A HISTORY OF WARWICKSHIRE 



the character of the dominant faunas and floras ; whole groups of 

 animals and plants once abundant in our district now occupy a very 

 subordinate position or are even extinct in Britain, and indeed in many 

 cases have entirely ceased to exist. 



We arrive then at this important principle that different strata 

 are characterized by fossils peculiar to each ; and in accordance with 

 this rule the stratified rocks of the earth-crust have been classified into 

 some ten or twelve distinct divisions or systems, each marked by a 

 peculiar assemblage of fossils by means of which far-distant exposures of 

 rocks of the same system can be identified. The great divisions are 

 still further divided into groups and stages, the smallest of which are 

 however of purely local value. 



The rocks of Warwickshire belong some to the oldest, some to the 

 newest of these systems ; but there are great gaps in the series the 

 rocks elsewhere present either were not deposited in our area, or, if laid 

 down, were afterwards wholly removed. 



The table on page 3 shows in descending order the various systems 

 of rocks represented in Warwickshire. 



An examination of the geological map will show that these rocks 

 are by no means equally important so far as the constitution of the 

 surface of our county is concerned ; in this respect the red rocks of the 

 Trias have the pre-eminence. These occupy the greater part of the 

 surface, while the succeeding Jurassic beds form a smaller fringe on the 

 south and south-east borders. Projecting through an extensive aperture 

 in the red Triassic coverlet are the so-called Permians and the Coal 

 Measures of the Warwickshire coalfield, while from below the latter 

 emerge the Cambrian and still older Archaean rocks of Nuneaton. 



Irregularly spread over the uneven surface formed by the edges or 

 outcrops of all these ' solid ' rocks are the superficial Pleistocene deposits, 

 while the most recent of all are the still-forming alluvial tracts bordering 

 the present rivers. 



The surface-relief of the district is nowhere very bold ; the county 

 forms part of an undulating plain bordered along its south-eastern and 

 southern sides by the higher ridges and plateaux near Daventry, Edge 

 Hill, and Chipping Norton. This same elevated tract circles round the 

 Vale of Moreton and at Chipping Campden merges into the northern 

 Cotteswolds ; it is formed by the tattered edge of the great sheet of 

 Jurassic deposits which occupies much of the adjacent country to the 

 south-east. That this edge or escarpment is gradually retreating in that 

 direction is shown by its having left several isolated patches or ' outliers ' 

 some miles in its rear, as for instance at Ebrington Hill, at Brailes, and 

 at Knowle. 



These Jurassic limestones and sandstones overlook the less elevated 

 grounds of the Lower Lias and Trias, not only because they were super- 

 posed on them originally, but also by reason of their own greater 

 durability, not being so easily washed away by rain and streams. 

 Indeed it may be laid down as an axiom that the harder rocks will be 



