GEOLOGY 



Even the Bredon outlier of Inferior Oolite exhibits at the surface 30 or 

 40 feet of rubble. The rock, indeed, is irregularly weathered, and the 

 resulting gravelly detritus contains in its midst isolated masses and pin- 

 nacles of unweathered limestone. 



W. C. Lucy connected the distribution of the rubble w^ith soil- 

 movements, the weathered rock slipping down the hill-sides during times 

 of thaw after severe frost. In Witchell's opinion, this Rubble Drift was 

 ' due to storm-waters or surface-drainage, which brought the detritus 

 down the hill upon a frozen surface, and deposited it in those places where 

 the frost usually disappeared in spring before it left the higher ground.' ' 

 Both explanations may be to a certain extent true and they accord much 

 better with the facts than does the explanation of Prestwich, whereby 

 this Rubble Drift would be due to the effects of wide submergence.* 



At Church Honeybourne, east of Evesham, the Lower Lias Clay is 

 contorted, and again at South Littleton the exposed beds of limestone and 

 clay have been nipped up on the surface in a series of sharp folds. As far 

 west as Croome d'Abitot, near Pershore, in Worcestershire, similar evi- 

 dences of surface disturbance were observed.'* Probably the ' Lias clay 

 with contorted beds of Lias limestone,' noted in the railway-cutting at 

 Dunhampstead by Strickland in 1840, exhibited features of the same 

 character. At Halford, north of Shipstou-on-Stour, the beds of White 

 Lias are much disturbed in places. 



In this region, although the disturbances are similar to those pro- 

 duced by glacial action, we have (with the exception of the Aston Magna 

 Drift) no distinct evidence of Boulder Clay, the superficial deposit being 

 a few feet of reddish-brown clay with pebbles of quartz and quartzite. 

 This Drift occurs here and there over a wide area, and may be a result 

 of the denudation of Boulder Clay. Near Birmingham, on the borders 

 of Staffordshire and Worcestershire, there are abundant evidences of 

 Boulder Clay and other Glacial Drifts. At Moseley and on Frankley 

 Hill there are considerable beds of sand and gravel which belong to the 

 Glacial period. 



Until the Drifts are separately mapped, it is impossible to deal 

 adequately with the diverse deposits which are scattered over the surface 

 of the country, for the most part in patches, although much has been 

 written on the subject by Strickland, Brodie, W. C. Lucy, H. W. Cross- 

 key, and others.* 



In the modern Alluvial deposits peaty layers are sometimes met 

 with, and T. G. B. Lloyd noted a bed 8 feet thick, resting on gravel, at 

 Chadbury. In it many antlers of red deer were found. The Alluvial 

 clays have been used for brick-making, while the land in general forms 

 fertile meadows and pasture. 



* Proc. Cotteswold Club, vol. v. p. 43 ; vol. vi. p. 150 ; and H. B. Woodward, Lower 

 Oolitic Rocks of England, p. 462. 



* Quart. "Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xlviii. p. 314. 



' H. B. Woodward, Jurassic Rocks of Britain, vol. iii. pp. 146, 150, 310. 



* See W. J. Harrison, ' A Bibliography of Midland Glaciology,' Proc. Birmingham Phil. 

 Soc, vol. ix. p. 116 ; also Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. xv. p. 400. 



25 



