Duckmanton Railway Cutting SSSI

This is the Duckmanton Railway Cutting Site of Special Scientific Interest, near Chesterfield, north-east Derbyshire. The arch structure on the right is a shelter built to preserve and allow access to the the Chavery Coal and its overlying roof mudstones. The same coal seam is visible in the bank at the top of the steps on the left. This was worked (illegally) by desperate miners during the 1984-85 miners' strike. (Chris Darmon, pers. comm.)

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.

Camera viewpoint is approx. SK 4224 7037, looking westwards.

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