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This large sandstone outcrop lies at the top of the Keresley Member. It is also known as Corley Cutting. It is a coarse sandstone containing some pebbly beds. These pebbles are worn and rounded indicating perhaps a long period of travel. Also in evidence was channel-cutting and cross-bedding suggesting perhaps a deltaic environment. Brian added that Silurian fossils had been found in the limestone pebbles and this had led to the view that one source was Dudley area, some distance to the west.
As one of Warwickshire’s Local Geological Sites (LGS), the Corley Rocks survey and report is LoGs18
The latest Resurvey, done is Sept 2016 is available as LoGS18-Resurvey.pdf
Corley Rocks location: Corley Rocks (SP 304853)
In the Spring 2011 WGCG Newsletter, we see this write up. Out and About on our Local Sites: : Corley Rocks (LGS 18) by Ian Fenwick
There are just two Warwickshire local sites where we (and even the local parish council) don’t know who the owners are!
One of those is Corley Rocks to the north-west of Coventry (GR: SP 302 852), one of the most accessible of all our 90 or so [LGS] sites. Indeed, some might say that it is too accessible since it attracts what may be regarded as undesirable attention.
I’m not well versed in the origin of these sandstone bluffs but it would be no surprise to learn that the area was quarried for building stone in the historical period. But that was long ago.
The exposures in the cliff faces are in the Upper Carboniferous Salop Formation, what used to be known as the Barren Measures, above
the productive Coal Measures. The Corley Sandstone, part of the Keresley Member, accounts for the bulk of the section but the real interest is in the Corley Conglomerate which forms lenticular
units and ‘stringers’ within the sandstones.
Marked cross-bedding is apparent which, taken with the presence of the conglomerates, is a sure indication of deposition by a large river.
The conglomerate is one of a handful in the Salop Formation, but is unique in that it is the only one derived from the east. When taken in conjunction with the Coventry Ring Road site at Wickes store (LGS 20), it allows us to infer the palaeogeography of the area during the late Carboniferous. It seems that during Upper Carboniferous times there must have been an upland area to the east of Coventry of which there is no longer any trace.
Last Updated on 11 Apr 2021