- Sandsend Ness
Sandsend Ness is an old
alum quarrying site close toWhitby inNorth Yorkshire ,England .Beneath extensive deposits of grey pyritic
shale a thin band of sideriticmudstone is present at this site and there is a further 6 meters of almost non-bituminous shale beneath this. This geological configuration, along with its proximity to the port of Whitby, offered Sandsend near-ideal conditions for the rapidly expanding alum industy from the early 17th Century onwards.So wide-scale and prolonged were these activities, that significant areas of the Yorkshire coast were permanently altered.
The double sulphate of aluminium and either potassium or ammonia is commonly known as alum. This material was of great importance through to the late 19th century in leather tanning and in the dying industry. Even today it is still used in some places as a
mordant (dye fixative).Fossil s are present in large numbers in the deposits, includingammonite s such as "Hildoceras bifrons " and "Dactylioceras bifrons" and alsoIchthyosaur andPlesiosaur remains, though the latter are nowadays much less commonly found. In fact, the ammonite "Hildoceras " is named after an earlyChristian saint , the Abbess of Whitby St. Hild or Hilda (614-680). It was believed that such ammonite fossils were the snakes which had been miraculously turned into stone by St. Hilda. It was not unknown for local “artisans” to carve snakes' heads onto ammonites, and sell these “relics” as proof of the miracle. The coat of arms of nearby Whitby actually include three such 'snakestones'.External links
* [http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/ecolodge/25/alum.htm Effects of Alum Quarrying on the Yorkshire Coast]
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