On the Succession of Beds in the “Hastings Sand” in the Northern Portion of the Wealden Area

Abstract

Having for the last two years been engaged (in the course of the progress of the Government Survey) in examining part of that large tract in the south-east of England which is made by the outcrop of the Wealden strata, and having now become acquainted with many details concerning that formation, I wish to bring before the Society an account of its lithological character and of the order of succession that prevails in it. As regards this part of England, the Wealden formation has long been divided into three members, namely— The “Weald Clay,” the “Hastings Sand,” and the “Ashburnham Beds.” The first, the “Weald Clay,” is much the same through all its thickness; where there is variety in it, it has been well described by Dr. Fitton, Mr. Martin, and Dr. Mantell. The lowest member, the “Ashburnham Beds,” which may, perhaps, be classed with the Purbeck formation, does not appear in that district in which I have more particularly been engaged. I shall therefore say little of these two, and almost confine myself to the “Hastings Sand,” and to the northern part of the Hastings Sand country, a district, 50 miles long and varying from 3 to 12 or more in width, lying between and in the neighbourhood of the towns of Tenterden, Cranbrook, Tunbridge Wells, East Grinstead, and Horsham.