hopefully in the future we will be able to bring groups to this quarry to study the rocks and see the geological features.

Before and After with key areas highlighted for comparison!