The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Halesowen Formation

Computer Code: HA Preferred Map Code: Ha
Status Code: Full
Age range: Asturian Substage (CAS) — Asturian Substage (CAS)
Lithological Description: Grey-green, micaceous sandstone (litharenite), and grey-green mudstone, with thin coals and limestone beds known as the 'Spirobis' limestone, with local intraformational conglomerate, strata may be reddened, locally.
Definition of Lower Boundary: In the Halesowen type area a sharp unconformable junction between the red mudstone of the Etruria Formation and overlying grey-green, locally pebbly sandstone of the Halesowen Formation. May be conformable elsewhere. If the Halesowen Formation is red, the base is drawn at the base of the first litharenite above the Etruria mudstones.
Definition of Upper Boundary: At the base of the the Salop Formation. At outcrop an upward change from grey to orange-red locates the boundary, except where the Halesowen Formation is itself red; in this case the boundary is drawn arbitrarily, above the top of the highest litharenite sandstone. Although in boreholes, the gamma ray log character is used.
Thickness: About 110 m thick in the type area; 76 - 152 m thick in South Staffordshire; 70 - 127 m thick in Warwickshire; about 200 m thick in Wyre Forest; 350 m thick in North Staffordshire; remaining thickness about 125 m in the East Midlands and about 200 m in Lancashire.
Geographical Limits: Mostly the southern part of the Pennine Basin, central England from Oxfordshire to Lancashire and Nottinghamshire, and North Wales.
Parent Unit: Warwickshire Group (WAWK)
Previous Name(s): Keele Formation [Obsolete Name And Code: Use ALY] (KE)
Halesowen Beds (-947)
Ardwick Limestones [Obsolete Name and Code: Use HA] (-4078)
Halesowen Sandstone Series [Obsolete Name and Code: Use HA] (-4692)
Newcastle Formation [Obsolete Name and Code: Use HA] (-3451)
Erbistock Formation [Obsolete Name And Code: See SAL and HA] (ERB)
Newcastle Formation (A) [Obsolete Name And Code: See HA] (NCL)
Newcastle Formation (B) [Obsolete Name And Code: See HA] (NG)
Coalport Formation [Obsolete Name And Code: See HA] (CP)
Coed-yr-allt Formation [Obsolete Name And Code: See HA] (CYAF)
Halesowen Group [Obsolete Name and Code: Use HA] (-2228)
Highley Formation [Obsolete Name And Code: See HA] (HYG)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Type Area  Composite stratotype, base: The Rumbow (R. Stour), Halesowen Town. 
Reference Section  Allotment No.1 borehole, Stafford (SJ92NW/35), base at 352.0 m, top at 176.0 m depth. Continuously cored with full suite of wireline logs. 
Reference Section  Middle and upper part of formation: BGS Daleswood Farm Borehole (SO97NE/452), from 147.4 m depth to bottom of borehole. Glover and Powell, 1996. 
Partial Type Section  Composite sections: Illey Brook, Halesowen. 
Reference Section  Whittington Heath Borehole (SK10NW/3), which displays an entirely red-bed sandstone lithofacies. Continuous red-beds in wholly sandstone lithofacies. 
Reference Section  Sidway Mill Borehole (SJ73NE/3), North Staffordshire, where the succession includes the former Newcastle and Keele units (red-beds, in part), with the base at 779.1 m, and the top at 472.8 m depth. 
Partial Type Section  Top: Uffmoor Wood, stream section. 
Partial Type Section  Base: Oldnall, disused tramway track. 
Reference(s):
Powell, J H, Chisholm, JI, Bridge, D M, Rees, J G, Glover, B W and Besly, B M. 2000. Stratigraphical framework for Westphalian to Early Permian red-bed successions of the Pennine Basin. British Geological Survey Technical Report WA/99/10. 
Besley B M, 1988. Palaeogeographic implications of late Westphalian to early Permian red-beds, central England. "In" Sedimentation in a synorogenic basin complex. Besley B M and Kelling, G, editors. 
Kay, H. 1913. On the Halesowen Sandstone Series of the South Staffordshire Coalfield. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, Vol.69, 449. 
Powell, J H, Glover, B W and Waters, C N, 1992. A Geological background for planning and development in the `Black Country'. British Geological Survey Technical Report WA/92/33. 
Eastwood, T, Whitehead, T H, and Robertson, T. 1925. The geology of the country around Birmingham. Memoir of the British Geological Survey of Great Britain. 
Glover, B W, 1991. Geology of the Wombourne District. British Geological Survey Technical Report WA/90/76. 
Powell, J H, 1991. Geology of the Lye District. British Geological Survey Technical Report. WA/91/59 
Whitehead, T H and Eastwood, T, 1927. The geology of the southern part of the South Staffordshire Coalfield. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. 
Glover, B M and Powell, J H, 1996. Interaction of climate and tectonics upon alluvial architecture: Late Carboniferous-Early Permian sequences at the southern margin of the Pennine Basin, UK. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoecology, Vol. 121, 13 - 34. 
Besly, B M and Cleal, C J, 1997. Upper Carboniferous stratigraphy of the West Midlands (UK) revised in the light of borehole geophysical logs and detrital compositional suites. Geological Journal 32, 85 - 118. 
Waters, C N, Waters, R A, Barclay, W J, and Davies, J R. 2009. Lithostratigraphical framework for Carboniferous successions of Southern Great Britain (Onshore). British Geological Survey Research Report, RR/09/01. 184pp. 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
E123 E085 E098 E121 E152 E166 E182 E108 E153 E154 E155 E167 E168 E169 E183 E137 E139 E199