204 
CHAPTER VII. 
INFERIOR OOLITE SERIES (LOCAL DETAILS continued]. 
Ketton and Stamford to Cottesmore. 
The Ketton Stone is one of the moat famous of the buildingj- 
stones of the Inferior Oolite, and this occurs in the highest 
portion of the Lincolnshire Limestone that is exposed in the 
area. 
The rocks have been opened up alongside the railway-cutting 
by Ketton Station (Geeston), for the Ketton Lime-works ; but 
the principal quarries were situated to the north of the village, on 
a part of Ketton Heath known as " Ketton Stones." Here, as in 
other localities, the stone dug by the old quarrymen was obtained 
near the surface and not beneath coverings of clay. Hence the 
stone was to a large extent naturally seasoned. 
Pits have of late years been re-opened in the old quarry-ground 
of the Ketton Stones, and freestone has been dug in places 
beneath a considerable covering of the refuse from old workings. 
The freestone is a good deal shattered. The best section that I 
saw in this district was situated on the western side of the outlier 
of Upper Estuarine Series, &c., west of Ketton Stones : it was as 
follows : 
Upper Estuarine 
Series. 
Lincolnshire 
Limestone. 
FT. 
3 
IN. 

Grey and brown clay 
Grey banded clay with " race," ferru- 
ginous gritty nodules, and calciferous 
gritty layers ; Ostrea Sowerbyi - 10 
Blue carbonaceous clay - 6 
White sand and grey clay with rootlets ; 
ironstone nodules at the base 7 
"Oolitic freestone the upper portion 
stained red to a depth sometimes of 
2 ft. 6 in., this portion is known as 
the " Crash bed " ; the lower portion 
yields a good freestone, and forms a 
part of the Ketton Stone - 6 
Irregular bed of tough sparry blue- 
hearted oolite showing " lustre- 
mottling " ; this bed is known as 
" Rag," and does not furnish good 
freestone. It passes down into yellow 
freestone, that is quarried as a lower 
bed of Ketton Stone - - 6 
"No lower beds were exposed, but they were formerly shown in the 
railway-cutting at G-eeston, near Ketton.* 
With regard to the stone-beds, Prof. Judd makes the following 
remarks! : 
* Morris and Ibbetson, Rep. Brit. Assoc. for 1847, sections, p. 128 ; Sharp, Quart. 
Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxix. p. 243. 
t Geol. Rutland, p. 155; see also Sharp, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxix. 
p. 240. 
