Occurrence of Boulder Clay at Huddersfield. 227 



site of an old excavation is marked ' gravel pit ' on the early 

 survey maps. Beyond Kirkburton, the valley forms a pic- 

 turesque wooded gorge to Thunder Bridge where it is joined 

 by a tributary from Fulstone. Near the head of this stream 

 glacial deposits are again indicated between Ellen Spring and 

 Wood End Wood at 625 feet, and in the bed of the stream at 

 Ellen Spring, I found a boulder of Carboniferous Limestone 

 but whether it had been derived from the deposits on the 

 stream bank or not is uncertain. 



In the main valley of the Colne, on the gently sloping left 

 bank, deposits occur, spread over a wide area in the centre of 

 Huddersfield and to the north-east, which have been known 

 for many years, and been frequently revealed in excavations 

 and borings, and are generally spoken of as the ' old river bed.' 

 About twenty-three years ago, I remember visiting the rail- 

 way cutting at Hillhouse siding in company with the late 

 Edward Brooke, F.G.S., and other local geologists, and the 

 fine section then exposed was regarded as river deposit. Ex- 

 cellent sections of the same bed may now be seen in the Hudders- 

 field Brick and Tile Works in the vicinity, and they prove to 

 be undoubtedly boulder clay. Mr. Gilligan has been good 

 enough to examine these along with me and he agrees as to 

 their glacial origin. In this material large blocks of sandstone 

 occur, some weighing one to two tons. One section (Fig. 6) 

 shows what is either a fold in the shales filled with boulder clay, 

 or more probably, the latter, in moving over the surface, has 

 ploughed out a concave bed. This boulder clay has been traced 

 from Chapel Hill (299 ft.) where the bed is eight feet in thick- 

 ness, to Queen Street South, Shore Head, Kirkgate, Hillhouse, 

 Fartown Green, Birkby* and Grimscar ; at the latter place 

 interesting sections are exposed at a height of nearly four 

 hundred feet. It is continued beyond Sheepridge and Wood- 

 house to Bradley, where good sections may be seen in the 

 railway cutting and in numerous excavations at Messrs. 

 L. B. Holliday's Works. From here it can be traced with little 

 interruption to Colne Bridge and the junction with the Calder. 



At Kirklees, on the left bank of the Calder, a bed of gravel 

 occurs at Castle Hill, the highest point in the park (300 ft.). 

 The gravels cover an oval patch of ground a quarter of a mile 

 long, and on this is Robin Hood's grave, and also the remains 

 of a Roman fort. Good sections are seen in the gravel 

 pit here and Fig. 7 shows one of them. These gravels have 

 been seen by Mr. Gilligan, and we have compared them with 

 the gravels at Rothwell Haigh, and he agrees they should be 

 placed in the same category. Their origin is very difficult to 



* Recorded by S. L. Mosley, in the Huddersfield Examiner Supp., 

 May 30th, 19 1 4. 



1917 July l. 



