T42 
PROCEEDINGS COTTESVVOLD CLUB 
1916 
(r) THE LUDLOW BEDS. 
Overlying the Wenlock Limestone all along its outcrop 
there are to be seen brown sandy shales with thin calcareous 
layers, or containing calcareous nodules, and these are covered 
by brown or green earthy sandstones. The topmost beds 
seen are brown sandstones, which immediately underlie the 
yellow quartzose sandstone, which, as has been mentioned 
above, forms the base of the Old Red Sandstone from Trostra 
Common to Llandegveth Church and Graigwith House. 
Neither in the Coed-y-paen Anticline nor in any other 
part of the Usk area is there any lithological or fossil evidence 
of the presence of the Aymestry Limestone. 
The Ludlow beds are characterised throughout by the 
constant presence of Chonetes striatella and Orthis lunata, while 
Dayia navicula is a common fossil from the base of the series to 
within 240 feet of its summit, but has not yet been found in 
the uppermost beds. Holopella gregaria and H. ohsolcta seem 
to characterise the very highest strata. 
The total thickness of the Ludlow beds seen seems to be 
about 1300 feet, but as the Old Red Sandstone is, according 
to the Survey, not conformable to the Ludlow beds, some of 
the latter may have been removed by denudation. 
The beds will be described from the Wenlock Limestone 
upwards. 
To the South o>f the Common Coed-y-paen mass of Wenlock 
Limestone occur sandy shales with calcareous nodules. The}' 
are seen at (74) in an old road which crosses the stream running 
d(3wn from Coed-y-paen Farm, where they dip S.S.W., and 
are only a few feet above the top of the Limestone, and they 
are also seen in an old quarry (73) just below the road, about 
700 yards due South of Common Coed-y-paen, where they dip 
35° W. 10° S., having been affected, no doubt, by the fault 
which bounds the Coed-y-paen mass of Limestone along its 
Western boundary. 
The fossil evidence makes it doubtful whether these beds 
are to be considered of Wenlock or of Ludlow age, but the 
absence of Chonetes striatella and Orthis lunata, which are so 
characteristic of the Ludlow beds of the district, suggests that 
they might be considered to be of Wenlock age, and that. 
