page_title: Finedon Top Lodge Quarry
section_title: Geology
hierarchical_section_title: Finedon Top Lodge Quarry / Geology
caption_attribution_description: English: Ironstone Quarry Face. Northamptonshire was extensively quarried for ironstone. This section of the old quarry face survives, but further north is used as the main rubbish tip (land-fill site if you prefer!).
context_page_description: Finedon Top Lodge Quarry, also known as Finedon Gullet is a 0.9 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire. It is a Geological Conservation Review site revealing a sequence of middle Jurassic limestones, sandstones and ironstones, and is the type section for a sequence of sedimentary rocks known as the 'Wellingborough Member'. It was created by quarrying for the underlying ironstone for use at Wellingborough and Corby Steelworks; the ore was transported by the 1,000 mm gauge Wellingborough Tramway.
context_section_description: This quarry face revealed a complete section of the Rutland Formation dating to the Bathonian stage of the Middle Jurassic, 168 to 166 million years ago, although by 1997 only the top 4m of that formation was visible. It is the type section for the Wellingborough Member, and contains fossils of oysters and Rhynchonellida.
  The very simplified diagram is not to scale, and has massive vertical exaggeration. It shows a vertical section through the strata from Aynho to King's Cliffe (line A to B on the map), and ignores the many river valleys and other topographical features. Various sedimentary rocks were laid down over the Middle Jurassic Epoch during periods of shallow seas and deeper oceans, in what is now Northamptonshire, creating the Oolitic limestones, sandstones and ironstones found across the length of the county. Various deposition periods were separated by periods above sea level, creating formations that get progressively thinner and then become absent in places that had periods without any deposition. The grey rectangle indicates how the Finedon Top Lodge Quarry face fits into this diagramatic scheme. Only the top half of the quarry face is now visible.
  Key to the rocks shown:-
  5. Blisworth Limestone Formation.
  4. Wellingborough Limestone (part of the Rutland Formation of diverse layers of limestones, sand, silts and clays), which continues to the south-west and becomes known in Oxfordshire as the Taynton Limestone Formation.
  3. Lincolnshire Limestone Formation (only occurs northward of Kettering).
  2. Northampton Sand Formation (which includes some of the main ironstones).
  1. Marlestone Rock Formation (continues south-west into Oxfordshire).
caption: The Finedon Gullet cliff face in 2006. Much of the recorded geology is buried below the debris at the foot of the cliff.
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