204 
PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 
1920 
The characters of the beds composing the Wenlock Limestone 
are best seen in the ridge above Longhope and four different 
layers can be made out : — 
At the top — 
(1) Sandy limestone in layers, often green, generally brown 
in colour. 
(2) Calcareous bands with much shale. 
(3) Limestone in layers with a little sandy shale. 
(4) Very hard compact limestone, often showing ball 
structure. 
(1) is well seen in the quarry by the lane leading up Hobbs 
from Longhope Station and in an old quarry to the east-north- 
east of the railway bridge. It occurs in irregular layers each of 
a few inches in thickness, and is an impure limestone weathering 
brown. It contains quartz grains, and is glauconitic and 
dolomitic. A very large form of Atrypa reticularis is abundant 
in it, otherwise fossils are scarce. 
(2) is also seen in the Hobbs lane, but its lowest part is 
covered. It calls for no special remark. 
(3) has furnished the spoil heaps at the top of the long line 
of quarries at the top of Hobbs, and these abound in fossils, 
Orthis elegantula being particularly common. 
(4) forms the lower part of the Hobbs quarries, and is not 
very fossiliferous. It is very hard, a compact rock blue-grey 
in colour, and here and there contains huge masses of Halysites 
catenularia in the position of growth. 
The top bed of the limestone along Blaisdon Edge and in 
Flaxley Deer Park is a yellowish compact rock in which corals 
are abundant. 
To the north of May Hill the Wenlock Limestone forms a 
ridge w'hich runs for two-thirds of a mile to the south-east of 
Aston Ingham, near w T hich place it is faulted against Downton 
Sandstone, w'hich may be considered as part of the Woolhope 
area. Here it is stained a deep red colour and has partings of 
brown shale. 
Hay Farm is built on a patch of this limestone, which shows 
a certain amount of bending. 
