INFERIOR OOLITE: BARNACK. 199 
Prof. Judd remarks that " Between Easton and Stamford the 
hard, siliceous rock forming the base of the Lincolnshire Oolite 
and representing; the Collyweston slate, is exposed. At several 
points near the bed of the Kiver Welland at Stamford, it has 
been observed ; and here Sharp, procured his interesting specimen 
of Astropecten cotteswoldice, var. stamfordensis. A fragment of the 
same beautiful starfish has recently been found at Collyweston." 
A.t Easton Woodside, north-west of Easton near Stamford, the 
Northampton Beds have been worked for ironstone. This corn- 
prices bedded sandy ironstone, showing here and there " cellular " 
or " box-structure " like the Northampton ironstone at Duston. 
It is worked in places to a depth of 9 feet. The junction with 
the Upper Lias was not shown : but the full thickness of the iron- 
stone is estimated to be about 15 or 20 feet.* 
Turning now to the celebrated district of Barnack, south-east 
of Stamford, it will be interesting to quote the following passage 
from Prof. Judd's Memoir : 
" In the neighbourhood of Barnack the very extensive ' hills 
and holes ' show what enormous quantities of the celebrated 
* Barnack-rag ' were quarried in former times. Indeed almost 
all the beautiful ecclesiastical edifices of the Norman, Transition, 
Early English, and Decorated periods in North Northamptonshire 
and South Lincolnshire, and especially those of the adjoining 
Fenland, appear to have been constructed of stone derived from 
these extensive quarries, around which a very considerable popula- 
tion of quarrymen appears in early times to have been established. 
Far earlier, even in Roman times, the value of this building 
material seems to have been recognised ; but before the perpen- 
dicular period (15th century) the use of the stone appears to 
have been abandoned, probably from the exhaustion of the quarries. 
The excavations of the ' hills and holes ' of Barnack, now filled 
up and grass -grown, are continued in Walcot Park, where some 
of the pits still remain open. Several pits in the Lincolnshire 
Oolite are still worked near Barnack, but in none of them is a 
rock of exceptionally fine quality found ; and the general opinion 
that the Barnack-rag (a freestone of excellent quality almost made 
up of small shells and other drifted organisms, and containing a 
few scattered oolitic grains) is now wholly exhausted, is probably 
the correct one." 
Prof. Judd also notes the following section in a pit near 
Barnack : 
Soil. 
f Bubbly oolite. 
Rock, made up of small shells and frag- 
ments of shells, Echinoderms, Corals, 
Lincolnshire , *?' ; P% s a ? d s P ines of CM> with 
Limestone. 4 ^ omts &&*"<***> and many speci- 
mens of the minute variety oi Rliyn- 
clionella spinosa (R. Crossi), abound - 4 feet seen. 
Ordinary white, oolitic limestone, not 
shelly - - - - - 8 feet. 
Collyweston Slate J Beds of yellow and white sand, contain- 1 Base not 
Beds. \ ing hard siliceous concretions - J seen. 
* Judd, Geol. Rutland, p. 103. 
