Staithes Town Web

Once the largest Fishing Port in the North East of England

The Redcar Mudstone Formation

 

 
Lithostratigraphical position of the Staithes Sandstone Formation
Group Stage Formation Member

LIAS

Pliensbachian

Redcar Mudstone Ironstone Shale
Pyritous Shale
 

 

The Redcar Formation is a grey, fossiliferous mudstone and siltstone with subordinate thin beds of shelly limestone below, and fine-grained carbonate cemented sandstone above; argillaceous limestone concretions occur throughout.

The upper boundary is gradational with the overlying Staithes Sandstone Formation, but is taken for consistency at the base of the "Oyster Bed", a fossiliferous calcareous and ferruginous sandstone packed with the bivalves Gryphea gigantea, Oxytoma inaequivalvis and Pseudopecten aequivalvis. This layer appears to persist as a continuous horizon throughout the Cleveland Basin.

 

Argillaceous limestone concretions in the Redcar Mudstone

Argillaceous limestone concretions in the Redcar Mudstone