Situated in the centre of the main street, Winster Market House is the standout feature of the village, and stands as a reminder to its thriving past. In 1906 it became the first property in the Peak District to be bought by the National Trust, for £50.
It is a listed building and is free entry - on the first floor there is an information room with displays detailing the history of the village, and also contains and a scale model of Winster.
Gritstone is a hard, coarse-grained sandstone. This term is especially applied to sandstone quarried for building material.
British gritstone was used for millstones to mill flour, to grind wood into pulp for paper and for grindstones to sharpen blades.
It’s a sedimentary rock type that began on river beds where the grit deposits were typically laid down, with tides dumping more layers of sediment. These sediment burials happened some 300 million years ago and so have been buried beneath muds, coal and limestone.
Over long periods of time and under great pressure these gritty sediments were eventually transformed into rock.
Weathering is the process where rock is dissolved, worn away or broken down into smaller and smaller pieces. Once the rock has been weakened and broken up by weathering it is ready for erosion.
Physical weathering is caused by the effects of changing temperature on rocks, causing the rock to break apart. The process Is sometimes assisted by water. Chemical weathering is caused by rain water reacting with minerals in rocks to form new minerals(clays) and soluble salts. These reactions occur particularly when the water Is slightly acidic.
Erosion happens when rocks and sediments are picked up and moved to another place by ice, water, wind or gravity. In this case it is wind. Wind erodes the Earth's surface by deflation (removing loose, fine-grained particles by the force of the wind) and by abrasion (the wearing down of surfaces by windborne particles).
Sedimentary rocks are rocks formed from sediment. They are deposited over time, and often show layers which can be seen in cliffs. Sediments are usually formed from matter which falls to the bottom of oceans and lakes. The matter includes tiny pieces of other rocks, and dead animals, plants and microorganisms. The three most common sedimentary rocks are limestone, sandstone and shale.
Gritstone is a form of sandstone. Sandstone is a sedimentary rock made up of tiny grains of mineral, rock, or another organic material. It also contains a 'glue'-type material that binds the sand grains together and may contain silt or clay particles that fill the gaps between the sand grains. Sandstone also is often mined for use as a construction material or as a raw material used in manufacturing. Inside the Earth, it often serves as an aquifer (underground layer of rock which holds substances) for groundwater or as a reservoir for oil and natural gas.
In order to log this EarthCache as a find you just answer the following questions and message me the answers at the same time as logging:
1) Describe and explain the difference in texture between the archway and the walls.
2) There are lots of holes/dents in the stone by the main arch - are they are all a similar size? And please measure/estimate the width of the biggest one.
3) Compare the colours of the rock on the East and West walls.
Optional: Please post a photo of you or your GPS at the EarthCache with your log in order to verify your visit