The Depth and Succession of the Bovey Deposits (Devon)

Abstract

The total thickness of the Tertiary Beds in the Bovey Basin has never yet been ascertained, because no boring has yet reached the bottom of the basin in which they lie; and no one has yet attempted to make out a stratigraphical succession from the sections exposed in the numerous clay-pits. Some years ago, however, Messrs. Candy & Co., of the Heathfield Potteries, put down a boring which reached a depth of 526 feet from the surface. Having obtained some particulars concerning the beds traversed by this boring, the Author is able to discuss the succession of the Bovey deposits, so far as they hate been explored. The following is a generalized description of the strata seen in the Heathfield pit, and penetrated by the boring from the bottom of that excavation :— The Author confirms the conclusion arrived at by Pengelly in 1861, with regard to the relative age of the beds exposed in the ‘ old coal-pit’ south-east of Bovey Tracey and those proved in a boring to the east of it. From all the data mentioned, and assuming the actual base of the Tertiary deposits to be not more than 30 feet below the bottom of the Heathfield boring, he estimates the total thickness of the ‘ :Eocene’ beds to be about 613 feet. The Bovey Basin itself is regarded as a tectonic basin or post-Eocene centrocline, and not as a lake-basin; although, during the deposition of the higher part of the series, it may have formed