PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 
1915 
The country to the east of the line referred to above, between it and the 
Cotteswold Hills, is floored with Lower-Lias clay, on which dairy-farming 
predominates. Here and there, however, are deposits of gravel (“ Northern 
Drift ”) and sand, and where they occur (as atEckington) the ground is very 
suitable for market-gardening. 
Great accumulations of “ Northern-Drift ” pebbles occur on the banks 
of the Avon (as at Twyning Fleet), above the level of the Alluvium. 
The flat ground alongside the Avon and Severn is formed of Alluvium — 
the mud brought down and deposited by the rivers. In times past there were 
small lakes on the line of the Severn. One such lake e.xisted where the Severn 
Ham is now situated. When some deep excavations were made in connection 
with the Tewkesbury Docks, lacustrine depo.sits were proved. In very rainy 
seasons, owing to the overflowing of the rivers, the Severn Ham and neigh- 
bouring low-lying meadows soon become cov’ered with water (Plate II., 
figs. I and 2 ). 
In times past the limestone-beds, which are so numerous in the lower 
portion of the Lower Lias, were extensively worked on Brockridge Common 
(near Ripple), Heath Hill, and Sam Hill, for burning for lime, for paving cattle- 
sheds, and to a certain extent for road metalling and building purposes.^ As is 
obvious, however, in Tewkesbury, brick, and, in the older picturesque houses, 
brick and oftimes “ wattle-dab ” and oak were the building materials. The 
bricks were made from the alluvium, and the numerous, now usually flooded, 
pits by the Severn-side show how extensively this material was used in the 
past. Now, however, there is only one brick-works in activity — that near the 
Lower Lode.* 
The old flooded pits are now usually used for osier-beds to furnish 
material for willow basket-making. Osier-growing and basket-making are 
important Severn-side industries. By the Severn-side at Deerhurst— where 
the industry has been carried on for centuries — the basket-makers carry on 
their work in sheds adjoining or close to their cottages.® The baskets princi- 
pally made are coal-kipes, fruit-kipes, and square pot-baskets for fruit. These 
baskets are mostly sent to the large towns — -Gloucester, Cheltenham, Birming- 
ham, Liverpool, Nottingham, Sheffield, etc. 
The Mythe Cliff is the one place in Gloucestershire where the Woad 
{Isatis tinctoria L.) is now found, and the Members were fortunate in finding 
several specimens in flower. The plant belongs to the Cruciferaj, and has been 
grown from the earliest times in Britain for the sake of its leaves, which con- 
tain indoxyl — an unstable compound whose watery solutions produce indigo- 
blue after treatment with an alkali and an acid. It is probable that this is 
the plant which is mentioned by Caesar and other Roman authors as being 
employed by the ancient Britons for staining their bodies. Since the intro- 
duction of indigo from the indigo plant in the i6th century the cultivation of 
woad has almost disappeared. According to Mr. J. M. Dixon, it used to be 
grown in Gloucestershire on the ground (Lower Lias clay) still known a? 
“Wad Ground,’’ near Broad Marston Halt on the Honeybourne-Stratford 
Railway. 
After tea at the Swan Hotel, the ISIembers walked to the Abbey gates, 
where they were met by the Rev. William Davies, of Tewkesbury, who was to 
show them some of the less-visited buildings in Tewkesbury. 
1 The water in a well in the Lower-Lias clay at Walton Cardiff closely resembles the “ Cheltenham 
Waters,” and in 1746 some idea was entertained of making this hamlet a place of resort. 
2 Proc. Cheltenham Nat. Sci. Soc., n.s., vol. i, pt. 4 (1910), pp. 240-241. 
3 E.xcept for this industry here, "gloving” in three or four cottages at Ashton-under-Hill, 
and shirt-making for a Worcester firm in three or four cottages at Forthampton, cottage-industries 
have died out altogether in the Tewkesbury Area. In the past, “ gloving ” was done in Alderton 
(for an Evesham firm, until some ten years ago), Beckford, Forthampton, and Hasfield. 
