A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



and elsewhere as well as in borings at Bestwood, Clifton Colliery and 

 Highfield ; on the other hand bands of clay occur in the midst of the 

 sandstone east of Kimberley and at Bulwell spring. No fossils either 

 original or derived have ever been recorded from this deposit, but a 

 ripple-marked slab was found by Mr. Shipman at Old Radford. 



The thickness of this division is variable and uncertain. At Bobbers 

 Mill it cannot be more than 2030 feet, but on the southern slopes of the 

 Long Hills it must be greater and in the Robin Hood's Hills about 70 

 feet is seen, capped by Pebble Beds. At Mansfield and Worksop and to 

 the east of Kimberley it is so fine in grain as to be used for moulding 

 sand. In the northern part of its range it is thin and finally disappears 

 beyond Blyth. 



The Pebble Beds. No definite line can be drawn between these and 

 the last group, unless a bed of pebbles comes on suddenly. On the whole 

 the sand grains are coarser and of a yellow colour, and the pebbles are of 

 various sizes and kinds and are not always or usually in contact. 

 Lenticular bands more pebbly than the rest, and in like manner some 

 layers of red clay, lie irregularly in the mass. The false bedding when 

 present indicates currents principally from the west or north-west, though 

 other and sometimes opposite directions are represented. There is no 

 continuous real bedding. The coating of the component sand-grains 

 keeps them together against any natural tendency to separate. The 

 exposed surfaces do not generally exfoliate under the severest frosts and 

 the tool marks on cut surfaces are not easily effaced. Yet the rock is 

 easily cut and does not fall from a roof even of large size. 



For this reason the rock is often cut into chambers, caves and passages 

 with which the city of Nottingham abounds, of which Mortimer's Hole in 

 the Castle Rock is one. The ' Hermitage ' at Sneinton consists of numerous 

 dwellings dug in the rock. In the cliff overlooking the Leen by the side 

 of Lenton Boulevard are numerous recesses cut in an excavated chamber, 

 hence called the Columbarium, though more probably once used as a 

 shop. A very large excavation was made in the eighteenth century in 

 the rock on the Mansfield Road for extracting sand for sale. 1 Most of 

 the cellars in the centre of the city are rock cellars, and passages are often 

 discovered in making excavations, as in the case of the reservoir at the top 

 of Standard Hill. Probably the whole city is more or less excavated like 

 a piece of bored wood. Carvings are also cut to represent wild animals 

 on the edge of the rock along the Rope Walk. The catacombs in the 

 church cemetery are modern excavations. 



At Nottingham the outcrop of the Pebble Beds is limited to a 

 breadth of i \^\ : miles owing to the coming on of the Keuper Series on 

 the high ground to the east, and the total thickness is estimated at 200 

 feet, but further north the outcrop widens out to a breadth of 7-9 miles, 

 the Keuper being worn back to lower levels on the east. This is probably 

 due to the greater elevation to which the Pebble Beds have been raised. 



1 Shipman, Brit. Assoc. Handbook, 1893. 

 22 



