HASTINGS BEDS. 359 



The Hastings Beds have been divided as follows by Mr. F. 

 Drew (1861): ^— 



n- u -J inr ^^ ( Upper Tunhridgc Wells Sand with Cuckfield Clay. 

 Tunbndge Wells ) r- '• . 1 /-1 



e ^, < Gnnstead Clay. 



bands. I Lower Tunbridge Wells Sand. 



Wadhurst Clay. 

 Ashdown Sand. ...Ashdown Sand and Fairlight Clays. 



Ashdown Sand. 



This formation consists of sand and soft buff or white sandstone, 

 with bands of loam, blue clay and lignite, having a total thickness 

 of 400 or 500 feet. The term 'Ashdown Sand' was proposed by 

 Mr. F. Drew, on account of the great development of the beds 

 (400 feet) in Ashdown Forest, south-west of Tunbridge Wells. 

 The sands form very high ground, as at Crowborough Beacon, 

 and are spread over a large area. The term Worth Sandstone was 

 used by Mantell, but the sandstone at Worth itself, near Three 

 Bridges, belongs to the Lower Tunbridge Wells Sand. In the 

 upper part, near Hastings, there are sometimes beds of calcareous 

 sandstone or ironstone (' Tilgate Stone'), and quartzose con- 

 glomerate. Near Tunbridge Wells the beds are about 100 feet 

 thick ; they are well developed at Heathfield. (See Fig. 57.) 



Fairlight Clays. — In the neighbourhood of Hastings and Fair- 

 light, clays, frequently mottled, predominate in the lower part of 

 the Ashdown Beds. These clays were formerly termed the Ash- 

 burnham Beds by Mantell ; ^ they were subsequently termed the 

 Fairlight Clays by Mr. C. Gould, from Fairlight Glen, where the 

 mottled clays give colour to the cliffs, and they represent the 

 lower part of the Ashdown Sand as it appears further west. They 

 attain a thickness of 360 feet, the bottom not being seen ; the 

 sands above, to which the term Ashdown Sand is locally restricted, 

 are here about 150 feet thick. Many beds of sandstone are 

 included in the Fairlight Clays ; one curious bed — called the 

 Tesselated Sandstone — is 4 feet in thickness. The sands are often 

 false-bedded, a feature well seen in the cliffs east of Ecclesbourne 

 glen. (See Fig. 59.) 



The Ashdown Sand yields Endogeniles erosa, which chiefly occurs 

 in a bed of shale not far from the top of the formation. Araucariles 

 and Sphenopteris have also been met with. Tracks of Birds } 

 {Ornithoidichniles) were observed in the Hastings Beds west of St. 

 Leonards by jMr. S. H. Beckles ;* and Dr. Fitton noticed a bed of 



\ Q. J. xvii. 283. 



- The Ashburnham Beds of Mantell include the lower part of the Ashdown 

 Sand (the Fairlight Clays), the Purbeck limestone-beds near Battle, and also the 

 shelly bed at the bottom of the Wadhurst Clay. The name was given from Ash- 

 burnham, west of Battle. W. Topley, Geology of the Weald, p. 6. 



3 Q. J. viii. 396, X. 457. 



