VOL. XVII. (I) INFERIOR OOLITE— SOUTH COTTESWOLDS 



123 



Selsley Hill 



Witchell thought that the thickness of the Inferior Oolite 

 at Selsley Hill was about 150 feet/ This does not appear to be 

 far wrong ; but I should be inclined to say 160 feet. This total 

 embraces the deposits detailed in the general section on pages 

 125-126. It is very difficult to arrive at estimates of the 

 thicknesses of the Lower Limestone and Lower Freestone from 

 details obtainable at Selsley Hill itself ; but in a deeply-cut 

 water-course which traverses the steep hill-side clothed by Pen 

 Wood, a-sixth of a mile to the west of Selsley-Hill Farm, these 

 beds are very fairly exposed, and it was here that the estimates 

 of their thicknesses were obtained. 



It is perhaps best to study the sequence of Inferior-Oolite 

 beds at Selsley Hill in ascending order. 



Ascending the hill from Dudbridge Station (see map, text- 

 fig. 4), the first quarry to be noticed is on the Common on the 



right (No. 6), and is 

 in the Lower Lime- 

 stone. It is the " No. 

 6 " of Edwin Witchell, 

 who has described the 

 geology of this hill 

 in some detail.^ The 

 Lower Limestone is 

 here noted for its 

 "Dapple- Beds " — 

 limestones with pecu- 

 liar pebble-like in- 

 clusions of oolite, 

 evidently the product 

 of a pene-contempo- 

 raneous erosion. Since 

 the Geologists' Asso- 

 ciation visited the 

 quarry, it has been 

 developed in a south- 

 erly direction, and an 

 interesting fault, with 



Fig. 4. — Map of Selsley Hill (3 inches = i mile) 

 to show the positions of the quarries. 



I Proc. Cotteswold Nat. F.C., vol. ix., pt. 2 (for 1886-7), p. 99. 2 Ibid. pp. 96-107. 



