Widmerpool Gulf

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The Widmerpool Gulf is a name given to a geographical trough which existed as open water during the Lower Carboniferous (Tournaisian Age). It is named after Widmerpool, near Nottingham and was an extension eastwards as far as Lincolnshire, of the North Staffordshire Gulf. It was part of the pattern of crumpled crustal rocks which lay between the London-Brabant Island and the stable blocks represented by the modern Pennines, Cambrian Mountains and the Market Weighton Block. The energy required for its formation was supplied by the Caledonian orogeny. In time, the equatorial swamp forests on its shores were converted into the coalfields of Leicestershire, to the south and Nottinghamshire, to the north.