DUDLEY CASTLE HILL AND HURST HILL. 



487 



Castle Hill. (See lithographic view, beginning of the chapter.) 



The Castle Hill has much the same form as the Wren's Nest, and differs only in being 

 narrower, thus exhibiting a less thickness of limestone and less of the lower shale in the 

 centre. The two bands of limestone in this hill vary slightly in detail from those of 

 the Wren's Nest. (See PL 37. f. 1.) 



Upper or thin measures. 



ft. in. 



Grey measures (left for roof) 4 0 



Grey measures 2 6 



Hanging stone, in very thin layers 6 0 



Top sink , 1 0 



Pricking 0 2 to 3 



Bottom sink 1 0 



Strong measures ,. 3 10 



Thin measures (thin layers) ... 4 6 



23 0 



Lower or thick measures. 



Grey measures 



Chinch or spoil, i. e. shale with small calcareous 



concretions 



Grey measures 



The flints 



The silks 



Second yard measure , 



Flint yard measure 



Top sinks 



Pricking (shale) ......... 



Bottom sinks f 



Back stone 



ft. in. 

 8 0 



10 0 



35 7 



of which 30 ft. 10 in. are limestone. 



The excavations made in former times, in quarrying these two bands of limestone, have given rise 

 to the wooded dingles and thickets, so ornamental to the ancient castle which crowns the eminence. 

 Like the Wren's Nest, the southern end is the highest and most perfectly arched, 



Hurst Hill. 



About one mile beyond the northern end of the Wren's Nest is another parallel and similar el- 

 lipsoidal mass of limestone called Hurst Hill, the southern end of which is also more arched than 

 the northern, the latter terminating in an obscure elevation called Cinder Hill, where the limestone 

 is without a well-defined western margin. Near the southern end the elevation is most symmetri- 

 cal ; the limestone being thrown up at high angles, passing, on the west, under the Lower Ludlow 

 Rock and Aymestry Limestone of Turl's Hill, and, on the east, under a portion of the Ludlow 

 formation ; overlapped by coal measures at the Coppice Meeting House and Ettingshall. (PI. 37. 

 f. 4.) At the extreme southern point, the ridge being narrow and the angles of elevation very 

 great, the beds are completely broken up and irregularly flanked by the coal measures, which 

 there enter into a small bay in the Silurian rocks. (See Map.) Towards its northern end, Hurst 

 Hill exhibits one ridge of limestone only, which having been formerly extracted in open works, as at 

 the Wren's Nest and Castle Hill, is now wrought by shafts close to the edge of the overlying coal- 

 field, beneath which the calcareous beds dip at angles of 60° to 70°. In Cinder Hill, the limestone 

 is also worked by shafts, and dipping rapidly to the east and south-east, it passes beneath the Lower 

 Ludlow rocks, which have been mentioned as occupying the grounds between this spot and the coal- 

 field. The limestone of Cinder Hill is probably separated from the Ludlow formation of the Beacon 

 Hill by a line of fault. 



3 p 2 



