VOL. XVI.(1) EXCURSION—BOURTON & BURFORD 23 
EXCURSION TO BOURTON-ON-THE-WATER 
AND BURFORD 
July 24th and 25th, 1906 
Directors: C. H. CHEATLE, L. RICHARDSON, J. SAWYER, CANON 
BROOME WITTS and G. B. WITTS, C.E. 
(Report—Geology by L. RICHARDSON; Archeology by JOHN SAWYER) 
The Members who attended the Meeting, in addition to the 
Directors, were Mr W. R. Carles, C.M.G. (President), Rev. W. Butt 
( Vice-President), Mr A. S. Helps (Hon. Treasurer), Mr F. J. Cullis 
F.G.S. (Hon. Librarian), Mr E. Talbot Paris (Hon. Assistant Secre- 
tary), Lieut.-Col. J. C. Duke, Surg.-Major I. Newton, and Messrs A. 
Cockshott, G. M. Currie, J. M. Dixon, O. H. Fowler, J. N. Hobbs, 
J. G. Phillips, J. W. Skinner, and Vincent A. Smith. The Rev. W. 
C. Emeris and Mr B. Belcher were present as visitors. 
Meeting at Bourton-on-the-Water on Tuesday morning, the party 
at once started on their walk to Wagborough Bush. Part of the 
route followed was along the ancient Foss Way—the Roman road that 
runs from Seaton, near Axmouth to Lincoln and York. 
From the hill near Wagborough Bush, Mr Richardson described 
the geography of the surrounding country, and gave an outline of the 
geology. The Bourton Valley, he said, has been hollowed out of 
strata domically arranged, probably solely by river-action. Over the 
floor of the hollow thus created, gravel, made up of well-rolled frag- 
ments of Liassic and Inferior-Oolite limestones, derived principally 
from the North Cotteswolds, has been widely distributed. In the 
adjoining Moreton Valley, however (which is connected by the 
narrow pass traversed by the Banbury Line to the south of Stow-on- 
the-Wold with the Vale of Bourton), the gravel-deposit is quite 
different, being made up of materials mainly derived from a distance 
and introduced by ice. Speaking then of the Inferior Oolite, Mr 
Richardson said that the Moreton Valley indicates the line of an anti- 
clinal axis along which movements have occurred time after time 
during the formation of the rocks. Owing to the movements, some 
beds which had probably been deposited over the anticlinal axis have 
been uplifted and eroded, whilst others have thinned out in the 
direction of that axis. The result of all these vicissitudes is that 
whereas in the neighbourhood of Leckhampton Hill, near Cheltenham, 
rocks measuring close upon 200 feet separate the Upper Lias from the 
Clypeus-Grit of the Inferior Oolite, in the upland tract east of the 
Rissingtons the CZyeus-Grit rests upon the Upper Lias without any 
intervening deposit. In a general way it may be said that in proceed- 
ing from west to east the rock-subdivisions below the Upper Trigonta- 
Grit disappear in suceession from the youngest to the oldest—the 
Phillipsiana-Beds of the Cleeve Hill plateau first, the Lower Limestone 
last. He mentioned that the CZyfews-Grit or its equivalent has a much 
greater geographical extent than the Upper Z7igonia-Grit. 
