.510 LOWER OOLITIC BOCKS OF ENGLAND : 
At the Farm of the Royal Agricultural College, a well was sunk 140 
feet deep through Great Oolite into Fuller's Earth. Another well at 
Further Barton was about 120 feet deep, and has never been dry.* 
At Hatherop Castle near Fairford, a boring was made by the Aqueous 
Works and Diamond Rock-boring Company, to a depth of 114 feet, and 
the water then rose 4 feet above the surface of the ground. The section 
was as follows : 
FT. IN. 
Valley / Light loam - - - - -50 
Gravel. I Gravel - ..60 
Forest l n]nv o ft 
Marble. / Olay 
fLimestone - - - - - 39 3 
| Yellow sandy clay - - 7 6 
Great J Blue clay - - - - -10 
Oolite. 1 Grey limestone - - - 1 5 
I Blue clay - - - - 4 10 
(jBlue limestone - - - - - 1 7 
Fuller's \ T.I , 
Earth. ) Bluecla y - 44 5 
114 
The quantity of water was " very large," and its quality excellent. 
Although the Inferior Oolite rock was not recorded, it seems most likely 
"that it was reached, and that the artesian water escaped from it. 
In the Great Oolite nea,r Nolgrove, and again in that exposed between 
Chipping Norton and Hook Norton, we find a considerable proportion of 
its mass of an impervious character, amounting indeed to about J at 
Notgrove, and f at the other locality, hence the water would be found at 
different levels and would be of variable quantity. The Great Oolite may 
be said to possess these characters from the neighbourhood of Burford 
and in its course to the north-east. In confirmation of this I may quote 
the Rev. J. Clutterbuck, who says," It often happens that in one locality 
there are several distinct beds of water, either to be traced in wells, or 
to be seen, as indicated by springs issuing from the hill-sides. Such, for 
instance, is the case at Stonesfield, in Oxfordshire, where three distinct 
beds of water are found at various levels, at about 15, 50, and 100 feet 
from the surface respectively ; none, except the lowest, which rests on 
the lias clay, yielding a large amount of water, but each sufficient for 
ordinary domestic purposes. "f My own observations at Stonesfield bear 
out this statement, as in one of the shafts sunk for working the " slate," 
copious spi'ings were met with after heavy rains at two levels, (See 
p. 311.) 
Gagingwell east of Enstone has a spring that is said never to fail, and 
this is one of the sources of the Glyme. 
Over much of the area immediately north of Woodstock, near Wootton ; 
again at Minster Lovel and Witney, the uppermost beds of the Great 
Oolite consist mainly of limestones to a depth of 25 or even 30 feet, and 
they yield supplies of water sufficient for local purposes. Thus small 
springs are thrown out on the north side of the valley below Wootton 
village, the dip of the strata being (at a low angle) in a south-easterly 
direction. Fair Rosamond's well, adjoining Blenheim Lake, is another 
example, and there is a spring called the Ruddy Well, north of Stones- 
field, that issues from the Great Oolite : these " never fail." 
At Tackley, north-east of Woodstock, a boring was made (in 1888) 
apparently through Forest Marble and Great Oolite, to a depth of 54 feet. 
A good supply of water was tapped in a bed of " sandstone," reached at 
46 feet. 
^ ^__^ 
* Proc. Cotteswold Club, vol. x. p. 180 ; see also J. H. Taunton, Ibid,, yol, ix. 
p. 52 ; and J. Lucas, Trans. Inst. Surveyors, vol. xiii. pp. 170, 179, and plate, 
t Journ. Roy. Agric. Soc., ser. 2, vol. i. p. 286. 
