78 A. R. Horwood — Upper Trias of Leicestershire. 



Warton thick sandstones, which have been quarried for buikling, dip 

 at 9 degrees, being influenced by the boundary fault, but eastward 

 they are more horizontal. The same thick building stones crop out 

 at Newton Regis and Seckington. 



At Dordon Hall Trias Sandstones and Coal-measures are seen on 

 either side of the road faulted into this position by the Polesworth 

 fault, wliich here strikes north. The Red Marl in this district 

 exhibits little or no variation except where sandstone features are 

 developed. A skerry band near the top is discernible, but is seldom 

 exposed and cannot be traced over any distance. Another not far 

 from the base of the waterstones in this region makes a feature where 

 it thickens out into a moi'e massive sandstone. There are some thin 

 gypsum bands towards the base, but they are of no importance. 

 It is only in the valleys that the Red Marl affords any exposures 

 of any extent apart from the hard bands. There are no brickvards 

 affording sections that throw any light on the stratigraphy, so that 

 it is necessary to rely on borings for a knowledge of the deeper 

 geology of this region. 



The sandstones that are so massive about Orton-on-the-Hill thin 

 out towards Appleby Parva, where they are seen to the south, and at 

 No Man's Heath they thicken and are divisible into two bands showing 

 marked flexures. These are continuous southward between Astrey 

 and Norton, where a third baud comes on above these which thickens 

 to a broad outcrop with a sinuous contour at Little Orton. Just 

 south of this a fourth band crops out below these three. Between 

 Twycross and Orton-on-the-Hill there are five or six bands wliicli 

 thicken considerably and run in a north and south direction in 

 a more or less parallel manner with similar undulatory contours. 

 The sandstones give a marked character to the scenery, the hard and 

 soft bands (of marl) alternating and forming diversified country. 

 They can be traced southward to Sheepy Magna, where they are cut 

 off' by the valley of the River Sence, and are not traceable south of 

 this point. But, as remarked by Howell, " there are numerous thin 

 bands of greenish-white micaceous sandstone (called ' skerries ' by 

 the miners) throughout the whole of the marl, and it is probable that 

 the beds at Orton Hill are formed by a local thickening of some 

 of these bands, for they lie at a much lower horizon than those 

 mentioned by Sir Roderick Murchison and Mr. Strickland between 

 Henley-in-Arden and Warwick, presently to be described." These 

 sandstones are feebly represented around Shackerstone and Carlton 

 Bridge (see district 3). They are ripple-marked and have been used 

 in situ as threshing-floors. They were said by Coleman to be only 

 1 yard thick, but, as remarked by Howell, they reach a thickness 

 of 20-30 feet, and are probably represented in the boring at Lindley 

 Hall [fiupra) by a bed of sandstone near the base 18 feet thick which 

 is red in colour. That at Orton is mainly white, which is probably 

 due to weathering. 



In the northern part there are numerous beds of white sandstone in 

 the Red Marl, as proved in borings at Snibstone (No. 1) (510 O.D.), 

 where 166 ft. 7 in. of Red Marl overlies 21 ft. 9 in. of dolerite, with 

 7 feet white sandstone at 79 ft. 6 in., 3 ft. 6 in. at 104 ft. 6 in., 5 feet 



