165 
CHAPTER VI. 
INFERIOR OOLITE SERIES (LOCAL DEIAILS 
continued). 
3. NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, RUTLANDSHIRE, AND LINCOLNSHIRE. 
GENERAL ACCOUNT OP THE STRATA. 
IN the tracts now to be described, the beds admit of the fol- 
lowing divisions, but these are not everywhere represented : 
f Lincolnshire Limestone. 
Inferior Oolite J Collyweston Slate. 
Series. ) Lower Estuarine Series"!. AT ., ^ , 
[Northampton Sand / Northampton Beds. 
Some of these divisions have been recognized in areas already 
described, but a fuller account of them may now ba given. 
NORTHAMPTON BEDS. 
The term " Northampton yellow and brown Sandstone and 
Sand" was employed as early as 1815 by John Farcy * but the 
name Northampton Sand was not extensively used until it was 
adopted in 1860 by the Geological Survey.f At that time the 
beds were taken to be the equivalent of the Stonesfield Slate : a 
supposition supported by the similarity between that stratum and 
the Collyweston Slate (See p. 170.) 
The Rev. P. B. Brodie, however, in 1853, recognized that the 
Northamptonshire Ironstone belonged to the Inferior Oolite ;J 
and Morris in 1869 showed that the "Ferruginous Sand and 
Sand-rock" (Northampton Sands) were probably equivalent in 
part to the Yorkshire " Dogger." He also concluded that the 
Collyweston and Whittering Slates, and part if not all of the over- 
lying oolite of Ponton, Corby, Stamford, Barnack, &c., repre- 
sented the beds overlying the Dogger, or higher portions of the 
Inferior Oolite. 
Our detailed knowledge of the beds, as will be pointed out, is 
mainly owing to the researches carried on during the course of 
the Geological Survey by Prof. Judd, and to the observations of 
the late Samuel Sharp, of Dallington Hall. 
The Northampton Beds, which attain a maximum thickness of 
about 70 or 80 ieet, were divided by Prof. Judd, as follows : 
Lower Estuarine Serie?. 
Northampton Sand. 
* Supp. Index to SowerLy's Mineral Conchology, vol. i. 
t W. T. Aveline and R. Trench, Geol. part of Northamptonshire, p. 8. 
j Proc. Cotteswold Club, vol. ii. p. 132. 
Geol. Mag., 1869, p. 104. 
