These are a collection of photos taken a few years back of the sand deposits in the quarry on Hopwas Hill behind the Lichfield Transmitter mast taken at the dawn of the digital camera age. I remember it was my brother´s great idea to take up close up pictures of the dunes, capturing miniature desert landscapes. As quarries are constantly constructing and destroying landscapes, I don´t know what appearance it would have now but the quarry is still there in full swing.
The quarrying activity reveal and resurrect or at least evoke long dead landscapes. The sands and rounded pebbles in the area, so sought after by the quarries come from Triassic deserts and river deltas(250-200 million years ago). This is information I remember from geography lessons at school, so might not be entirely accurate but definitely made an impression on me and is now part of the story of the place for me( corrections are welcome).
Go back hundreds of millions of ago and find yourself surrounded by giant river delta in a desert setting reminiscent of pre-human Egypt maybe.
Tamworth Timehikes 250 million years ago
If you can´t do that find the next best thing and that´s taking a look and immersing yourself in the prehistoric landscapes created by the quarry. Below is a winding river in the desert created by the quarry, ideally with some large reptiles in the background.
Below are the photos of Tamworth timehike´s very own desert. There windows into a very ancient world, the oldest visible landscape in the Tamworth timehikes area, as well as some of the newest. The sands from those primordial times having a brief second life. Triassic sands again are being exposed to the elements and set free.
Below an oasis on the horizon
Abe and Ernst couldn´t resist the One thousand and one nights setting on their doorste.
There was something of The Planet of the Apes, Forbidden zone about the place too
Fishers clump
Looking at your `Sands of time` post I started to look at the old map links in the previous post and matching up features old and new. On the Hints Hopwas ridge above Hanging wood (On one of the old maps) there`s a feature called Fishers clump. Is it a Barrow` Burial mound or natural feature? anyway it looks like its been quarried. This ridge has always screamed history at me. Its position over The Watling, Tamworth and Tame valley would of been used for years. When your up there on a clear day the view over Mercia is quite stunning. Going back to the old maps there`s a track going up the hill from Golds clump to Fishers clump. Cheers happy map looking.
Thanks Bill for sharing your discovery of Fisher´s Clump. Taking a looks at googlemaps it looks like it might incredibly still be there existing as an island in the middle of the quarry at least back in 2008. This is possibly wishful thinking.
This is becoming a bit of a joint map search, great stuff!
Just checked it out on 1901 map, nope looks like it´s been quarried maybe small corner still there as an ´island´ .