Page:VCH Worcestershire 1.djvu/44

 A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE Phillips, in describing the Malvern and Abberley region, gave to the breccia the name Haffield Conglomerate, from the locaHty west of Bromesberrow and south of Ledbury, where the rock is well exposed. It occurs at Warshill Camp, west of Kidderminster, Stagbury Hill, west of Stourport, at Abberley Hill, Woodbury Hill, near Knightsford Bridge, at Alfrick and Howlers Heath at the southern end of the Mal- vern range. In this region it rests partly against Silurian and older rocks, partly on Coal Measures, but everywhere unconformably. Elsewhere in places it is underlain by red marls and sandstones, and overlain with apparent conformity by the upper Permian Marls and the Bunter Sand- stone and pebble-beds. Geologically, the greatest interest attaches to the breccia. It was originally termed ' Trappoid Breccia,' because the included fragments are mostly igneous rocks. It comprises a red and purplish marly matrix with angular and sub-angular blocks up to 2 feet in diameter, mainly of volcanic grits and lavas, with also quartzite, sandstone and hmestone. Ramsay in 1855 expressed the opinion that the Permian breccias of the Bromsgrove Lickey and Clent Hills were the morainic matter of glaciers scattered in the Permian sea by icebergs.^ Jukes at the time hesitated to accept this view, believing that the fragments might have been derived from adjacent rocks now concealed under the red rocks of the neighbourhood ^ ; so likewise did the Rev, W. S. Symonds.^ Their views are supported nowadays. By Mr. W. Wickham King and Mr. R. D. Oldham* the breccias are considered to have been derived from scree-material and the stones to have been more or less rolled by streams and torrents which bore them away from the hill slopes. Whether part of the talus was of glacial origin, or whether the striae found on the stones were produced during the slipping of scree- material, or were derived from ancient slickensided surfaces may be questioned. We need not, however, restrict our explanations to one mode of action. It is held by Prof Groom and others that the fragments were not mainly derived from the old rocks of Malvern and Abberley, nor were the strata deposited against a shore line of those hills. Land may have existed east of the Malverns and the talus may thence have been derived. Prof. Lapworth states that the prevalent rock-fragments resemble the old Uriconian volcanic series, representatives of which occur at Barnt Green and on the Herefordshire Beacon.^ Other fragments may have come from the Lickey quartzite and the May Hill Sandstone. In the calcareous conglomerates, which were formed somewhat earlier than the breccias, there are many limestone pebbles derived from Carboniferous and Silurian rocks. ^ Records of the Rods, p. 409. R. D. Oldham, ibid. vol. 1. p. 470. ^ Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. xv. p. 373. 14
 * Quart. "Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xi. p. 186.
 * 'The South Staffordshire Coal-field,' Mem. Geol. Survey, ed. 2, 1859, p. 15.
 * King, Midland Nat., vol. xvi. p. 25 ; Quart. 'Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. Iv. p. 97 ; and