HASTINGS BEDS. 361 



a regular bone-bed in places. These remains include Dinosauria, 

 Iguanodon MantcUi ; Crocodilia, GoniophoUs crassidens ; Pterosauria, 

 PterodactyJus Cliftii ; and Chelonia. Remains of Iguanodon have 

 been obtained near Hastings. There also the fern Olcandridium 

 Beyrichii was discovered by Mr. Charles Dawson.^ 



Mr. Topley informs me that the only fossiliferous band which 

 can be considered at all characteristic of any horizon in the 

 Hastings Beds occurs near the base of the Wadhurst Clay. It is 

 composed mainly of shells of a small Cyrena, and varies from 

 one to four inches in thickness. Generally there is only one band, 

 but occasionally there are two or even three layers of shelly 

 limestone (Ashburnham Beds, in part, of Mantell). 



The Tilgate stone has been much quarried for road-raaterial at Calverley Quarry, 

 near Tunbridge Wells, and other places. The ' Hastings granite' is a local variety 

 of Tilgate stone belonging to the Wadhurst Clay. At Beech Green, near Penshurst, 

 it is called Beech Green stone. The shale has been largely dug for ' marl.' 



The iron-ore which in old times was so extensively worked, is a clay-ironstone 

 that occurs in nodules and thin beds towards the bottom of the Wadhurst Clay. 

 Mr. Topley remarks that the ore was worked mainly by means of bell-pits, 

 about six feet in diameter at the top, and widening towards the bottom. They 

 were usually shallow, rarely more than twenty feet deep ; sometimes they were 

 connected by levels. Great numbers of these pits ("mine-pits") still remain in 

 tlie woods, and they are generally full of water. The clay-ironstone contains about 

 thirty-five per cent, of iron. Iron-ore was worked at Ashburnham, Lamberhurst, 

 Wadhurst, etc. The iron railings at St. Paul's were made at Lamberhurst, east 

 of Tunbridge Wells, and many iron "tombstones" still remain in churchyards. 

 The earliest historical record of the Iron-mines dates back to the time of Henry 

 III. The last furnace, that at Ashburnham, was extinguished in 1828. An effort to 

 revive the mining was commenced in 1857, and abandoned a year later.- Bricks 

 are made in places from the Wadhurst Clay. 



Tunbridge Wells Sands. 



The term 'Tunbridge Wells Sand' was first suggested by Mr. F. 

 Drew, because the beds are well developed in the neighbourhood 

 of that town, where grey and yellow sandstones belonging to the 

 series form the rocks of Mount Ephraim and other places. 



The Horsted Sand of Mantell, corresponds generally with the Tunbridge Wells 

 Sands, and so also does the Worth Sandstone of Mantell, at Worth. The Tilgate 

 Beds of Mantell belong generally to the upper part of the Tunbridge Wells Sand, 

 although he included in this division beds both lower and higher in the series, 

 as those in the Wadhurst Clay of Hastings, and certain beds at Loxwood in the 

 Weald Clay.3 



The Tunbridge Wells Sands much resemble the Ashdown Sand ; 

 and Mr. Drew remarks that the two can only be separated by 

 regarding their positions with respect to the Wadhurst Clay. The 

 Tunbridge Wells Sands consist of loose sand, false-bedded rock- 



1 J. E. H. Peyton, Q. J. xxxix. (Proc), 3. 



2 Topley, Geol. Weald, pp. 329, 334 ; see also W. B. Dawkins, Trans. 

 Internat. Congr. Prehistoric Arch. 3rd series. 



^ W. Topley, Geol. Weald, p. 6. 



