A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE 



From what has already been said, it may be inferred that the broad 

 vale forming great part of Worcestershire, which lies between the Mal- 

 vern and Abberley Hills on the west, the Lickey Hills on the north, and 

 the Cotteswold Hills on the south, has been excavated during Tertiary 

 and subsequent times. We cannot say whether or not any of the Lower 

 Tertiary (Eocene) strata ever extended over the region ; but we may feel 

 confident that since Eocene times the area has more generally been sub- 

 ject to waste by rain and rivers. The Oligocene and Miocene periods 

 were times of warmth and, perhaps, of tropical rains ; while in the Gla- 

 cial period the scenes had changed to intense cold, with local floods, due 

 to the melting of glacial ice. These changes were gradually brought 

 about during the intervening Pliocene epoch, when the climate was 

 temperate. The material derived from the waste of the Red rocks. Lias 

 and Oolites, in the vale has been mostly borne away to other regions, and 

 the only relics are the scattered Drifts to which we have called atten- 

 tion. 



