All Round the Wrekin - The Ercall

On The Beach

The Ercall Quarries are renowned for their exposures of Precambrian Uriconian Volcanics and Wrekin Quartzite, which was mined here from the middle of the 19th Century until 1986. The true significance of the site lies in the change in colour of the exposed rock in the quarry walls, from the pink tinge of granite to a pale grey. This 'unconformity' marks the transition from the Pre-Cambrian to the Cambrian era when life became more numerous and varied in the shallow seas that covered some of the Earth's surface at the time . In fact, Wrekin Quartzite is a type of sandstone that was formed on a beach and traces of rippling can be still seen in the quarry. When the tide went out, around 540 million years ago, Shropshire lay south of the equator and was situated in the area where the Falkland Islands are located today! A wide variety of other rock types and structures are exposed in the area and Lawrence's Hill Quarry, which stand adjacent to The Ercall, was once mined extensively for the mineral Dolerite. An igneous rock (meaning it was once molten) that never reached the Earth's surface, it is often dark green in colour.