Report of the East Yorkshire Boulder Committee 2022 onwards

compiled by Mike Horne

a work in progress

In the early days of the Hull Geological Society, a committee was formed to record the occurrence of glacial erratic boulders in East Yorkshire. Thousands of these boulders were found and their localities are reported in the Society's Transactions and The Naturalist in articles by Thomas Sheppard and J.W.Stather, between 1894 and 1905. Reports were also made to the meetings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, together with other regional Boulder Committees. When all the reports were put together they formed a large source of data which was used in retracing the paths of the glaciers during the Ice Age. Today this would be called "citizen science".

The Society decided to reform an informal Boulder Committee in 1987 as a contribution to the Society's Centenary celebrations. The Committee has continued in an informal way since then. The following HGS members have contributed to this list - Anne Horne, Brenda Almond, Jack Almond, Mike Horne and Stephen Whitaker.

The sites are arranged alphabetically. The specimens recorded were seen loose on the beach unless otherwise specified.

Aldbrough - Pleurotomaria

Barmston (on the beach) - yellow quartz, white vein quartz, Magnesian Limestone, pectenid in shelly Jurassic Limestone, black flint, coral in Carboniferous Limestone, brown micaceous sandstone, Old Red Sandstone, New Red Sandstone, gneiss, grey flint,Kimmeridgian cementstone, Brockram, Dogger, Lithostrotian, porphyry, quartzite, Chalk, Larvikite, amygdaloidal basalt, Gryphaea in Jurassic shelly limestone, Deltaic Sandstone, brown rippled sandstone, pink granite.

Barmston (in situ in the Skipsea Till cliff) - Chalk, black shale, yellow quartz, bored Chalk pebble, grey mudrock, basalt, white quartz, coal, grey flint, Old Red Sandstone, Deltaic Sandstone, black flint, ice scratched Carboniferous Limestone, brown rippled sandstone, New Red Sanstone, micaceous gritstone, ?Corbicula fluminalis?

Cowden - Jurassic Nautilus.

Danes Dyke towards Sewerby - Brockram, gneiss, pegamatite, Productids in Carboniferous Limestone, corals in Carboniferous Limestone.

Hessle Foreshore - black flint, red flint, quartzite, jasper, yellow quartz, Old Red Sandstone, coral in Carboniferous Limestone, vein quartz, basalt, brown Jurassic sandstone.

Hornsea (central) - clear quartz, jasper, Chalk, black flint, Old Red Sandstone, Carboniferous Limestone, Larvikite, basalt, New Red Sandstone, white quartz,granite, gneiss, Gryphaea, Lithostrotian, Lower Jurassic Ammonite, Lower Jurassic shelly limestone.

Hornsea (going south) - Norwegian rhomb porphyry, Dogger, gneiss, black flint, grey flint, yellow quartz, New Red Sandstone, brown sandstone, jasper, Lithostrotion, pink granite, basalt, Lower Jurassic shelly limestone, Brockram, Larvikite, mica schist, Gryphaea, Kimmeridge concretion, white quartz, Chalk, Jurassic belemnite, red veined fine grained sandstone, Canon Ball Limestone, coal, Ichthyosaur vertebra, Dactylioceras, red flint, Acroteuthis, Upper Cretaceous belemnite, brown micaceous sandstone, goniatite.

Keyingham Gravel Pit - bored Chalk beach pebbles; Larvikite in situ in the Basement Till.

Leven (village) - Whin Sill

Mappleton - Icthyosaur verebra, Grypahea, Pentacrinus, Kimmeridge Clay, coal, Lithostrotian, Lower Jurassic pectinid bivalve, Shap Granite, Arnioceras, Astaroceras .

Skipsea - clear quartz, yellow quartz, white quartz, grey flint, black flint, red flint, basalt, Norwegian rhomb porphyry, Gryphaea, vein quartz, Dogger, jasper, Old Red Sandstone, Cannon Ball Limestone, Larvikite, Lower Jurassic shelly limestone, Kimmeridge septarian nodule, New Red Sandstone, gneiss, Echinocorys in black flint, Middle Jurassic plant bed, Brockram,  red granite, Jurassic scaphopods, belemnite from the Chalk.

Skipsea (in cliff Skipsea Till) - ice scratched Old Red Sandstone, sponge-bored Chalk pebble.

Spurn (beach near Warren Cottage - Larvikite, gneiss, porphyries, yellow quartz, white quartz, black flint, carnelian, grey flint, Chalk, Cheviot Porphyry, Middle Jurassic rootlet bed, jasper, Dogger, Lower Jurassic shelly limestone, septarian nodule (brown), Lake District green conglomerate, basalt, dolerite, Norwegian porphyry, red granite, Lithostorian, Old Red Sandstone, syenite, Arnioceras, Brockram, flow banded porphoritic rhyolite, pink chalk, Harpoceras, large grey septarian nodule (probably Kimmeridgian cementstone).

Spurn Point - Galerites (large)

Withernsea (central) - pink chalk, grey flint, Gryphaea.

Withernsea (going north) - pale grey flint, Old Red Sandstone, Porphyries, basalt, Lower Jurassic shelly limestone, pink chalk, jasper, white quartz, black flint, Middle Jurassic rootlet bed, Jurassic septarian nodule, red granite, pale grey granite, Gryphaea, yellow quartz, corals in Carboniferous Limestone, Chalk, Lake District green conglomerate, sponge in flint, Jurassic brown sandstone, Norwegian rhomb porphyry, Larvikite, Dogger, gneiss, Lower Cretaceous ammonite, New Red Sandstone, Carboniferous shelly limestone, garnet schist.

Wold Newton area (Lincolnshire) - basalt.

Descriptions of distinctive erratics