A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



the shore line of a new set of deposits is represented in the southern 

 part of the county by a breccia, first noticed by Professor Sedgwick in 

 the mineral railway at Grives Wood between Kirkby and Sutton-in- 

 Ashfield, where it crops out at the base of the slope at its southern end. 

 The same breccia is well seen in a ravine near Annesley Park springs 

 and in the railway cuttings of the Midland and Great Northern Railways 

 at Kimberley ; but its constancy is best proved in borings which pierce 

 the Permian, where it is commonly observed, when the records are care- 

 fully kept, and in the case of South Scarle it was the means by which the 

 true reading of the section was recognized by Mr. Wilson. Its last 

 appearance southward is seen at Old Park farm near Wollaton Colliery. 

 It varies from a compact grey sandstone to a coarsely brecciated con- 

 glomerate, seldom more than 3 feet in thickness, but rising to a maximum 

 of i 2 feet in a boring near Mansfield and reducing to I foot or less in 

 the Gedling, Thurgarton and South Scarle borings. ' It contains much 

 angular Coal-Measure debris, sandstone, ironstone and ochreous shale, 

 also rounded pebbles of white quartz and angular fragments of slate, 

 chert and limestone' (Wilson). 1 In the northern part of the county no 

 breccia has been observed in the borings either at Shireoaks or Southcar. 

 At the former a bed of sandstone has been referred to the base of the 

 Permian, but as it lies below 33 feet of blue bind it is possibly part 

 of the Carboniferous series. These localities may be too far removed 

 from the shore line of the period for the formation of a breccia. 



Above the breccia comes a series of thin-bedded rocks, alternating 

 more or less frequently with shales. These shales much resemble Coal- 

 Measures and contain many Carbonaceous remains ; they gradually become 

 harder, and end upwards as bands of compact red limestone, varying in 

 character with the overlying massive Magnesian Limestone. Geodes of 

 calcite and pyrites are recorded from them. At the southernmost point 

 near Wollaton there are only 3 or 4 feet of yellow and red marly beds 

 between the breccia and the Magnesian Limestone, but this increases to 

 20 feet of shales in the Kimberley railway cuttings, 2 where numerous 

 fine layers of sandstone form part of it. Many of these show remains 

 of plants, and some show casts of Pleurophorus and Schizodus. They 

 may be seen again in this neighbourhood on the rise to Chalk Hill, 

 west of Kimberley. In the road from Hucknall Torkard to the Long 

 Hills a slight fault crossing the road has raised the underlying shales and 

 compact beds so as to be cut off along the roadside bank by the Magnesian 

 Limestone, whose water they throw out, but the thickness is not here 

 determinable. The succession may also be well seen in the slopes and in 

 the stream bottom of a ravine, running west from Annesley Park springs. 

 The upper part is composed of the Magnesian Limestone, here deposit- 

 ing calcareous tufa from its waters ; the slopes and part of the stream bed 

 show about 20 feet of shales, and beds of limestone and the breccia may 

 be seen crossing the stream at the base. At the Grives Wood cutting 



1 Midland Naturalist, vol. iv. 



3 Wilson, Quart. Journ. Geol. Sac. vol. xxxii. 



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