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Excursion to the North Downs in Kent

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Excursion to the North Downs in Kent A. L. LEACH, nata; C. clauigera ; B ourgue­ tu ta semiglobosa ; T . cornea, ticrinus, Pentacrinus and I socri ­ Rhvn chonella cuuieri : R. plica­ nus. (all columnars). W is . ANNELIDA. MOLLUSCA . Serpul a am-pullacea ; S. plexus. Ostrea oesic ularis ; O. lateralis ; CRUSTACEA. Inoceramus sp.; Lima hoperi ; Scal pellum maximum . Sbondytus spi nosus, P OLYZOA. (Several species.) FISHES. B RACHIOPODA . Tooth of Lamna (?) T'erebratulina striata; T erebra- REFERENCES. Geological Su rvey Maps, I -inch, Old Series, Sheet 8; London District (D r ift Map}, Sheet 4. Ordnance Survey 6-inch Map Su rrey.zo N. W ., a copy of which , geo logica lly coloured, may be seen in the Museum of Practical Ge ology, Jermyn ' Street. 1900. G. E . DIBLEY. -Zonal F eatures of the Chalk Pits in the Rochester, Gravesend, and Cro ydon Areas. Proc , Geol, A ssoc., vol , xvi., p. 484. EXCURSION TO THE NORTH DOWNS TN KENT. SATURDAY, JULY 17TH, 1920. Director :-ARTHUR L. LEACH, F.G.S. Excursion Secretary:-Miss M. J. BASSETT. (Report by the Director.) THE party, 20 in number, left Otford at 12.30, walked to Becket's Well and thence to a strong spring thrown out in the fields below Shore Hill. Turning then into a lane which led across the Pilgrims' Way to Shore Hill (about one mile east of Otford), some time was spent examining the solution-pipes in the disused chalk quarry. After an interval for lunch th e walk was resumed along the Pilgrims' Way to a field-path running up the escarp­ ment to Cotman's Ash and thence to Woodlands in the Maples­ combe valley. This track affords excellent views of the land­ scape features of the Holm esdale, the Chalk escarpment, and the dip-slope towards the Thames. From Woodlands a lane led past Knockmill to the pit in Blackheath Beds on Oaklands estate, where the remarkable occurrence of whitened and disintegrated flint pebbles was examined and discussed at length. The party returned by the lanes to Otford Mount. On the way down by the field-path into the village the interest and beauty of the prospect aroused general admiration. After tea at The Bull Hotel, Mr. G. W. Young expressed the thanks of those present to the Director. The party left Otford at 7.33 p.m. At convenient points during the Excursion the Director- EXCURSION TO THE NORTH DOWNS IN KENT. 37 drew attention to the geological conditions and to the very great interest and beauty of the landscape features, but as the best point for a comprehensive view was not reached until the close of the day, it seems desirable to gather together in one note the substance of the remarks upon the physical features made during the Excursion. LANDSCAPE FEATURES. The route followed on this Excursion runs through a district which affords excellent illustrations of the close relation which may exist between surface relief and geological structure. The east-and-west direction of the outcrops of rocks· of unequal resistance to denudation not only determines the east-and-west lines of the ridges and troughs, e.g., the Chalk and Lower Green­ sand ridges bordering the Gault in the Holmesdale, but since the vegetation, self-sprung and cultivated, is related to the soils and these in turn to the rock-outcrops, three very distinct zones may be traced for many miles--the dry steep scarp slope of the Chalk, the meadows, hop-gardens and arable lands along the Vale, the tree-clad slopes upon the dip of the Lower Greensand. This long parallelism of outcrop, surface form and cultivation, makes the Vale of Holmesdale probably unique in character. Similar features continue beyond the limit to which the name is commonly applied. From Otford eastward the field-track follows approximately the Chalk Marl; to the north rises the steep Chalk scarp, indented with many coombes; to the south the Gault crops out along the lowest part of the Vale, and beyond, the ground rises towards the Lower Greensand hills. Along the outcrop of the Chalk Marl many springs issue; one feeds Otford pond, another TUns to waste through the ruined mediseval conduit house (Becket's Well) which encloses it; below Shore Hill an unnamed spring issuing below a bank 8-ro feet high is clearly cutting back along the saturation level and forming a miniature coombe comparable with those produced along the chalk scarp' above during a remote period of higher saturation level. All these Chalk Marl springs feed small anti-dip streams flowing to the eastern strike-tributary of the Darent. Near Otford, where its eastern and western