These faults divide the basin from the older Carboniferous rocks of the Peak District and the North Staffordshire Coalfield.
The longer axis of the basin trends towards the NNE, being flanked on the west by the Carboniferous rocks of north Wales and to the east by the Pennine foothills.
The characteristic features of each are dependent on three variables: the time taken for deposition; the interplay between tectonics and eustasy and the lithology (thus facies) of the succession observed.
This work demonstrates the Mercia Mudstone Group to be a syn-rift phase of deposition, with the fine grained nature of the sedimentary record at this time controlled by the prevailing arid climate.
The movements (Wem–Red Rock Fault) which in late Carboniferous times initiated the Rossendale Anticline and the Pennine uplift were repeated later probably during the Alpine of Tertiary age, but the major fold of this date resulted in the Cheshire Basin as it is today, in which the Permo-Trias is preserved.