83 



THE GEOLOGY, HISTORY, AND NATURAL FEATURES 

 OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. 



By Mr. T. J. SALWEY. 



The address delivered by Mr. T. J. Salwey at the Haye Park meeting 

 was as follows :^ 



Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemex, — I esteem it a great honour to 

 to be asked to address you on this occasion, jsartictilarlj' as I am not a mem- 

 ber of the Woolhope Club, bvit as a member of the Ludlow Club I can give 

 you a hearty welcome to our district. I see in the programme for the day that 

 I am put down for an address on the botanj', geology, and scenery of the 

 locality. Now, I know nothing of the science of botany, therefore I can tell 

 you nothing of the botany of the neighbourhood. The geology of the district is 

 particularly interesting, but from the point where we are now standing it is impos- 

 sible to see the best i^art of it ; however, we will treat upon what we can see. 

 Our present situation is high in the Silurian S3'stem, this park being the Lower 

 Ludlow and Aymestrey limestone formation. If we look to the south-east we 

 shall look across the Upper Ludlow for al^out a mile and then get upon a large 

 tract of Old Red which e.xtends to Malvern. On the south-east and past 

 Hereford and Monmouth to Cardiff on the south, and almost tolronbridge on 

 the Wye, down the valley of the Teme and Lugg, there are numerous alluvial 

 deposits which form rich meadow land, but in many cases are difficult to drain. 

 We are very near the line of a fault about 10 miles in length which extends 

 from the Rownbury in a south-westerly direction. That hiU called Tinkers- 

 hill is on the line of it, and is an isolated bit of Aymestrey limestone and Upper 

 Ludlow. The C'lee HUls themselves demand considerable attention, as the 

 cause of their uplifting is an eruption of basalt, a comparatively scarce stone, 

 but which is making the name of Clee-hill celebrated wherever it goes, it being 

 a first-class road making material. This basalt is of a blacldsh colour, for 

 which reason it is often called Dhu stone. It is extremely hard, but yet brittle, 

 so there is little difficulty in breaking it. It must have come up in a molten 

 state at some period since the deposition of the carboniferous system, through, 

 comparatively speaking, narrow trap dykes, and then flowed over the top like 

 a mushroom. Round the right hand or Coinbrook-hill, some of the coal- 

 field remains and is still worked. The carboniferous limestone shows only on 

 the south side ; above this and on the north side comes Millstone Grit, and 

 above this the coal measuies, the hill being capped bj' Dhu stone or basalt. 



