MooIIjopt jaaturalisfs' fiM CClub. 



4th Field Meeting, August 22nd, 1889. 



A VISIT TO LEDBURY AND THE MALVERN HILLS. 



On Thursday (August 22nd) the members of tliis Club paid a visit to Ledbury and 

 the Malvern Hills. They first trivvelled to Ledbury for the study of the geology 

 of the Passage Beds there. They were met at the Ledbury railway station by the 

 members of the Malvern Field Club. The explanation of these Pas.sage Beds was 

 given by Mr. G. H. Piper, who exhibited fine models of the rare fossils .4 ucAe«aspis 

 and Ccphalaspis, including a bony-plated body of Aiichenaspis Egertonii, believed 

 to be unique. Here Mr. Piper pointed out, in situ, the Lower Beds of the Old 

 Red Sandstone formation, and the topmost shales of the Silurian deposits, 

 together with the whole of the Passage Beds, lying sectioned in unbroken sequence 

 between these two great geological systems ; it is believed there is no other place 

 presenting the same advantages of the present opportunity, as weathering and 

 vegetable growth are fast obliterating the lines of demarcation between the various 

 beds. 



Commencing his measurements from the cutting into some good building 

 stone of the Old Red Sandstone, which is observed on the north side and just 

 opposite the goods shed of the Ledbury Railway Station, Mr. Piper pointed out 

 the various thicknesses of the different strata, of which he determined so many as 

 29 in number, extending for a length of 395 feet, and terminating in the Aymestry 

 limestone, more than 200 feet thick, containing the Pentamerus bed dwarfed 

 down to the diminutive thickness of a few inches. Mr. Piper described the 

 character and thickness of each stratum successively, and when he came to No. 7, 

 the blue, muddy, soft, frangible stone of the Lower Ludlow character, gave the 

 information that about 100 tons of this stone, which originally was mud, and 

 which in the course of two years would, upon exposure, be re-converted into mud, 

 had been used as ballast in the formation of the Ledbury and Gloucester Railway, 

 before he had detected it and indicated to the proper authorities its unsuitability 

 for that purpose. For a more detailed descrijition of these beds, the reader should 

 refer to Transactions, 1884, page 138, where the thickness of the separate beds is 

 given in the e.xtracts from Mr. Piper's address. 



When Mr. Piper had concluded, the Rev. J. D. La Touche said the same 

 succession of beds, but upon a smaller scale, could be seen in Shropshire, at 

 Ludlow, and also at Onibury, where they had a thickness of 100 feet ; and he 

 hoped to have an opportunity of exhibiting them to the Woolhope Club upon some 

 early future occasion. Mr. Garnett Botfield had found them 50 feet thick also at 

 Bishop's Castle, thinning out westwardly. 



