12 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF LEICESTER AND DISTRICT 
forming a steep-sided gorge. One of the best-known examples of this 
occurs at the Brand in Colonel Martin’s estate. These rock bars have 
helped to retain in the Charnwood valleys the red marl which gives them 
their fertility. 
We have symmetry and great contrast as two of the marked character- 
istics of the Charnwood district. Both are related to the geological struc- 
ture and development of the area. The geological outcrops take the form 
of a series of crude horseshoes placed one within the other—the open ends 
of the shoes being towards the north-west. ‘The present ridges correspond 
roughly to the more resistant arms of the shoes, while the depressions 
were formed in the less resistant arms. ‘The whole arrangement has been 
very much modified by severe faulting and displacement along the inside 
curves of the shoes. A brief picture may be given of the probable develop- 
ment of the present relief. A series of volcanic islands probably occupied 
in Archean times what is now the site of the Forest. Much volcanic ash 
and lava were ejected from the volcanoes. The material cooled and 
solidified, becoming partially stratified in the surrounding sea. Sub- 
sequently this material, once horizontal, was ridged up into the form of a 
crude ellipsoidal dome. Weathering processes then broke open the dome 
and produced a steeply marked ridge and valley topography. This was 
later depressed and buried during the Triassic period in the Keuper marl. 
Still later erosional processes began to reveal once more the hidden land- 
scape—a process which is still going on. ‘The valley floors, with one 
exception, are still buried in the marl, to what depth it is not possible 
to say. 
Within the Charnwood, and at places to the east and south in the lower 
grounds, there are numerous quarries. These are in part connected with 
the rock of which the Charnian mass has been built up, and in part with 
granites and syenites which represent upwellings of the molten magma 
penetrating the Charnian rocks and, in places, as a result of erosion, reach- 
ing the surface through the Keuper marl in the low grounds to the south 
of the Forest. Thus at Bardon Hill in the west, Groby in the south, and 
Mountsorrel in the east of the Charnwood, granites and related rocks are 
quarried for road metal and paving sets. At Enderby, Croft, Stoney 
Stanton, and Huncote, outcrops of syenite probably connected with the 
main upwellings in the Charnwood, are quarried in the midst of an 
otherwise purely farming country. 
The Charnian reservoirs on the edge of the district, conveniently 
placed for gathering the heavier rainfall of the ridges, are to-day inadequate 
to supply the rapidly growing needs of the neighbouring population 
centres, such as Leicester and Loughborough, and adequate supplies are 
now obtained from a reservoir near the headstreams of the Derwent in the 
Pennine uplands. This supply Leicester shares with the cities of Sheffield, 
Nottingham, and Derby. 
We cannot leave the Charnwood area without recording the public- 
spirited action of the late Mr. Charles Bennion in securing for the com- 
munity Bradgate Park, the home of Lady Jane Grey, and of the Leicester 
Rotary Club in preserving the beautiful Swithland Woods, threatened with 
destruction for building purposes. Mr. Bennion’s son and Messrs. 
