A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE In Worcestershire we have no precise information concerning these strata as they are obscured by a talus of oolitic rubble. Nor have we present the entire mass of the Inferior Oolite which includes not only beds of oolite freestone and marl, but occasional layers of sand and clay, as at Snowshill, south of Broadway, and thick beds of ragstone further south. The freestone has been quarried in several places on Bredon Hill, and there are good exposures west of Overbury. Much of it is in a very shattered and broken condition, due to excessive weathering which probably dates back to glacial times, when thick accumulations of oolitic rubble were formed along the slopes of the Cotteswold Hills. Some of these shattered masses have been re-cemented by carbonate of lime, an example of which is seen in the Bambury stone.^ The freestone which is quarried is a brown more or less shelly and oolitic limestone, in places largely made up of crinoidal fragments. Ammonites and Belemnites are occasionally met with, also Trigonia, Pecten personatus, Terebratula plicata and T. perovalis. The beds probably belong to the zone of Ammonites murchisonce? Near the Fish Inn, Broadway, the freestones, about 30 feet thick, have also been quarried, and here higher strata are locally faulted against the freestone. These comprise sandy beds, greenish-grey clay, and rubbly limestone with Clypeus, Nerincea, etc. Thick and heavy stone tiles were formerly obtained from the Inferior Oolite at Hyatt's Pitts, near Snowshill. The formation yields a brashy and loamy soil, forming good land for corn and roots, and yielding also much pasture for the famous Cotteswold sheep. The formation is water-bearing, and copious springs are given out in places, as at Seven Wells, east of Snowshill, at the junction with the Upper Lias clays. At Daylesford, in an outlying portion of Worcestershire, there are small areas of Lower, Middle, and Upper Lias, Inferior Oolite, and even Great Oolite. In this region the Inferior Oolite has under- gone changes, and is represented apparently by only the lowest and highest stages of the formation. There are thin layers of pebbly sand and calcareous sandstone which approximate to the Northampton Sands, and these are overlaid by high beds of Inferior Oolite with Clypeus ploti and Terebratula globata, and again by hard and somewhat sandy limestones 10 or 12 feet thick, known as the Chipping Norton limestone. Above this local bed of Inferior Oolite, near Daylesford, there is a small area of Great Oolite, comprising about 3 feet of marly clays with Ostrea sowerbyi and Rhynchonella concinna, overlaid by flaggy and rubbly oolitic limestones with Terebratula maxillata and Nerincea? ' G. F. Playne, Proc. Cotteswold Club, vol. vi. p. 225.
- H. B. Woodward, 'Lower Oolitic Rocks of England,' Mem. Geo/. Survey, pp. 138,
140, 462, etc. ^ H. B.Woodward, 'Lower Oolitic Rocks of England,' Geol. Survey, pp. 153, etc.
