The watershed is formed primarily by the upthrust of Ordovician (Precambrian) rocks north-east of the Ticknall-Thringstone Fault with Carboniferous measures to the south-west of the fault, including coal, clay and sandstone, which have been exploited in the 19th and 20th centuries as the Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Coalfield. Over much of the watershed, the Ordovician outcrop of Bardon Hill is prominent. Most of the Carboniferous measures of western Leicestershire are covered with red mudstones of the Triassic Mercia Mudstone Group. The outcrop of these rocks gives rise to a moderately undulating landscape characterised by mixed pasture and arable agricultural use that has developed on the neutral clay soils. The most prominent hills in the landscape are at Market Bosworth and Wellsborough. The higher land towards the north-east formed a plateau, in which the tributaries of the Sence have cut narrow valleys.