Ixii 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 
Field Meeting, 9th May, 1891. 
BENNET’S END, HEMEL HEMPSTEAD. 
The brickfields at Bennet’s End, between Leverstock Green and 
Hemel Hempstead, are of considerable geological interest and have 
been visited by the Society on two previous occasions, on the 17th 
of June, 1876, under the direction of Dr. (now Sir) John Evans, 
and on the 18th of May, 1889, under that of Mr. Hopkinson and 
Dr. Morison. This time Mr. Upheld Green acted as Director, and 
he has furnished the following account of the meeting, with the 
accompanying plan and section. 
Beaching Box Moor by train the party proceeded across the fields 
to Elephant Earm, and thence to the lower brickfield marked A 
on the plan. This as well as the other brickfields in the neigh¬ 
bourhood are situated on a plateau varying from about 440 to 500 
feet above sea-level, and they fringe an outlier of the London Clay 
and Beading Beds, to which reference will be made. 
The Brick Earth in pit A is clay of a brownish colour containing 
few pebbles, and has been cut through to a depth of from 20 to 25 
feet, where it changes to a bluish grey clay with many pebbles. 
The Chalk has not here been reached. 
The second pit, B, at a somewhat higher level, presented a very 
good section. Erom the surface to a depth of 5 or 6 feet, drift 
gravel was seen, containing large quartzite and sandstone pebbles 
with many blocks of sarsen-stone and pudding-stone much rolled. 
Beneath this, Brick Earth of a reddish colour and of a more sandy 
nature than that in pit A, laminated in places and traversed by 
veins of pipe-clay, had been excavated to a depth of from 20 to 25 
feet round a boss or head of chalk which was covered by a layer of 
green-coated, unrolled flints, rolled flints, and flint-pebbles. These 
heads of chalk are characteristic of the Brick Earth deposits in this 
neighbourhood, and are found sometimes immediately below the 
Drift and at other times 20 feet or more below it. 
Somewhat to the east, another pit, C, has been sunk to a depth of 
from 30 to 35 feet without reaching the Chalk. 
To the south-east of these pits, along the line Ho. 1, a ridge of chalk 
appears, running a few degrees east of north, with a wall on the 
eastern side dipping at an angle of from 75 to 80 degrees to the 
east. The surface of this wall is hard, polished and striated, and 
covered by a layer of laminated, shiny, black clay. Beposing 
horizontally on this wall, a section is disclosed of about 12 feet of 
the basement-bed of the London Clay, containing teeth of Lamna 
and other characteristic fossils, and succeeded beneath by a bluish- 
grey plastic clay of the Beading Beds. The Chalk at the base of 
these beds had not been reached. 
Crossing the road, an old pit at the rear of Tilekiln Earm was 
visited, which the Director stated had been pointed out to him by 
Dr. Evans as the spot where the fault referred to by Mr. Whitaker*' 
* ‘ Geology of London ’ (1889), p. 209. See also ‘ Trans. Watford Nat. Hist. 
Soc./ Yol. I, p. xli, and ‘ Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Soc.,’ Yol. Y, p. xxxvii. 
