112 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1913 



and run by Miss B. C. Mulliner, M.A., late of the Cheltenham Ladies' College. 

 At Half-way House the Members were met by the Hon. Secretary and 

 Mr Charles Upton. 



The Rock-Cottage Quarry was entered, and the Hon. Secretary pro- 

 ceeded to give a brief account of the geography and geology of the district. 

 He said that, as the Members knew well enough, above the Middle Lias came 

 the Upper Lias, and above the latter the Inferior Oolite. The Upper Lias 

 in this district was some 150 to 200 feet thick. The bottom-portion con- 

 sisted of thin limestones and clays, which graduated up into yellow .sands — 

 the Yeovil Sands. The top-bed of the Sands was very hard, was called the 

 " Dew-Bed," and was the rock they saw at the bottom of the quarry, and on 

 whose very level surface some of them were seated. At about five feet above 

 the top of the Dew-Bed was a rubbly-looking deposit, almost composed of the 

 valves of a shell called Astarte obliqua (sec Plate XII., fig. i). This Astarte- 

 ohltqua-Bed was of the same age as the Upper Trigonia-Grit of the Cottes- 

 wolds (garantiancB), so that here, between the top of the Upper Lias and the 

 rock of garantiana date, they had some 5 feet of rock as against some 194 feet 

 at Leckhampton Hill, near Cheltenham. The intervening rock here at Rock 

 Cottage Quarry was full of ammonites, and many specimens were obtained. 



From Half-way House the Members drove via Babylon Hill, to the top 

 of " Bradford Hollow Way " (Plate XII., fig. 2). Here they got out of the 

 brake and walked a short distance down the lane, which is very deeply-sunk 

 in the Yeovil Sands. The trackway is an old one, and most likely the lowering 

 of it has been mainly effected by the traffic of bygone days. 



The next stop was at the Baggerbush-I-anc Quarry. Here crowds of am- 

 monites were found— -some loose, others packed like plates in the rock. 



From the quarry the Members went to Bradford-Abbas Church, where 

 they were received by the Vicar, the Rev. Canon Gordon Wickham. The 

 Church was erected about 1480 by Abbot Bradford of Sherborne and is 

 perpendicular throughout. At the eastern end of the south wall is " the 

 Priests' Porch " which was much admired. The Tower, which reminds 

 one of those in Somerset, is regarded as the best example of its kind in 

 the County. After having pointed out the principal features of interest in 

 his Church, the Canon and Mrs Gordon Wickham most kindly entertained the 

 Members at tea, and showed them round their charming garden, which extends 

 down to the Yeo. 



On the way back to Sherborne a brief visit was paid to Wyke 

 Grange, a moated farm-house, which is said to have been used by the 

 Abbots of Sherborne as their summer-quarters. The manor was after- 

 wards held by the family of Horsey for a long period. Over the main 

 door is the date 1650, the year in which the building was restored or 

 altered. Near by are two mediaeval bams with fine timbered roofs. 



THURSDAY 



On Thursday the Members left Sherborne at 9.37 a.m., and went by 

 train to Yeovil. 



At the Church of St. John the Baptist the Members were met by the Vicar, 

 the Rev. H. C. Sydenham, who very kindly pointed out the chief features of 

 interest in his Church. 



It is built mainly of whitish Upper-Lias limestone, quarried near by, and 

 has been called " The Lantern of the West," on account of the very narrow wall 

 spaces between the windows. 



At 11.37 a.m., train was taken to Montacute. From the station the 

 Members walked to Montacute House. This magnificent mansion belongs 



