24 L. Richardson — Rhcetic Rocks of Wancicksldre. 



YI. — The Rh^tic Rocks of AVarwickshire.' 

 By L. Richardson, F.E.S.E., F.G.S. 



Contents. page. 



I. Introduction .......... 24 



II. Subdivisions of the RhfEtic rocks recognizable in Warwickshire 26 

 III. Local details .......... 28 



I. Introduction. 

 riIHE distribution of the Rhsetic rocks in "Warwickshire is not 

 J_ represented on the existing Geological Survey maps because at 

 the time that the survey was made their distinctness from the Lower 

 Lias was not appreciated, and therefore they were represented by the 

 same colour. 



In Warwickshire, as in other counties, the Rhcetic beds crop out 

 at or near the top of an escarpment, which, as a rule, is verj^ well 

 marked and oft-times really steep. JJut in the extreme north-eastern 

 portion of the county the usual escarpment is buried beneath a thick 

 accumulation of drift ; while from one or two places in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Stratford-on-Avou it is absent, because the boundary- 

 lines are faults. 



The geologist who has contributed most to our knowledge of these 

 beds in Warwickshire is undoubtedly Brodie. From the bottom- 

 beds of the Lias in the county he collected many insect-remains - ; 

 he described the sections of Rhsetic beds on the railway at Summer 

 Hill, near Bidford,^ and between Ettington and Kinetou''; he found 

 indications of the Bone-Bed equivalent (in the form of a thin yellow 

 sandstone band crowded with casts of ' Fullastra^) at Knowle, near 

 Birmingham * ; and obtained most interesting pieces of richly- 

 fossiliferous Feeten-Jjimestone and ^dheria-Bed from the outliers 

 near Wootton Wawen." 



Brodie is followed by Mr. H. B. AYoodward, who has noticed the 

 sections at Harbury ' and Church Lawford,® and by the late R. F. 

 Tomes, who collected many fossils from the White Lias of the county.' 

 Others who have contributed to our knowledge of the beds in various 

 ways are H. H. Howell,''' T. Wright," J. W. Kershaw,*- J. M. 

 Wilson, E. Cleminsbaw, and Mr. F. T. Maidwell.'^ 



^ I have to acknowledge my indebtedness to the Government Grant Committee 

 of the Eoyal Society for assistance towards carrying out the investigations that 

 have resulted in this paper. 



^ A History of the Fossil Insects in the Secondnry Racks of England, 1845, 

 pp. 73-9 ; Trans. Woolhope Nat. F.C., vol. for 1866(1867), pp. 205-15, etc. 

 ^ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xUi, pp. 272-5, 1886. 

 *■ Ibid., vol. XXX, pp. 746-8, 1874. 



^ Ibid., vol. xxi, pp. 159-61, 1865. ^ Ibid., pp. 160-1. 



'' The J-wassic Rocks of Britain — The Lias of England and Wales {Yorkshire 

 excepted), vol. iii, pp. 151, 159, 160, 1893: Mem. Geol. Surv. 



^ Ibid., pp. 151, 162, 163: Explanation, Hor. Sect., Sheet 140, p. 9. 

 ^ Q.J.G.S., vol. xxxiv, pp. 179 et seqq., 1878 ; vol. xl, pp. 353-75, 1884. 

 ^° Geology of Warivickshire Coal-field, 1859, p. 45. 



" Q.J.G.S., vol. xvi, pp. 394, 39.5', 1860 ; Pal. Soc, Monogr. Lias Amm. Brit. 

 Isles, pt. i, pp. 19-21, 1878. 



^'^ An active local geologist who furnished several authors with valuable 

 information. 

 *^ Proc. Warwick. Nat. and Arch. F.C., 51st Ann. Eep., 1906, pp. 20-7. 



