39 



the height to be 582'5 above sea-level, which no doubt is fairly approximate to its 

 true altitude.* A steep ascent in the road below the camp is called " Wooboro 

 Pitch," a locality much better known by the natives than the camp itself. Not- 

 withstanding the Saxon names of the camp, the hill, and the pitch ; and notwith- 

 standing its round elongated shape, tradition states it to have been a Roman 

 encampment, and some archaeologists support this view. It may have been so, but 

 it seems more probable that it was the residential place of some local Saxon chief- 

 tain, who enclosed this large camp to protect himself and his cattle from any 

 sudden attack of a quarrelsome neighbour. There is one difficulty, however, that 

 would meet any idea of continuous occupation, and that is the want of water supply. 

 There is no spring on the hill, and all buildings on it are pro^■ided with tanks or 

 pools to preserve rain-water. The comfortable cottage just below the tank, with 

 its pretty and well cared for garden, and its choice ornamental shrubs and many 

 fruit trees, had no water supply. Its occupants had to go down two fields, and 

 draw all their spring water with chain and Ijucket, from a well twenty feet deep. 

 They had faith, however, that water could be got if a well was sunk, but it was 

 evidently only the faith which always exists in such cases. There is a deep hollow 

 near the entrance to the camp, and within the protection of its embankments, 

 which, when puddled, probably formed the pool for the preservation of rain-water 

 to supply the peojjle and cattle. 



At the summit of the camp, beneath a friendly stunted oak tree, the President 

 read the following address on the 



LUDLOW AND AYMESTRY ROCKS OF THE SILURIAN 

 SYSTEM. 



To stand upon the outer edge of the Woolhope basin and be called upon to 

 speak about geoloiry is a strong temptation to make some general observations 

 upon that remarkable and interesting valley, but as the members of our Club 

 live all round it and in it. and have adoi)ted its classical name, and explored its 

 wonderful structure over and over again during the last thirty years and upwards, 

 it is a fair assumption that they all know everything that can be .said about it, and 

 are not disposed to bestow their time upon the discussion of so stale a subject. I 

 will not stay to enquire whether this supposition exists or does not exist, and if it 

 does exist, whether it is correct or otherwise, but propose to abandon the greater 

 question, at any rate for the present time, and leave its marvellous history in 

 repose, and confine myself to a few general remarks on the I>udlow formation 

 and its sub-division into Lower Ludlow Rocks, Aymestry Limestone, and 

 Upper Ludlow Rocks, all of which are so conspicuous here, and form the great 

 walls by which the Woolhope valley is encircled — thus taking the fringe of 

 the subject only — and I am led naturally to this course by the fact that Old- 

 bury camp, which we are here to explore, stands almost entirely on the Aymestry 

 limestone, and is carved out of the solid mass of the calcareo-argillaceous rock 



* This proves to be much too low. The nearest Ordnance Survey Bench Mark, on the main 

 road about two hundred yards north of Oldbury Camp, makes the true altitude at the site of 

 Bench Mark to be 617.2 feet. 



