1852.] STRICKLAND — UPPER LUDLOW ROCK AT HAGLEY PARK. 385 









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a mile and a half further to the S.E., we come to the elevated region 

 of Woolhope, the axis of which runs for more than ten miles still in 

 a S.E. direction. It appears, therefore, that the ejection of the trap- 

 dyke at Bartestree, together with this protrusion of Silurian rocks at 

 Hagley Park, occur exactly on the axial line of the great eleyation of 

 Woolhope. 



But though this coincidence of position deserves notice, yet the 

 forces which have caused these minor protru- 

 sions have in fact acted nearly at right angles 

 to the direction indicated. The Woolhope 

 region, though possessing an axis from N.W. 

 to S.E., is essentially an area, and not a line, 

 of elevation. Its pressures have been distri- 

 buted, not in two opposite directions from an 

 axis, but in every direction from a centre. In 

 conformity with this view we find that in its 

 north-western portion it is cut through by the 

 " great Mordiford fault," running N.E. by E. 

 (or nearly at right angles to the major axis), 

 and causing the strata about Dormington and 

 Stoke Edith to assume the same strike. Be- 

 yond the Woolhope area we find the valley of 

 the River Frome, the Bartestree Dyke, and 

 the protruded Silurian mass of Shucknall Hill 

 assuming almost exactly the same east-north- 

 easterly direction. And in the small dome- 

 like protrusion of Hagley Park, which lies 

 parallel to Bartestree Dyke, and precisely in 

 the axis of Shucknall Hill, we find a further 

 proof of the same movement. 



It appears probable, then, that the pressure 

 caused by the elevation of the central dome 

 of the Woolhope area, acting in every direc- 

 tion, has on the north-west side caused great 

 undulations in the Silurian and Devonian strata 

 which lie beyond the region of actual elevation. 

 In two instances, that of Shucknall Hill and 

 of Hagley Park, the denudation of the Old 

 Red Sandstone has exposed to view the sub- 

 jacent Silurian rocks on the summits of these 

 undulations. Great shattering and disloca- 

 tion would of course accompany these move- 

 ments, and in the Bartestree Dyke it is inter- 

 esting to find one of the great crevices thus 

 formed, and filled with eruptive matter derived 

 from the Plutonic region where all these great 

 movements originated. 



The accompanying section will serve to show 

 the relations in which the Hagley protrusion 

 stands to the Bartestree dyke and the Wool- 

 hope elevation. 



