212 
LOWEK OOLITIC ROCKS OF ENGLAND t 
for road-metal and rough building-purposes, but the greater portion of 
the stone is more appropriately used for lime-burning : the lime being 
found suitable for mortar and agricultural purposes. As a building-stone 
the lower beds furnish but an inferior material, that does not stand the 
weather. These beds come to the surface over much of the ground west 
of the Ermine Street. (See Fig. 58, and Fig. 62, p. .220.) 
The following is the section at the Ancaster Stone Quarries, 
the overlying Upper Estuarine Beds varying in amount at different 
places : 
Upper Estuarine 
Series. 
FT. IN. FT. IN. 
Grey, brown and white clay - 
Band of greenish-coloured clay 
Dark blue clay, with thin bands 
of indurated grey earthy ? 15 to 20 
limestone near top - 
Grey and purple ochreous clay 
Rusty bed, 2 or 3 feet - 
Coarse and fine grained false- 
bedded oolite (Rag), the top bed 
fairly even : the upper beds 
stained irregularly of a red or 
crimson-red colour, the lower 
beds blue or blue-hearted - 8 to 12 
Lincolnshire Fine yellow freestone: fine- 
Limestone, i grained oolite, showing in the 
quarry-face no marked lines of 
division or open jointing, but 
separating intoirregular masses 
when quarried : the master- 
joints do not extend to the base 
of the freestone - - about 15 
The division between the rag and freestone is marked in some places, 
but in others the beds appear to merge ; and there are indications of local 
thickening of the rag in an easterly direction. 
The rusty bed on top of the rag appears to be to some extent the decom- 
posed surface of the oolite commingled with clay, and ochreous material. 
The Rag beds are employed for road-mending, and also for building- 
purposes : they are sometimes spoken of as the Weather Bed. 
Where the capping of clay is but 4 or 5 feet thick, as towards the. 
southern side of the quarries, the Rag -beds are much broken up, and even 
the freestone appears crumbly and friable at the top. 
The valuable freestone, known as the Ancaster Stone, belongs 
to the upper part of the Lincolnshire Limestone, and occurs 
below the outcrop of the Upper Estuarine Series. It is largely 
worked at the Ancaster Stone quarries on Wilsford Heath (Mr. 
Lindley's and Mr. Kirk's). There the beds are obtained beneath 
a capping of clay 15 to 25 feet thick, and the greater the thick- 
ness the better preserved are the stone-beds beneath. Thus the 
freestone, in particular, occurs in a tolerably massive form, 
although the blocks obtained are of limited dimensions. The 
stone is parted by joints, but not by open fissures, except at 
considerable intervals. 
The Freestone is a fine but variable oolite, some beds being coarser, and 
containing comminuted shells. Where much exposed some of the beds 
scale off on the vertical faces. As a rule the beds are not very thick, nor 
are they very regular, the mass of the stone being more or less false-bedded. 
Blocks from 1 to 2 feet thick and 4 or 5 feet across are obtained. 
