Rifle Butts Quarry

Overview

A tiny chalk face at the foot of the Wolds scarp near Goodmanham, traditionally said to have been opened in the 1860s for material for the railway from Market Weighton — though the geologist who has studied it longest doubts it was ever a quarry at all, the site being far too small to have produced anything much. Whatever cut it, the face shows a Cretaceous unconformity of national importance, Red Chalk and white chalk lying straight on Jurassic rocks. It has been a Site of Special Scientific Interest since 1952 and has had a roof over it since 1993.

History

The site is a small disused working at the bottom of the chalk scarp, at the western end of the Goodmanham Channel, a spillway cut by glacial meltwater in the Ice Age. It has long been said that the quarry was opened in the 1860s to provide material for the North Eastern Railway's line from Market Weighton, and that a local farmer later bought it and rented it to the rifle club that gave it its name, until the 1940s. Mike Horne of the Hull Geological Society has questioned that account: the site seems too tiny to have produced any significant amount of material, and no rifle range or railway appears on the Ordnance Survey map of the 1850s. The act enabling the railway from Market Weighton to Beverley was approved in 1862 and the single line opened in 1865. The map of the 1890s shows a rifle range firing 600 yards west to east on the north side of Spring Dale, with a flagstaff but no earthworks in the target area; the maps of the 1900s and 1910s show the range in its present position on the south side. Geologists held the exposure to be nationally important and the 0.3 hectare site was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1952, confirmed in national reviews in 1981 and 1987. The Yorkshire Naturalists' Trust, now the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, bought it on 30 June 1964 and the Yorkshire Geological Society excavated it; the concrete retaining wall from that work can still be seen at the left-hand end. In 1987 the Nature Conservancy Council and Community Rural Aid cut a new and enlarged exposure, and the Hull Geological Society adopted the site to keep it clean and tidy. A roof was put over the face in 1993, at a cost of £6,500, funded by the Curry Fund of the Geologists' Association, English Nature and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

Geology

Three rock types are exposed in the face: the Lower Chalk of the Ferriby Formation, the Red Chalk or Hunstanton Formation, and Jurassic sediments beneath them. The junction is a Cretaceous unconformity, where sediments laid down between the Jurassic and the Lower Cretaceous were eroded away before the chalk was laid on top, and it is identified as of national importance in the Geological Conservation Review. The Lower Chalk here carries the same fossils as the Lower Chalk at Buckton Cliff on the coast and at South Ferriby, and the section can be compared with the cliffs at Speeton and the quarries at Melton and South Ferriby on either side of the Humber.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

A single small face on 0.3 hectares of ground, with the concrete retaining wall of the 1964 excavation at its left-hand end and an enlarged exposure cut in 1987. A roof has covered the face since 1993 to keep the rain off it.

Closure

Nothing records when work at the face stopped. On the traditional account the cutting was done in the 1860s for railway material and the ground was later let to a rifle club until the 1940s; on the reading of the Hull Geological Society it may never have been worked as a quarry at all.

What remains

A nature reserve owned by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, the geological face under its shelter. Permission to visit must be had from the warden or the Hull Geological Society's secretary, and visitors are asked not to hammer the face or collect samples without permission. Over 150 plants have been recorded on the grassland, among them cowslip, marjoram, field scabious and wild basil; willow warbler and yellowhammer breed there.

The exposed face under its 1993 shelter, the concrete retaining wall of 1964, and the chalk grassland around them.

Redevelopment

The site is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest and a nature reserve; what matters about it is what the face shows rather than anything taken out of it.

Nearby mines

• Kiplingcotes Chalk Pit — 2.0 km NE

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• Opened in the 1860s to provide material for the North Eastern Railway line from Market Weighton, and later rented to the local rifle club until the 1940s. (disputed) ¹
• The site is too tiny to have produced any significant amount of material, and no rifle range or railway appears on the Ordnance Survey map of the 1850s. (disputed) ²

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The 0.3 hectare site was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1952, confirmed in national reviews in 1981 and 1987. ¹
• Bought by the Yorkshire Naturalists' Trust on 30 June 1964 and excavated then by the Yorkshire Geological Society. ¹
• Opened in the 1860s to provide material for the North Eastern Railway line from Market Weighton, and later rented to the local rifle club until the 1940s. (disputed) ¹
• The site is too tiny to have produced any significant amount of material, and no rifle range or railway appears on the Ordnance Survey map of the 1850s. (disputed) ²
• Three rock types are exposed: Lower Chalk of the Ferriby Formation, Red Chalk of the Hunstanton Formation, and Jurassic sediments. ¹
• A roof was erected over the exposure in 1993 at a cost of £6,500. ¹
• The exposure shows a Cretaceous unconformity identified as of national importance in the Geological Conservation Review. ³
• The reserve is chalk grassland with over 150 plants recorded, including cowslip, marjoram, field scabious and wild basil. ^3,4

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Rifle Butts Quarry SSSI (Mike Horne and Cyril Dutton) — Hull Geological Society
2. (secondary) Was Rifle Butts SSSI ever a Quarry, and who used it? (Mike Horne) — Hull Geological Society
3. (secondary) Rifle Butts Quarry — Wikipedia
4. (observational) Rifle Butts Quarry Nature Reserve — Yorkshire Wildlife Trust

Record created: 23 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026