Chavery Coal and roof measures, Duckmanton Railway Cutting

A view of the strata exposed in the steel arch shelter in the Duckmanton Railway Cutting, near Chesterfield, north east Derbyshire. The Chavery Coal is visible in the lower left. This is overlain by shaly mudstones containing ironstone bands and nodules. Fossils in the roof mudstones include non-marine bivalves (Anthracosia) and and ostracods (Geisina).

The railway cutting is a site of international geological importance, as it contains the stratotype section for the Anthracoceras vanderbeckei (Clay Cross) marine band which is the boundary between the Langsettian and Duckmantian Stages of the Carboniferous, informally the junction between the Lower and Middle Coal Measures.

The site is managed by the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and is accessible by permit only.
www.derbyshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/reserves/duckmanton-railway-cutting