352 LOWER OOLITIC ROCKS OF ENGLAND : 
A number of fossils were obtained by W. Walton of Bath, 
from a shelly marl exposed in a " cutting opposite Wick Farm- 
house, made in forming the new Warminster Road, west of 
Farleigh."* 
Bradford-on-Avon to Corsham. 
BRADFORD CLAY. 
The Bradford Clay came into notice during the latter part of 
the 18th century, on account of the local abundance of the 
Crinoid, now known as Apiocrinus Parkinsoni. The fragments 
of the stalk and body of this fossil were called " Coach-wheels," 
by the quarrymen, and many of these being obtained by the Rev. 
Benjamin Richardson, from a quarry at Berfield (IJurfield or 
Bearfield) on the north side of Bradford-on-Avon, the fossil came 
to be known as the " Berfield fossil " and " Bradford Encrinite."f 
The name " Pear Encrinite " was also given from the form of 
the calyx and upper stem-joints. The earliest reference to it 
appears to be in the work of Walcott, but it was first figured and 
described by Parkinson.:}: 
The deposit was originally mentioned by William Smith as 
" Clay over Upper Oclite," and the term Bradford Clay, derived 
from Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire, seems to have been first 
usedljy J. De Carle Sowerby in 1823. 
As a formation the Bradford Clay (like the Stonesfield Slate) 
is local and insignificant : it consists of pale grey marly clay with 
thin layers of tough limestone and calcareous sandstone, and it 
usually includes a rich fossil-bed at the base. It may in fact be 
looked upon as the local basement-bed of the Forest Marble. It 
could not be separately laid down on the Geological Survey 
map, and was considered by Prof. Hull,]) as by Lonsdale, to be 
simply a local division of the Forest Marble. 
Although the fossils that particularly characterize the bed, are 
not always present, yet we have evidence that the horizon extends 
southwards to the Dorsetshire coast, and northwards to the 
neighbourhood of Cirencester. 
In the district around Bradford-on-Avpn, the most southerly 
evidence of the bed is that noticed in the Coal-boring at Buck- 
land Denham. It has been observed also at Farleigh and near 
Broadfield Farm, Charterhouse Hinton. Sections are now to be 
seen at Upper Westwood, by the lime-kilns south of Bradford- 
on-Avon, and by the Melksham road, east of the town ; those to 
the north of the town at Berfield, being closed. Nor are there 
* Supp. Monograph on the Mollusca from the Great Oolite, &c., by J. Lycett 
(Pal. Soc.), P- H8. 
f Townsend, Character of Moses, p. 268. 
J Organic Remains, vol. ii. 1808, p 208 ; J. Walcott, Description and Figures of 
Petrifactions found in the Quarries, Gravel Pits, &c. near Bath. 8vo. London, 1779, 
p. 46. 
Mineral Conchology, vol. v. 1823. 
|| Geol. Cheltenham, p. 69. 
