INFERIOR OOLITE: DEBDINGTON. 163 
Prof. Judd also mentions Clypcus Ploti from this locality. 
The beds (according to Mr. Beesley) have been worked since 
the Roman occupation, but the quarry has now for many years 
been closed. 
The general succession of the strata at Steeple Aston, south- 
east of Deddington, was given as follows by William Smith, in 
1805*: 
FEET. 
FP t O Tt n / White Stone [shelly oolite underlaid by 
' \ marly clay]. 
[Inf eri or Oolite.] 
[Upper Lias.] Wet clay - - - [35J 
[Middle Lia,] * ---.*> 
A. general section in the same area was afterwards given by 
Prof. Phillips,t whose measurements are given in square brackets. 
The thickness of the Upper Lias in this neighbourhood is in 
places reduced to 10 or 15 feet.J 
At Worton, between Steeple Aston and Banbury, the following 
section, showing details of the Inferior Oolite, was noted in 1854 
by Prof. Phillips : 
FT. IN. 
Shelly and sandy layers, with patches of calcareous 
flagstone (" plank "J - - - 4 
Iron-ore (oolitic) in undulated and folded masses 6 
Stony bands, with plant-remains - - -10 
Sands, with nodules of iron-ore and shells - 5 6 
Calcareous band - - - - -20 
Ferruginous clay (top of Upper Lias) - - 13 
This section is suggestive of the Northampton Beds ; and it is 
interesting to know that the bands of iron-ore above the Upper 
Lias, as well as those beneath it (Middle Lias), were formerly 
worked near Steeple Aston, by means of a shaft 90 feet deep. 
Phillips remarks that in the country about Sandford the above 
beds become white and yellow sand (16 or more feet thick) with 
irregular laminae of calcareous sandstone, blue in the centre, 
and called " plank." This is sometimes covered by 6 feet of 
clay. Strickland mentioned that near Lower Heyford " about a 
mile south of Rousham the [Great Western] railway again cuts 
into a hill and exposes some beds of siliceous sand of various 
colours. Above this is a bluish clay with numerous small oblong 
Ostreae."|| The clay doubtless belongs to the Great Oolite 
Series. 
Yellow ferruginous sands passing upwards into the calcareous 
sandstone, and resting on the Upper Lias clay, were noticed by 
Prof. Hull in the valley of the Dome east of Steeple Barton, where 
* Life of William Smith, by J. Phillips, p. 61. 
f Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xvi. p. 116 ; Geol. Oxford, p. 145. 
t Hull, Explan. of Hor. Sec., Sheets 71 and 72, p. 4. 
B. Meade, Coal and Iron Industries, 1882. 
l| Memoirs of H. E. Strickland, p. 184. 
L 2 
