May Hill Common Quarry

Exposed Units: Huntley Hill Formation

This quarry and the small adjacent pit are now very overgrown and the exposure limited.  The rock here is the Silurian Huntley Hill Formation, which consists of very coarse-grained sandstone containing pebbles of quartzite, pink feldspar and rare brachiopod fossils. The unit is thought to have been deposited in shallow marine conditions near to a shoreline.

The quarry itself is situated on the north east side of the May Hill Dome structure, a regional fold of Ordovician and Silurian sediments bound by the Blaisdon fault to the east and Glasshouse Fault to the north.

Photos

View of the small quarry working on May Hill Common showing a very overgrown site with little remaining exposure.

References

Aldridge, R.J., 1975, ‘The stratigraphical distribution of conodonts in the British Silurian’, Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 131, 6, pp. 607-618.

March 2011