The cutting is through beds of Highley Sandstone. They were deposited in the river channels on swampy deltas 310 million years ago. Their characteristic grey-green tinge indicates deposition in oxygen-poor conditions of a humid swamp. This is in contrast to the red Alveley Sandstone, seen earlier, formed in the oxygen-rich environment of a semi-arid desert.
The pronounced 'bedding planes' running almost horizontally across the rock face, represent breaks in deposition. 'Cross-bedded' or 'current-bedded' layers are inclined at angles to each other.
This cross cutting relationship is a result of
changing directions in the river current that deposited the sediments, in the same way as changes in wind direction caused the dune-bedding seen in the Bridgnorth Sandstone