The Igneous Rocks of Pontesford Hill, Shropshire

Abstract

I. INTRODUCTION AND PREVIOUS LITERATURE. PONTESFORD HILL is sit.uated on the north-western flank of the Longmynd range of Shropshire, about 7 miles south-west of Shrewsbury. With a length of about a mile, and a breadth of half a mile, it rises to a height of just over 1000 feet, and from its summit, which is the site of a well-preserved Roman camp, a fine view of the surrounding country is obtained. A mile to the west, and running through the village of Pontesbury, the Stiper- Stones Quartzite, the local base of the Ordovician System, crops out; while to the south-west stretches nearly the whole sweep of the Ordovician district of Shelve and the Corndon. Immediately to the east and south rise abruptly the conglomerates and purple grits of the Western Longmynd, making up the conspicuous woody ridges of Radlith and Oakswood. Between these and Pontesford Hill is a deep and picturesque wooded gorge, cut by the Habberley Brook. Here, about a third of a mile east of the northern end of Pontesford Hill, is the Lyd Hole, a big, circular pot-hole, at and near which are some conspicuous exposures of rocks referred to by :Mr. Blake and Dr. Callaway in their papers dealing with the geology of the district. Northward stretches the great plain of Shrewsbury and Chester. The hill, which is nearly severed into two roughly-equal portions by a north-eastern and south-western galley, rises from the valley with abrupt and steep slopes, but with a general rounded outline. One