412 WENLOCK FORMATION OF THE ABBERLEY AND MALVERN HILLS. 



The same rock reappears in Dunbridge Wood, where it contains casts of fossils, though the pre- 

 vailing feature along this frontier of the Silurian rocks south of Ledbury, is, that the Wenlock lime- 

 stone is brought directly into contact with the edge of the Old Red Sandstone, the Ludlow forma- 

 tion being entirely omitted. 



Wenlock Limestone and Shale, Abberley Hills. 



A reference to the map will show, that this formation is remarkably broken and disjointed in its 

 course along the Abberley and Malvern Hills. Near the northern termination of the former, the 

 calcareous or uppermost beds occupy a knoll called the "round hill," where excavations have been 

 made to the depth of forty feet, amid arched and contorted beds of greyish blue limestone. This 

 rock occupying a dome, low in relation to the Ludlow formation, is flanked by the New Red Sand- 

 stone on the east, and by detritus of Old Red Sandstone and Ludlow rocks on the north. From 

 this knoll, the Wenlock limestone is not traceable on the eastern flanks of the Abberley Hills, to 

 the point where the high road from Worcester to Ludlow crosses the ridge, a little above the 

 Hundred House, where there is a splendid exhibition of it in vertical strata, which having been fol- 

 lowed for some distance by cutting open galleries, the nature and amount of the breaks and curvatures 

 are well exposed. (See Map.) From this spot the limestone is again lost for about two miles, i. e., 

 on the eastern side of Walsgrove Hill, where the elevated hollow between that hill and the trap of 

 Woodbury is filled with broken patches of coal-measures. From the south-eastern shoulder of 

 Woodbury Hill, however, the limestone again occupies a distinct, though low ridge, separated from 

 the Ludlow formation by a valley, and terminating abruptly in its prolongation to the south, in the 

 Hill End lime works. It is in this portion of the ridge that the inclination of the strata has been 

 completely reversed — a phenomenon which will be subsequently explained. In this district, some 

 of the varieties of the limestone are of a reddish colour, but the prevailing tint is the bluish-grey, 

 so prevalent in other districts. From Hill End to Knightwick Bridge, upon the Teme, the lime- 

 stone is not visible. The shale is ill developed throughout this portion of the range, though traces 

 of it are noticed here and there beneath the limestone, and also in one or two spots on the western 

 acclivity of the ridge between Martley and Ankerdine Hills. 



Vast numbers of the characteristic fossils of the formation are found in the various lime-quarries ; 

 especially in that of Abberley Lodge, on the south side of the house of Colonel Bromley. 



Wenlock Limestone of the Malvern Hills. 



In reference to the Malvern Hills, this formation begins to rise about half a mile south of the 

 transverse gorge of the river Teme ; whence, though broken by many transverse faults, it is trace- 

 able to Clencher's Mill, south of Eastnor Park, a distance of nearly fourteen miles. In the first 

 five miles, the limestone, though subject to a variety of breaks and flexures, to be afterwards ex- 

 plained, has a general direction from N.N.W. to S.S.E. Thence it strikes due N. and S. ; but after 

 being violently convulsed on the flank of the syenite of the Malvern range, it is thrown out to the 

 westward in a parallel ridge in the neighbourhood of Ledbury, conformably to the Ludlow rock, 

 and runs from N.N.E. to S.S.W. At Ledbury, however, the southerly direction is resumed, and 

 continues to Clencher's Mill. At the former place, the limestone rises in dome-shaped masses of 

 unequal extent, one of which folds under the lower Ludlow rock of the Dog Hill, as represented 



