Lincolnshire Limestone

[Tseralo]

Does anyone know of any caves in the Lincolnshire limestone?

Having looked at the BGS 50k data there is a broken band of limestone all the way from Scunthorpe to Stamford. Yet I can't find any reference to any caves in that area the closest is around Worksop but that is in a separate band to the west.

 

[langcliffe]

Does anyone know of any caves in the Lincolnshire limestone?

Having looked at the BGS 50k data there is a broken band of limestone all the way from Scunthorpe to Stamford. Yet I can't find any reference to any caves in that area the closest is around Worksop but that is in a separate band to the west.

It's not an area I am familiar with, but there is a good paper on the limestone and its hydrology here.

 

[Canary]

The magnesian limestone? Its mainly Dolomite if i remember.

 

[Andy Farrant]

The Lincolnshire limestone is of Jurassic age, and there is plenty of karst, with many stream sinks, plus some pretty big springs and rapid flow times in the area between Grantham and Bourne. You can see one of the stream sinks from the East Coast main line. Tim Atkinson ran an excellent BCRA field trip to the area in 2013, and again following a karst hydrogeology conference at Birmingham a few years ago. The field guide is here:

http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/511288/1/KG%40B%202015%20Jurassic%20field%20guide.pdf

No major cave systems as yet, but had this been Mendip...

 

[Tumbleweed]

Hello All.

Yes there is caves in Lincolnshire i've seen them when i was a kid 

 

[mikem]

There were ironstone mines.

 

[tomferry]

I Am from Northamptonshire which is around 40 minutes from Stamford I am afraid to say I have never heard of any caves ? not saying their isn?t ? but I very much doubt it .  Yes their did use to be a lot of iron stone mines over Lincolnshire way in between roughly 1890-1950 Ish

 

[RobinGriffiths]

Found this interesting diagram by FBA Welch from 1941 near Burton le Coggles at SK 9683 2595. - Lyell Collection content.

 

[Andy Farrant]

Yes, it was reproduced in
Farrant, Andrew; Cooper, Anthony. 2008 Karst geohazards in the UK : the use of digital data for hazard management. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, 41 (3). 339-356.
Available online here: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/4227/1/QJEGH_201_Geosure_Karst_paper_corrected.pdf

More details are in the KG@B field trip guide to the Lincs limestone by Tim Atkinson.
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/511288/1/KG%40B%202015%20Jurassic%20field%20guide.pdf

There will be caves here (whether they will be accessible is another matter), but if you want to know why you don't get many big caves in the Lincs limestones and some of the other Jurassic and Cretacous carbonates, see the next BCRA Cave Science Zoom lecture tomorrow (Monday 12th April) https://bcra.org.uk/seminars2021.html

 

[RobinGriffiths]

There will be caves here (whether they will be accessible is another matter), but if you want to know why you don't get many big caves in the Lincs limestones and some of the other Jurassic and Cretacous carbonates, see the next BCRA Cave Science Zoom lecture tomorrow (Monday 12th April) https://bcra.org.uk/seminars2021.html

Oof, that sounds interesting.

 

[ChrisJC]

I am signed up already.

Chris.

 

[Fishes]

I worked at the Williamson Cliff brickworks on Little Casterton Lane, Stamford for several years. Water from the factory roofs was fed into what I was told was an active cave passage. Some of the people who had worked there for a long time described it as an underground river but I'm sure this was an exaggeration Unfortunately it wasn't accessible at the time so I never got to see it.

The site was redeveloped after its closure and  I don't know if the developers found it or what became of it.

 

[mikem]

Talk on now

 

[RobinGriffiths]

Yep. Very good it was as well. Who knew chalk was so interesting!

 

[D.Send]

Hi,
Jurassic limestones here in northern France do have very long sub-horizontal cave systems.

Normandy chalk possesses some dye-tested karsts up to 28km long (as the crow flies). But as yet the longest cave penetrable is about 2km. (The big problem in Normandy is sediment-fills from the loess soil cover).

So look again a bit harder.... as lincolnshire may have less of a sediment problem.....
If you have sinks and risings, then you can ignore the pessimists !

    D.Send.