The Eocene and Pliocene Deposits of Lane End, Buckinghamshire

Abstract

An account of the geology of the Lane End district was published in 1925 (Wooldridge & Gill), following special excavations undertaken by a Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science with the object principally of confirming H. J. Osborne White's earlier account of quartzose gravelly elements in the Reading Beds. The pit described by him was reopened in part, and further exposures of the gravelly beds were examined, notably in a pit on Bolterend Common. The conclusion reached was that the London Clay was normally superimposed on the beds in question, and that their Eocene age was thereby definitely established. This interpretation carried with it two important corollaries: namely, (a) that the Chalk cover, north-west of the London Basin, must have been locally breached in early Eocene times, permitting the contribution of Lower Cretaceous and Jurassic material to the Eocene sediments; and (b) that a distinctive polygenetic marginal facies of the Reading Beds formerly existed, of which the Lane End Reading Beds were a surviving remnant. Recently, much new geological information has become available in this district. New pits have been opened and certain of the older exposures have been extended. Moreover, a water reservoir has been constructed on the hill-top in Widdenton Park Wood and a water-tower erected on the companion hill-top of Fining Wood. In connexion with them, an extensive series of deep pipe-line trenches was dug; these were kept under continuous observation by one or other of the present authors and the information obtained