“Demolished Oil Rig”

The North York Moors Historic Environment Record describes these concrete foundations at Arnsgill Head as a “Demolished Oil Rig”¹North York Moors Historic Environment Record (HER) No: 8071.

I think it is more likely to be the remains of a 1944 test borehole — no doubt financed by the anticipation of the eventual commercial exploitation of any resources found²Frost, D.V. ‘Geology of the country around Northallerton. Memoir for 1:50 000 geological sheet 42 (England and Wales)’. Available online from Bgs.ac.uk <https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/Memoirs/docs/B01518.html > [accessed 3 October 2022]..

The geological survey is hard to make sense of but I do note that Carboniferous strata — the rocks most likely to contain oil and gases — were located at a depth of between 1159 and 3000 metres.

With the Government’s renewed enthusiasm for fracking, my concerns are raised of such developments in the National Park.

It appears that fracking licences have been issued for areas along the southern edge of the National Park and Northern edge of the Yorkshire Wolds, although this was taken from an article on the NYM NP website dated November 2017³‘Fracking (Shale Gas): North York Moors National Park’. 2022. North York Moors National Park <https://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/planning/fracking-shale-gas> [accessed 21 October 2022]. The article also mentions that there have been “conventional forms of gas exploration and production” in the south west of the National Park and around Westerdale.

• 1
  North York Moors Historic Environment Record (HER) No: 8071
• 2
  Frost, D.V. ‘Geology of the country around Northallerton. Memoir for 1:50 000 geological sheet 42 (England and Wales)’. Available online from Bgs.ac.uk <https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/Memoirs/docs/B01518.html > [accessed 3 October 2022].
• 3
  ‘Fracking (Shale Gas): North York Moors National Park’. 2022. North York Moors National Park <https://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/planning/fracking-shale-gas> [accessed 21 October 2022]