Sunday the fourth of April (2004) saw a group of super-enthusiastic WEGA members gathered at the entrance to Codrington Quarry. They were there at the behest of WEGA chairman and RIGGs Representative, John Toller, to give him the benefit of their wisdom, experience and deep knowledge.

Codrington Quarry was once a source of the Carboniferous Clifton Down Limestone. But now it has fallen from this high calling to become a rubbish tip. But unfortunately it has been the wrong sort of rubbish - household waste. This has been causing ground water problems and so there is going to be a change-out of the rubbish. Out will go the inferior household rubbish (to be packed off to impermeable quarries near Swindon) and in will come the superior builders rubble. But for the rubbish swappers there is a problem. The quarry is a RIGGs site and they need opinions about what needs to be preserved for the delectation and education of succeeding generations. This was our task, find what needs preserving.

It did not take long for us to decide that the Carboniferous Limestone at Codrington is not unique. Its lack of fossil content may be unusual, but is not sufficient to warrant RIGGs status.

But it is something else which is not there that gives the quarry its allure. The Carb. Lime. dips westward; the strata are truncated, and lying on the eroded surface is the Rhaetic. The remainder of the Carboniferous, the Permian and most of the Triassic are missing.

The quarry is a good example of the fundamental unconformity of the Bristol Area. The best examples of the unconformity are on the northern and western sides. On the east there is a lot of Rhaetic but it looks as if it has been bulldozed there. One assumes that when the quarry opened, the Rhaetic covering the limestone was pushed eastwards and limestone exploitation began.

An interesting excursion, which would have been better if the rain had let up a little.