28 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB igio 



EXCURSION TO STONESFIELD AND FAWLER 



Tuesday, September 21st, igog 



Director : L. Richardson 



(Report hy L. Richardson) 



The last Field Meeting of the Session 1909-10 was held in the Stonesfield 

 district on September 21st, those present beins; : — The Rev. H. H. Winwood 

 F.G.S. {Vice-President), Mr T. S. Ellis {Hon. Treasurer). Mr L. Richardson 

 {Hon. Secretary), Mr E. T. Paris {Hon. Assistant Secretary), Dep. Surg. -Gen. 

 G. A. Watson, Canon Broome Witts, and Messrs F. H. Bretherton, J. 

 M. Collett, F.C.S., J. M. Dixon, O. H. Fowler, J. W. Gray, F.G.S., J. 

 N. Hobbs, F. T. Pearce, J. W. Skinner. W. Stanton, A. W. Stanton, and 

 W. Thompson. 



The party arrived at Handborough at 12.27 P-rn. Here a brake from 

 Oxford was awaiting them. 



The first stop was made at the gravel-pit on the left-hand side of 

 the road in the village, half-way between the Manor House and the Church, 

 in which from 10 to 12 feet of gravel was seen. It is mainly of local origin, 

 but contains a few patches of sand, traces of clay-bands, and a subordinate 

 amount of " Northern Drift " pebbles. Some of the gravel is coated with 

 carbonaceous matter, as at Bourton.' Here the Hon. Secretary outlined the 

 work they hoped to accomplish during the day. He said that the district was 

 one the Club had not been to before. They had therefore visited it in order 

 to see in what respects its geology and scenic aspect differed from the geology 

 and scenery of the district further to the west — between the vales of Moreton 

 and the Severn. They had probably observed that the Cotteswold escarp- 

 ment had been negotiated in the train by means of a fairly steep gradient, a 

 tunnel, and the Chelt "pass" between Charlton Kings and Andoversford. 

 Then followed a steep climb over the broad undulating uplands, via Notgrove. 

 The steep western face of the Cotteswolds was mainly due to the thickness of 

 the Inferior Oolite, which, as they knew well, was so finely exposed at Lcck- 

 hampton Hill. But in this district it was extremely thin, and as they would 

 see shortly at Fawler, its Top-Beds rested directly upon clays belonging to the 

 bottom zones of the Upper Lias. Above the Inferior Oolite comes the 

 Fullers' Earth. Near Stroud it is clay, at least 90 feet thick. At Stonesfield, 

 as a clay deposit, it is scarcely recognisable; but the Great Oolite of 

 Minchinhampton, is well represented at Stonesfield. To the Great Oolite 

 succeed Forest Marble, Cornbrash, and Oxford Clay, and all these occur 

 in the tract to be traversed during the day. Moreover, all these beds, from 

 the Inferior Oolite to the Oxford Clay, and yet younger beds above, once ex- 

 tended much further west than they do now ; but untold centuries of 

 denudation, principally by river-work and atmospheric agencies, have 

 evolved and developed that subdued undulating surface which is so pleasing a 

 characteristic of this part of the country. 



It is difficult to say, on the evidence at present available, what were the 

 precise conditions that obtained in these parts during the Glacial Epoch. The 

 highest portions of the hills are covered with Northern Drift, or "Plateau 

 Gravel," as it is called in these parts ; and although it now occurs in isolated 

 patches, Mr R. I. Pocock thinks that it is the leavings of a time when 

 the district was " overspread by ice in the early Pleistocene period." Since 



I Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. xviii. (1904), p. 402. 



