206- LOWER OOLITIC ROCKS OF ENGLAND : 
about 65 feet. He has also recorded a number of fossils from a well sunk 
into the Northampton Sand at Little Casterton.* From a fissure in the 
rock at Tinkler's Quarry, Stamford, some Pleistocene Mammalian remains 
were obtained.f 
The Stamford Marble is a hard white or pale-buff blue-hearted lime- 
stone, with scattered oolitic grains. It was formerly used for mantel-pieces, 
being smoothed but not polished, and sometimes blackened. Specimens 
of this rock (one containing Nerincea), which I obtained at Stamford, are 
placed in the Museum at Jermyn Street. Sharp also mentions a fine 
cream-coloured stone under the name of Stamford Stone, which for- 
merly was much used for chimney-pieces, and for the interior carved work 
of churches. This seems to belong to the same set of beds as the Marble: 
it contains Natica, Nerincea, Lima, and some plant-remains. 
The freestones in the upper part of the Lincolnshire Limestone 
have been quarried by the high road to Great Casterton, near the 
turning to Little Casterton. The Casterton Stone, like that of 
Stamford and Ketton, is of good repute. The marly beds below 
the freestone have yielded a number of fossils, recorded by S. 
Sharp.t 
Beferring again to Prof. Judd's Memoir, we learn that " At Clipsham 
Quarries the beds of the Lincolnshire Oolite are extensively wrought for 
building-purposes. The stone is quarried from beneath a considerable 
thickness of the Essuarine Clays forming the base of the Great Oolite 
Series. The sections are similar to those of Ketton and Stamford brick- 
yard (Torkington's pit), but not so complete. The ironstone junction-bed 
is present, but does not seem to be so persistent as is usually the case. The 
Clipsham sections are, however, somewhat obscure. The Clipsham free- 
stone which, like that of Ketton and Weldon, is associated with other bed& 
of more or less coarse shelly rag, is an oolitic limestone similar to that of 
Ketton, but less even in grain, and with a few shells scattered through its 
mass. Its characters more closely resemble those of the extensively 
worked stone of the same age about Ancaster." 
" At the cross-roads between Greetham and Thistleton, there are exten- 
sive quarries, exhibiting the Lincolnshire Oolite as a compact, sub- 
crystalline limestone, presenting many jof the shells, &c. characteristic of 
the coralline facies of the formation." \ Rock of this character does not 
furnish durable building-stone. 
South of Luffenham brickyard there is a fault which lets down 
the Colljweston Slate and Ironstone about 13 feet, on the south, 
where the beds appear much disturbed. The section was a& 
follows : 
Collyweston Slate. 
Lower Estuarine ' Grey and purplish clay and yellow 
Series. \ sand - - - - - 6 feet. 
Northampton / Ironstone (top exposed at one parfc, and 
Sand. \ base in another) - - 6 feet seen. 
f Blue clay with septaria and ferruginous 
Upper Lias. { nodnl * 8 . 
The junction of the Ironstone with the Upper Lias was 
tolerably well marked, but there was no evidence of unconformity 
in the relations of the strata. 
* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxix. pp. 251, 255. 
f Ibid., p. 254. 
I Ibid., p. 252. 
Geology of Rutland, p. 167. 
