The future for geology in the Marches : a BGS perspective

The British Geological Survey has a long history of geological study in the Marches starting in the 1830’s and led by Sir Henry de la Beche who oversaw the original one-inch geological survey of the area. The current phase of work by the BGS started in the mid 1980’s and has largely been driven by the requirement to complete 1:50,000 scale geological map coverage of Wales and the Borders. High quality academic studies had been conducted in the area and the results needed to be integrated with the Survey’s mapping. This new phase commenced with a transect across the central part of the Welsh Basin in the Rhayader and Llanilar districts, aiming to establish a workable stratigraphy for the turbidite sequences within the basin informed by new concepts on deep marine sedimentology, sequence stratigraphy and the relationship between depositional facies, eustacy and tectonics. Plans for the future will build on the earlier work while carrying out studies of Ordovician to Silurian basin to shelf transitions including the Knighton area, and it is hoped to use this as a basis for reappraising the geology of the adjacent Ludlow Anticline, to further the pioneering studies which the Survey instigated in the region during the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries.