The Silurian Inlier of Woolhope, Herefordshire

Abstract

The Silurian inlier of Woolhope is taken in this paper to include the tract of country, almost elliptical in outline, from Mordiford on the west to Putley Court on the east and from Stoke Edith on the north to Sollers Hope on the south. From this area a narrow belt of Silurian rocks extends some 6 miles in a south-south-easterly direction to Aston Ingham, where it meets the May Hill Silurian inlier. The Woolhope area lies about 5 miles to the west of the Malvern Silurian rocks, and is 22 miles south-south-east of the town of Ludlow, while Aymestry lies some 20 miles away to the north-west. The higher Silurian deposits in the Ludlow neighbourhood, from the Aymestry Limestone to their summit, were described by Miss Elles & Miss Slater in 1905, while an account of the Lower Ludlow Beds was given by Dame E. M. R. Shakespear (Miss. Wood) in 1900, and in her paper the beds of that age extending from near Ludlow to Aymestry are described. The May Hill area was described by me in 1920. Since the Geological Survey Memoir of 1848 no revision of the Woolhope district has been carried out, although there are references to visits paid to it in the Proceedings of the Woolhope Club. The area described in this paper measures about 6 miles from north-north-west to south-south-east, and about 4 miles at right angles to that direction in its widest part. Speaking generally, the area may be considered as made up