WOOLHOPE DISTRICT. / 



■wHle all those rocks were beneath the waves of an ocean. Tlie 

 whole of this district may be described as a mass of Upper SHurian 

 strata elevated in the shape of a pear, and extending from Mordi- 

 ford, four miles from Hereford, on the north, to Gorstley, near 

 Newent, on the south. At Gorstley the Silurian rocks dip for a 

 short distance under the Old Eed sandstone,' and rise again at Aston 

 Ingham'and near Kilcot Green, into the Silurian dome of May Hill. 

 It is not easy to describe the geological phenomena of this remark- 

 able upheaval and denudation of Silurian rocks briefly and succinctly. 

 I can only say that, I beUeve, there was a period when the high liills 

 of Seager Hill, Stoke Edith Park, Backbury Camp, and Cherry Hill, 

 near Fownhope, were horizontal stratified Aymestry rocks, overlaid by 

 the Old Eed sandstone, and overlying and surmounting the Wenlock 

 rock of Dormington quarries, Hollinghill "Wood, and Lim ekil n Bank, 

 near Fownhope. The Wenlock rocks also overlaid the "Woolhope lime- 

 stone of "Woolhope, Littlehope, and Scatterdine ; and this limestone 

 again surmounted the Llandovery rocks of the dome- like wood of 

 Haughwood. Earthquake agency upheaved the Silurian rocks 

 into this cone-hke form through the Old Red overlying strata; 

 but all these rocks must have been underneath the sea at the period 

 of upheaval, for sea- waves and currents have swept away every frag- 

 ment of the mass of rock that once linked together the continuous 

 strata of Aymestry with Aymestry rock, and Wenlock with Wenlock 

 limestone, and swept out the soft intervening Ludlow and Wenlock 

 shales into deep and nearly circular vales. 



Mordiford, at the] north of this district, is well worthy of the 

 attention of geologists, as it is the only locality Avhere any amount 

 of debris is collected of the immense masses of rock that have been 

 denuded. Probably a second elevation occurred, and the Mordiford 

 gorge may have been wider than at present. Near to Mordiford are 

 the lower Wenlock limestone (Woolhope limestone) of Scutterdine. 

 These beds are ^eno^vned for their fine specimens of the large 

 trilobites, Elsenus Barriensis, and Homolonotus Knightii. One spe- 

 cimen I obtained from them, now in the Malvern Museum, is as 

 large as a' fair sized lobster. De. Wright, of Cheltenham, and the 

 Eev. F. Merewether, of Woolhope, have also secured good specimens. 

 Dormington village, on the Hereford high road, must not be 

 confounded with Dormington quarries. The village stands upon 



