176 PKOF. T. T. GROOM ON THE GEOLOGICAL [Eeb. 10,00, 



XIII. The Relation of the Coal Measures to Underlying 

 Rocks in other Parts of the Malvern and Abberley Districts. 



The relations of the higher Coal Measures to older rocks in the 

 locality just described are quite in accordance with those seen in 

 other portions of the Abberley district and south of the Malverns. 

 As described by Phillips, a thin strip of Coal Measures, evidently 

 corresponding with those of Woodbury Hill, crops out beneath the 

 Haffield Breccia of Berrow Hill. 1 They rest here, with marked un- 

 conformity, upon the Old Red Sandstone : traces of the old work- 

 ings are still visible, but there is no actual exposure. At Martley, 

 too, Coal Measures appear to rest unconformably upon an overfolded 

 and overthrust series of Archaean, Cambrian, and Old Red Sand- 

 stone (p. 163). Coal Measures are stated to have been formerly 

 worked near Old Storridge Hill 2 ; these beds, not mentioned, and 

 evidently not seen, by Phillips, are still well-exposed in a little stream 

 close to the New Inn, on the road between Storridge and Wor- 

 cester, where they were pointed out to me by Mr. Wickham King. 

 Their relation to the adjoining Silurian strata is not clear. The 

 seams of the Newent Coalfield also rest directly upon the Old Red 

 Sandstone. 8 The manner of outcrop of these measures, as shown 

 in the Geological Survey map, appears clearly to indicate that they 

 constitute a thin sheet having closer relations to the Keuper Breccia 

 than to the Old Red Sandstone, the folds of which, as pointed out by 

 Phillips (loc. eit.), pass underneath the former. Murchison states, 

 moreover, that the Coal Measures could be seen formerly in open 

 quarries resting unconformably upon the Old Red Sandstone, and 

 that they have shared in all the flexures of the New Red Sandstone.* 

 Abberley Hill itself may probably furnish hereafter confirmatory 

 evidence. The Coal Measures immediately north of the tract of 

 overfolded rocks constituting this hill are, it is true, no longer 

 exposed, but in Murchison's section 5 across this hill they 

 are represented as dipping directly towards, and in the same 

 direction (south-east) as, the Silurian beds. Murchison expressly 

 states, moreover, that the strata of the Porest-of-Wyre Coalfield 

 become completely inverted as they approach the Abberley Hills. 

 No Upper Coal Measures, however, have been detected hitherto 

 beneath the Haffield Breccia that caps Abberley Hill. 



XIV. The Unconformity at the Base of the Upper Coal 

 Measures in Districts other than those of Malvern and 

 Abberley. 



The unconformity at the base of the Upper Coal Measures in the 

 Abberley Hills district is the local representative of an uncon- 



1 Mem. Geol. Surv. vol. ii (1848) pt. i, p. 150. 



2 Murchison, ' Silurian System ' 1839, p. 135. 



3 Mem. Geol. Surv. vol. ii (1848) pt. i, pp. 104 et seqq. 



4 ' Silurian System' 1839, p. 153. 



5 Ibid. pi. xxxvi, fig. 1. 



