30 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1910 



between the "Rock" and the Inferior-Oohte Umestone is a/^ clay, and is 

 known as the " Lower Fullers' Earth." Therefore the deposits occupying a 

 corresponding stratigraphical position in North Oxfordshire are equivalent to 

 the Lower Fullers' Earth. But that term is inappropriate for use in North 

 Oxfordshire, so the denomination " Hook-Norton Beds" may be suggested 

 instead. Pevisphincles gracilis (J. Buckman) has been recorded from the 

 Stonesfield Slate of Stonesfield (Monogr. Moll. Great Oolite, Pal. Soc, p. 13), 

 Eyeford (near Naunton), and Sevenhampton Common (near Cheltenham), so 

 that effects fvirther correlation. Above the "Slate" at Stonesfield. and 

 in places around, is a marl which is rich in specimens of a form of Rhynchonella 

 concinna. A similar fossiliferous deposit is seen at many of the sections 

 in the Cotteswold Hills, and affords a most useful datum-level. It may 

 be remarked that Walford's Neaeran Beds are of the same date as the Upper 

 Estuarines of such sections near Northampton as that of Hopping Hill, and 

 as the upper portion of the Lower Fullers' Earth of the Doulting district in 

 Somerset. Mr Walford compared them with the building-stones of Barnack 

 and Stamford, but these arc of much earlier date and comparable with the 

 deposits of discitce hemera in the Cotteswolds. 



With regard to the Bathonian beds between the Stonesfield Slate and 

 the Cornbrash, there is a considerable thickness of Great Oolite, with the 

 usual kind of Forest Marble on top. Part of the lower portion of the Great 

 Oolite, as already noted, is on the horizon of the Fullers' Earth Rock, having 

 yielded Tel. ? subcontr actum. The component beds change somewhat from 

 place to place in this North-Oxfordshire district ; but it is interesting to 

 note that in the cutting at Ardley, on the new Ashendon to Aynho Line, the 

 bed immediately below the Forest Marble has been called the " Cream Cheese 

 Bed," I and from all descriptions it must closely resemble in texture the 

 peculiar Dagham Stones of the White Limestone Division of the neighbour- 

 hood of Cirencester. 



The next stop was at Fawler. Those who are accustomed to work the 

 Lias and Oolite on the western edge of the Cotteswolds, as, for example, at 

 Leckhampton Hill, know full well that the Capricornus-'BGds, which were 

 formerly worked at the Pilford pit, are succeeded there by a considerable 

 thickness of the Lower Maigayitatiis sandy shales ; these by the Marlstone, 

 which in turn is separated from the Inferior Oolite by something like 2 30 feet 

 of deposit that is principally clay. Recently it has been discovered that the 

 top and more sandy portion of this clay is of variabilis hemera. Upon this 

 rests the Inferior Oolite, of which the following subdivisions have been 

 recognised here, namely (in ascending order), the Sf/5s»w-Beds, Lower Lime- 

 stone, Pea-Grit, Lower Freestone, Oolite Marl, Upper Freestone, Lower 

 Trigonia-, Bucktnani-, and Gryphitc-Grits, Notgrove Freestone. Upper 

 Trigonia-Grit, and, a short distance back from the edge, the Clypeus-Grit. 

 The Inferior-Oolite between the Upper Lias and Upper Trigonia-Grit measures 

 about 200 feet. 



Now at Fawler, the top of the Capricorntts-Zone, Dr F. A. Bather^ 

 thinks, may come at about 30 feet below the Marlstone. The Lower 

 Margaritatiis-Zonc, according to that, would be about 30 feet thick. The 

 Marlstone "has proved sufficiently rich in iron-ore to have been worked with 

 profit." The discovery was made in 1859, but the working was discontinued 

 in 1887. It is still visible in the road-side, and in the workings to the 

 south-west and north-cast of the road. It is especially well seen at the 

 south-western end of the latter working, where it appears as a bed some 8 to 

 10 feet thick, dipping at an angle of about 10 degrees in a north-westerly 

 direction. Concerning the Marlstone, Prof. E. Hull has written : — 



1 Summary Progress Geol. Surv. for 1907 (1908), p. 150 



2 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xlii. (1886), p. 144. 



