VOL. XVII. (l) 



EXCURSION— NUNEATON 



From the outside these loopholes present the appearance of a narrow cruci- 

 form sht, but inwardly the aperture widens, so that the garrison within could 

 command a wider range on either hand. 



The walls are about three feet in thickness, and are built of rough 

 undressed stone, embedded in firm cement ; but the loopholes and but- 

 tresses which flank the angles are of wrought freestone. The entrance 

 to the square is by a narrow postern, through which two men could hardly 

 ride abreast, and the castle was built for defence as well as for attack. 



One of the Earls of Chester married the granddaughter of the immortal 

 Lady Godiva, and the castle was an important outpost of his for offence and 

 defence against his mortal enemy, Lord Marmion, of Tamworth Castle 

 Other Lords of Hartshill have figured in such memorable battles as those of 

 Bannockburn and Evesham." i 



Leaving Hartshill village, Mr Abell's quarry was visited. Here in the 

 large quarry were seen the quartzite beds that are so largely worked for 

 road-metal and in the deep approach-cutting their junction with the under- 

 lying Pre-Cambrians. Remarkable as it may appear, it is not easy to 

 indicate precisely the line of demarcation between the Cambrian Quartzites 

 and the Caldecote rocks. The bottom beds of the Quartzite conttin many 

 derived fragments of the underlying rocks. The Caldecote rocks consist 

 chiefly of quartz-felspar tuffs as at the " Blue Hole," weathered in their 

 upper portion into huge spheroidal blocks, and here, as there, pierced by a 

 noticeable dyke of porphyritic basalt (see north-eastern end of section, fig. i). 

 The next quarry visited was Mr Trye's. Since the Geologists' Associa- 

 tion was there in i8g8, it has been more than doubled. On the north side 

 of the tunnel under the road, and in the south side of the cutting, intrusive 

 in the quartzites is the bed of diorite that has segregated on cooling 

 into clots and acid veins. Professor Lapworth calls this type of diorite 

 anchorite. 



SECTION ACROSS THE CENTRAL PART OF THE 

 NUNEATON RIDGE.—C. Lapworth. 

 Nuneaton Chapel Camp Camp Hill Caldecote 

 S.W. Common End Hill Grange Quarry Hill 



/ 6 Keuper Marls. 

 d 5 Coal Measures. 



a 4 Black Stockingford (Oldbury) Shales. 

 a 3 Purple Stockingford (Purley) Shales. 

 F.F. Faults. 



a 2 Hyolithus-'BeAs. 



a I Cambrian Quartzite. 



A Caldecote Volcanic Rocks. 



Black rocks — Diorite Dykes. 



In the drive from Trye's Quarry to that near the windmill, the Members 

 were again rewarded by the sun shining brilliantly on the scene, and the 

 wonderful view of the valley of the Anker was seen with appreciative eyes 

 the visitors being as interested in the prospect of the Bosworth battlefield, 

 with Crown-hill at Stoke Golding, where Richmond was crowned after 

 victory, as they were with the nearer view of the spirelet of Fenny Drayton 

 with Its memories of George Fox, the first Ouaker. 



At the windmill the members alighted. The quarry in the fork of the 

 road was pointed out as being in the Middle or Tuttle Hill Quartzite, and 

 then the path between the windmill and the Windmill-Hill Quarry was fol- 

 lowed down to the celebrated "Blue Hole." The rocks seen here were 

 similar to those seen in the entrance cutting to Mr Abell's quarry— dark 

 basalV^ ^^^'' pierced by the noticeable pale-coloured porphyritic 



I '• The George Eliot Country " (price 6d, The Abbey Press, Nuneaton), p. 29. 



