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Old 07-10-2010, 05:47 PM
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Default Rather old tree from near Widdrington!









FOSSIL TREE — SIGILLARIA Sp,
This specimen, a member of the LYGOPODIALES group of plants, was recovered from Radar North Site on 2nd October 1969 at a depth of approximately 50 feet and is thought to be about 250,000,000 years old. Renovation was kindly carried out by the Geology Department of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
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Old 07-10-2010, 05:56 PM
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this bird was also checking out the fossil tree


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Old 08-10-2010, 12:20 AM
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Radar North Site ( allegedly )


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBLQOsmcQDQ
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Old 16-12-2011, 01:49 PM
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Had a quick look and the bridges at 1m 20sec ish are halfway between Broomhill and Acklington and just North of Togston so it probably is the site area mentioned. The house seen at 30sec is next to Togston Hall, which is in the trees to the right out of shot.

Last edited by hollydog; 16-12-2011 at 01:52 PM.
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Old 18-12-2011, 12:16 PM
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Well spotted. I didn't recognise any of the views, but you are correct with that house at North Togston.
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Old 22-02-2013, 10:36 PM
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The scrapers in the video are stripping topsoil and subsoils on the Togston site.
The over bridge is infact the one built to carry the coal wagons from Togston along the coal road to Widdrington Disposal point. The road construction is adjacent to Acklington. The underpass is the one under the 3 lanes near Widdrington roundabout. The two electric face shovels loading the dumptrucks were filmed at Acklington site. The first was E69 a Ruston Bucyrus 150B loading Caterpillar 773B dumptrucks 50T capacity. The second was E79 a Ruston Bucyrus 195B loading Lectra Haul dumptrucks 100T capacity. The shots of Big Geordie being built are definitely at Radar North site, however the shots of it working may be Sisters site were it went after Radar North.

Regarding the fossilized tree, we went through a forest of these at West Chevington site in the overburden above the Bottom Beaumont seam. I'm not sure if this seam was worked at Radar North, it might have been too deep. I will ask my father who worked there.
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Old 12-05-2013, 05:51 PM
leslie leslie is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Coquet View Post
Radar North Site ( allegedly )


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBLQOsmcQDQ

I worked on big Geordie erection, in 68/69 Still have pics i took at time,
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Old 13-05-2013, 07:32 PM
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Hi Leslie, post the pictures if you can!
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Old 11-12-2013, 06:43 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Coquet View Post








FOSSIL TREE — SIGILLARIA Sp,
This specimen, a member of the LYGOPODIALES group of plants, was recovered from Radar North Site on 2nd October 1969 at a depth of approximately 50 feet and is thought to be about 250,000,000 years old. Renovation was kindly carried out by the Geology Department of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
First I have heard of this, any idea of it's location?
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Old 11-12-2013, 07:17 PM
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I think I may have seen it at Hauxley nature reserve recently? Can anyone confirm its there?
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Old 11-12-2013, 10:29 PM
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Yes it's at Hauxley nature reserve - or it was; they've had bother with vandals and fire-starters over there in recent years.

Now those fossil trees - still in their growth position - often appear in the roof of roadways in deep mines - and dangerous they are too. they can drop out and do some serious damage. the core would be solid stone like the one shown, but around the rim would be a few millimetres of coal. I think it was this thin shroud of coal that made them unstable and prone to sliding out of the roof. Not nice objects.

I'm sure we used to call them a "catteringarse" (!) [Alan_J can you remember this term or have I got it wrong?]


On this (US) website if you scroll down to the fourth picture you will see one hanging out of the roof. What they have done there is put a roof bolt through it to make sure it stays put.
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Old 11-12-2013, 10:33 PM
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that picture on that website - if you look carefully at the junction were the tree passes into the roof you can see the thin black layer of coal I mentioned.
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Old 11-12-2013, 10:45 PM
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In the access roadways to the last coal faces I worked on at Ellington there were some magnificent displays of toppled horizontal Lycopod trunks in the roof - great big things in criss-crossing jumbles. Those old forests must have been something to behold.
The trees at the very top of the seam when they've fallen over turn to coal, but the ones that remain upright turn to stone for some reason.
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