What does Colne mean to you? Is it the place that you drive through on the way to the M65, or on the way to Yorkshire? Is it just a name on a road sign? Is it somewhere that you have never been?
Earthcaches are there for us to learn and see, but many of them are off the beaten track, where not all can get to, this is an attempt to try and meet the need of others who are not as able as others.
It is a 
disabled friendly, and 
child friendly cache.
Well at first sight there is not much to see geologically, but peel some layers back, open your mind and eyes, and you will find places of interest. Now, I am being honest here, there are no obvious fault lines, no rocky cliffs, no sink holes, no wonders such as Malham Cove, Arthurs Seat or Ingleborough, but there is a monster, a real monster.
The co-ordinates take you to Colne Town Hall, which was opened in 1894, and it is time for eyes down. No, we are not going to play Bingo today, but look at what we walk on. The pavement here is made out of Haslingden Flag, a stone from the Rossendale area of Lancashire. The rocks that lie underneath the valleys and hills of Rossendale were formed millions of years ago when the whole of what is now the North of England was a huge river delta. Sand and mud settled to the bottom of the slow moving water and built up until it was hundreds of metres thick. Over the years conditions changed leaving different layers in the sediment. Each layer turned into a different type of rock. One of these rocks, found only in Rossendale, is known as Haslingden Flag. Peculiar conditions in what was to become Rossendale gave rise to deep beds of hard sandstones, known geologically as Haslingden Flag. This stone has a hardness and silica content equivalent to granite and was the principal reason for the growth of quarrying in Rossendale. Two units of Haslingden Flags are recognised - Lower and Upper – . The lower Haslingden Flags are important in the west and north-west Rossendale from Haslingden to Crawshawbooth. The Upper Haslingden Flags dominate the southern moorlands of Rossendale from Edenfield round to Whitworth.
Now you need to find the monster, the monster slab. Here we have the largest paving slab in the United Kingdom, and it originally came from Cloughfold Quarry, which lies in the moorlands to the south of Cloughfold and the Rossendale Valley. If you are interested in visiting the area of where it came from there is a earthcache at the old scrubbing mill site above Cloughfold, Cloughfold view Earth cache, GC5KY2N. A scrubbing or rubbing mill was a method of smoothing flags to be used for house floors and similar purposes, where a smooth surface was demanded. It was used where the layers of flagstone from the quarry were rough-surfaced or rippled (locally called “dappled”). The flags were first produced by splitting along their cleavage planes, leaving a surface with irregularities. The purpose of the scrubbing mill was to polish out these irregularities, leaving a smooth surface.
This being an earthcache, in order to log it, I ask that you answer some questions. Please send them to me, and do not include them in your log. You can send them to me by using the message facility or email, both of which can be found by looking at my profile.
1. Generally what colour is the Haslingden flag?
2. What are its dimensions?
3. Do you think it visited the old scrubbing mill at Cloughfold view Earth cache, GC5KY2N? Please provide the rationale for your answer.
4. Why was this type of stone used here?