A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



maximum thickness to the west of the county of about 1,000 ft., but they 

 thin out very rapidly eastwards, and are not present at Ashby-de-la-Zouch or 

 anywhere to the east of that town. They are most strongly developed about 

 Measham and Donisthorpe ; there is also an outcrop at Boothorpe and on the 

 banks of the Trent at Castle Donington. 



When a sufficiently large area of these beds is exposed they form a dry 

 but rather poor soil disposed in rounded gravelly knolls, which considerably 

 add to the beauty of the scenery. 



KEUPER SANDSTONE 



The Keuper Sandstone has an average thickness of about looft., but it 

 passes so gradually into the marls above that it is difficult to separate the one 

 from the other. It consists of massive beds of soft sandstone, sometimes 

 white, but usually stained red or brown. These sandstones are split up 

 by numerous beds of marl ; they are generally false-bedded and frequently 

 ripple-marked. In the neighbourhood of the Charnwood Hills, about 

 Thringstone, and also at Heather and other places, the base of the sandstone 

 contains many quartz pebbles and angular fragments, and occasionally hard 

 beds of conglomerate. Near Castle Donington footprints of Labyrinthodon 

 have been found in these beds, but fossils are extremely rare. 1 



The sandstones have been used as a building-stone to some extent, but 

 the rock is too soft in this district to be of much value. The Keuper Sand- 

 stone is a valuable water-bearing stratum, and large supplies are obtained from 

 it at Coalville, Ellistown, and other places. 



The outcrop of the rock extends along the western portion of the 

 county from Appleby by Measham and Normanton to Ashby-de-la-Zouch. 

 North of this it spreads out, covering Pistern Hill and most of the high 

 ground between Woodville and Coleorton. At Thringstone it is thrown 

 down by the large fault bounding the Coalfield, along the north side of which 

 it forms a conspicuous escarpment as far as Staunton Harold, where striking 

 to the north the escarpment is continued to Melbourne, and along the bank 

 of the Trent to Castle Donington. 



The Keuper Sandstone usually forms a light and dry soil, but the outcrop 

 in this district, when free from Drift, is too narrow to have much effect on 

 the land. 



KEUPER MARL 



The Keuper Marl covers the whole of that part of the county west of 

 Leicester with the exception of the small areas of older rocks which have 

 been previously mentioned. It forms an undulating plain mostly under 

 cultivation, of which the greater part is arable land well suited to the 

 growing of corn. The strata consist of red and mottled marls with thin 

 beds of grey and white sandstone, known as ' skerry.' Thin beds of gypsum 

 occur at intervals throughout these marls, especially in the upper part, where 

 one bed has a thickness of from 6 ft. to 1 2 ft. The sandstones are frequently 

 ripple-marked, and contain pseudomorphous crystals of salt. Near Leicester 

 a thick bed of soft white sandstone occurs in the upper part of the marl, but 



1 Memoirs of the Geol. Sxrr. .- The Leicestershire Coalfield,' 62. 



10 



