WENLOCK LIMESTONE NEAR LEDBURY, ETC. 



413 



in PI. 36. f. 8. Another is in the high ground E.S.E. of the town : indeed the Coneygree Wood 

 may be considered as one great dome in which there are several minor flexures, so that thence to 

 the southern termination of the Silurian group, this formation juts out in broken masses in the 

 woodlands, ranging from Ledbury Park to Clencher's Mill, being in its western and southern faces 

 for the most part in abrupt contact with the clays of the Old Red Sandstone, the Ludlow rock for 

 several miles having been entirely suppressed. On the eastern side, however, of Coneygree Wood, 

 the limestone is clearly overlaid by the lower Ludlow rock, which thus occupies a trough, of which 

 Eastnor Hill is the highest part, between the dome of Coneygree Wood and the ridge of the same 

 limestone in Eastnor Park. (See PI. 36, f. 8.) 



The lithological characters of this formation are similar to those which it assumes at Wenlock, 

 Dudley, and many other places. It very rarely contains any of the large concretions or ball 

 stones so common at Wenlock, Walsall, and Dudley, but is loaded with the usual number of small 

 concretions, which occupy lines in the dull-grey argillaceous shale, and alternate with beds of 

 solid limestone. The former, occupying the bands between the latter, are here known under the 

 name of bumbles. The massive limestone is quarried along several parts of the range in three 

 distinct tiers, of very unequal thicknesses in the different quarries, and occasionally thinning out or 

 uniting. The thickest masses being about ten to fifteen feet, are divided into various beds, some 

 of which are so crystalline as to be capable of fine polish, and are used for ornamental purposes. 

 At Ledbury, two beds of this rock, together about eighteen inches thick, are termed Ledbury 

 marble. At one of the principal quarries near this place, the limestone which is extracted occurs 



in the following descending order. 



Ft. In. 



Bumbles or Concretions, with some shale, (good lime) 20 0 



Plain Lime 1 3 



Thick Lime 2 3 



Shattered Lime 1 2 



"Grey's" (Ledbury Marble) 0 9 



Shattered Lime 1 3 



Tough Lime » 1 0 



" Grey's " (Ledbury Marble) 0 9 



Green Lime 1 3 



Bottom blue Limestone 0 9 



Underlaid by Bumbles, as above. 30 2 



The prevailing colour is bluish and dark grey veined with white ; there are occasionally pink 

 veins of calcareous spar, and at Clencher's Mill whole beds are red. 

 Sections at this latter spot expose 



1. Upper shale of red, green, and purple colours, with small concretions. 2. Thin layers of reddish brown limestone, 

 with dividing courses of yellow and purple shale. 3. Strong beds of sub -crystalline limestone, deep red on the exterior, 

 (resembling some of the carboniferous limestone of Bristol), but occasionally yellowish, with dark-green blotches. This 

 stratum contains Crinoidea, Productus depressus, Asaphus caudatus, and other well known fossils of the Wenlock formation. 

 4. Purple and green shale. 



These lithological characters, exceptions to the usual structure, are similar to those at Easthope 

 in Shropshire, (see p. 210.), except in the absence of the very large concretions or ballstones; 

 and it may also be mentioned that some of the beds yield dark, and others light-coloured lime ; 

 the black and white limestones of the workmen. I have observed no simple minerals worthy of 



3 F 



