LUDLOW SERIES. lOI 



LUDLOW SERIES. 



The term Ludlow Beds was given by Murchison in 1833, because 

 the town of Ludlow in Shropshire stands on these strata, near their 

 junction with the Lower Old Red Sandstone. 



The Ludlow formation may be regarded as a natural con- 

 tinuation of the Wenlock beds, for the inferior strata contain 

 calcareous nodules, which differ from those of the Wenlock deposit 

 only in being usually of a blacker colour, and which have often 

 been formed round an Orthoceras, a Trilobite, or other fossil as a 

 nucleus. Prof. Lapworth would include the Lower Ludlow beds 

 with the Wenlock beds, under the general name Salopian (see 

 p. 86), a grouping suggested in 1865 by Mr. C. Ketley.^ The 

 thickness of the Ludlow formation is about 7000 feet at Malvern, 

 but as much as 1200 or 1400 feet elsewhere. The Series may be 

 divided as follows : — 



5. Ledbury Shales. ) Passage Beds between Silurian and 



4. Downton Sandstones, j Lower Old Red Sandstone. 

 3. Upper Ludlow Beds. 

 2. Aymestry Limestone. 

 I. Lower Ludlow Beds. 



Lower Ludlow Beds. 



This formation consists of grey and greenish-grey sandy shales, 

 micaceous sandstone and flags. Some of the upper beds are cal- 

 careous, and contain small concretions of impure limestone. The 

 shales have been locally termed ' mudstones,' from their tendency 

 when wet to dissolve into mud. Their thickness has been esti- 

 mated at 750 feet at Malvern. 



The uppermost strata (according to Murchison) become some- 

 what more sandy, constituting thick flagstones, termed ' pendle ' by 

 the workmen. They have attracted much attention at a spot near 

 Leintwardine, and have yielded many remains of Crustacea and 

 Starfishes. These beds form the support of the Aymestry lime- 

 stone, from which they are usually separated by soft soapy beds, in 

 parts an imperfect fuller's earth. It is the decomposition of this 

 unctuous fuller's earth (provincially Walker's earth or Die earth) 

 beneath heavy masses of the limestone which rest upon it, that 

 has occasioned numerous landslips both near Ludlow and in 

 neighbouring parts of Herefordshire.- 



Among the fossils are Sponges, Ischadites, Cliona, etc. ; Grapto- 

 lites, Monograptus Leintivardmensis, etc. ; Corals of the genera 

 Favosi/i's, Heliolites, etc. ; Echinoderms, including the Starfishes, 

 Protaster Miltoni, Pakmcoma Colvini, and Palasioina pritJiccva, as 



^ See Murchison, Siluria, edit. 5, p. 122. 

 * Murchison, Siluria, edit. 5, p. 124. 



