WATER SUPPLY : GREAT OOLITE SERIES. 507 
The Upper Estttarine Beds comprise sands that in places yield a small 
amount of water : but as a rule it would not be good in quality. Thus at 
Potter Hanworth Station water was said to be found at a depth of 49 
feet in hard sand at the base of this series.* It is however likely that 
water from the underlying Lincolnshire Limestone was mingled with it. 
The Great Oolite from Bath to Cirencester and Northieach is a good 
water-bearing formation : the water being held up by the Fuller's Earth 
clay and the overflow being thrown out in numerous springs. Thus 
many of the villages are built on the scarps or along the valleys. Near 
Bath, wells have been carried to depths (in feet) at Combe Down (80), 
Claverton Down (100), Winsley (110), Lansdown (100), East of Kings 
Down (110) ; and through the Forest Marble and Great Oolite at Worm- 
wood House, near Atford (240), and at Upper Westwood, near Bradfprd- 
on-Avoii (about 150 feet)t. 
The Seven Springs at Charmy Down, together with those on Holts 
Down, north of Bath, are said to yield 11 6,000 gallons a day. (See p. 504.) 
The Forest Marble is not calculated to yield any large amount of water, 
as the layers of limestone are usually interbedded with clays. In many 
localities from Dorsetshire to Wiltshire (see p. 355) supplies sufficient for 
a mansion or for several cottages have been obtained. There are fewer 
villages along its outcrop than along that of the Corubrash. 
Frome was formerly supplied from numerous springs and wells in the 
Forest Marble, but the waters were said to contain sulphate as well as 
carbonate of lime. Good supplies of fresh water have been obtained in 
certain localities in North Wilts, as at Malmesbury and Chippenham. 
At Malmesbury springs of an artesian character rise in the Abbey meadows 
from the Forest-marble.;}; 
At Chippenham, at Mr. Brotherhood's well, near the new church, the 
Cornbrash and Forest-marble were penetrated, and a good supply of water 
was obtained. The section was as follows : 
FT. 
Cornbrash - Brash ... 
rHard Clay 
Forest-marbie J Blue Clay 
Kock .... 
I Blue Clay 
Great Oolite - Rock (blue oolitic limestone) - 
99 8 
Water gushed in from the south side of the well at the rate of 8,000 
gallons an hour. 
Another record in the same town, was that of the Chippenham New 
Well (1874), the details of which were furnished by W. Bryan Wood, as 
follows : 
FT. IN. 
Sandy loam, and gravel (1 ft.) 18 
Cornbrash - - 1 
"Hard blue rock, full of shells (a great 
quantity of water came in, probably 
from the river) - - 4 
Forest Marble 
and Great 
Oolite. 
Clay with thin layers f stone 38 
Hard rock, full of fissures (about 
30,000 gallons of water per day) - 5 
Hard stone (pounded by the borer) - 51 
^Stone (yielding 150,000 gallons a day) 21 
138 
The water was pronounced to be very good by Dr. Yoelcker. 
* De Ranee, Proc. Yorksh. Geol. and Poiyt. Soc., vol. xii. p. 33. 
f Geol. E. Somerset, &c., p. 181 ; Townsend, Character of Moses, &c., 1813, 
p. 128 ; FL H. Winwood, Proc. Geol. Assoc., vol. xiii., p. 134. 
J. H. Taunton, Proc. Cotteswold Club, vol. vi. p. 301 . 
From notes furnished by W. Bryan Wood, of Cbippenham, to H. W. Bristow . 
