84 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



The table illustrates this (see also Fig. 5) and makes it clear that : (i) the 

 highest or Woolridge Terrace is only recognizable below Tewkesburj'. 

 (2) The next or Bushley Green Terrace goes up the Avon as Avon No. 5 

 to Stratford, and ends just where the Main Eastern glacials begin to appear 

 in force. (3) The next, the Kidderminster Terrace or Avon No. 4, is met 

 with throughout the area, but it leaves the Severn to go up the Stour and 

 not up the Bridgnorth and Iron Bridge gorges ; (4) the Main (Avon No. 2) 

 is met with in the Avon throughout our area, and in the Severn it reaches 

 to the Iron Bridge gorge and into the Worfe valley. Here, as already 

 pointed out, it clearly ties on to Irish Sea glacial deposits. It is also 

 recognised in all the tributaries, and by its distribution and relation to 

 the taele gravels, reinforces the arguments that have already been used 

 to show that the north-western section of the region was the only part 

 under ice during the time of the Newer Drifts. (5) The Worcester 

 Terrace is poorly developed up the Avon, but extends up the Severn from 

 near Tewkesbury through the Iron Bridge gorge to Shrewsbury where it 

 appears to link on with the Welsh Re-advance. Its distribution shows 

 that the Iron Bridge gorge was then functioning, but at a height of about 

 sixty feet above the present level. 



I have elsewhere discussed the extremely ambiguous evidence bearing 

 on the question whether there was an interglacial episode between the 

 time of the Main and Worcester Terraces, without being able to obtain an 

 assured answer. On the other hand, the fauna of Avon No. 4 is a warm 

 climate one, which makes it probable that both it and its correlative, the 

 Kidderminster Terrace, are interglacial. The position of Avon No. 4 

 Terrace below Avon No. 5 which connects with the Great Eastern 

 glaciation, and above the terraces, Avon No. 2 and ? No. 3, which 

 correlate with the Main Terrace of the Severn and so with the Irish 

 Sea glaciation, forces us to conclude that these two glaciations were not 

 contemporaneous . 



Various lines of evidence converge therefore towards the following 

 conclusion : that the Bushley Green- Avon No. 5 Terrace and the still 

 higher Woolridge Terrace are to be correlated with the ' Older Drifts ' ; 

 that the Main, the Worcester, and Avon No. 2, and possibly Avon No. 3, 

 Terraces, belong to the ' Newer Drifts ' ; and that the Kidderminster- 

 Avon No. 4 Terrace records the intervening * Great Interglacial.' The 

 question whether the older drifts of the Midlands bridge more than one 

 glacial epoch is dealt with in the sequel. 



The Older Drifts. 



The most outstanding problem is that of the Older Drifts. It may 

 be a long time before a correct solution of this is achieved. At the 

 moment I can offer only a brief synthesis of the results obtained by other 

 workers compounded with ideas that I have accumulated during my 

 study of the drifts of the Western Midlands. Those of the Eastern 

 Midlands I scarcely know ; but luckily some parts of that area have been 

 carefully described by the Geological Survey (in particular by Fox 

 Strangways, Gibson and Barrow), and there are illuminating accounts of 