strike-tributaries unite, the Darent turns northward through a remarkable water-gap in the North Downs. All the Vale of Holmesdale is drained in sections by strike tributaries of the Medway, Darent, or Mole. and these streams all flow northward across the Chalk outcrop to the Thames. But one part of the vale, east of Otford, exhibits exceptional drainage. A pronounced gap in the Lower Greensand hills (seen from the path running up the scarp to Cotman's Ash), marks the valley cut by the Shade (Busty or A. L. LEACH, Buster), which flows southieard into the Medway. Of the various suggestions made to account for this abnormal course that of the late F. C. J. Spurrell has much to commend it. He thought the Shode presented an instance of " reversed drainage." The stream flowed originally into the Darent down the dip-slope of the Lower Greensand, but one of the head-streams of the Medway captured its head waters and thus changed the direction of drainage. SHORE HILL ~HALK QUARRY. This chalk-pit, first visited by the Association on July 3rd, 1909, appears on the scarp of the Chalk at the head of a coombe which in part may have been formed by long-continued working for chalk. The quarry has been disused for many years, and all the slopes and rubbish heaps are much over-grown. Land shells, notably the large" Roman" snail (Helix pomatia), are very abundant. From the upper part of the pit the relation of the Chalk scarp to the Holmesdale can be studied. The beauty and variety of the flora make this place very delightful at all times of the year. Few points along the North Downs present so many aspects of interest: and flora, land mollusca and landscape features are all directly related to the geology. Shore Hill quarry, on the 600 feet contour-line, lies probably in the Holaster planus zone, according to Mr. G. W. Young, who identified a large specimen of T erebraiula semiglobosa (found by a member during the Excursion), and regarded it as characteristic of that zone. A good series of fossils could be collected from loose blocks strewn about the pit. The pipes, to which attention was chiefly drawn on this occasion, are four in number and three of them contain pockets and lenticles of sand in addition to clay-with-flints. Starting on the western side of the pit, pipe No. I shows a broad funnel­ shaped top narrowing to an ordinary cylindrical pipe, about 25 feet across, lined on each side by 5-6 feet of brown clay-with­ flints. The core consists of pale sand mixed with chalk mud. Over this lies a long lenticuIar section of clean, loose, pale and brown sands, about It feet thick; layers of chalk rubble zfr. and clay-with-flints 4ft. thick then sweep across the whole pipe. Pipe NO.2 (going eastward), about zoft wide, divides in its lower part into two branches separated by a pinnacle of undissolved chalk. The smaller branch contains only clay-with-flints; the wider branch has a core of sand. Pipe NO.3 appears to be full of clay-with-flints. Pipe No. 4 has ill-defined margins, ob­ scured by talus and contains much sand. An unusual mineral (? halloysite) occurs in strings and patches in the sands. Small lumps of the fairly pure mineral may be found but generally speaking it is mixed with the sand and its peculiar greasy touch is thus disguised. EXCURSION TO THE NORTH DOWNS IN KENT. 39 It is unnecessary to discuss the formation of pipes since they are now generally accepted as solution phenomena. The features of immediate interest are the sands and the curious mineral (?) halloysite. In colour the sands vary from pale yellow to brown, and patches of pale pink sandy clay also occur. They are much less ferruginous than the (?) Pliocene sands along the North Downs and appear rather to resemble some yellow and pinkish sands and clavs formerly to be seen below the Blackheath pebble­ beds at'Worms Heath on the Nore Hill side of the gravel pit. No fossils or flint pebbles have been found. Superficially at least they resemble Eocene sands (Woolwich or Blackheath Beds), but their age, like that of many other patches along the North Downs, has not been definitely ascertained. The white clayey mineral found in the fourth pipe would have been described as allophane a few years ago, but Mr. G. M. Davies has recently shewn that a clay-like mineral found in the pipes at Worms Heath* is halloysite, a mineral which differs from allophane in containing less silica and more combined water. The clay-like material of Shore Hill occurs under similar con­ ditions and in much the same state as the halloysite of Worms Heath and may be the same mineral. In all the pipes on Shore Hill many flint nodules in the clay­ with-flints exhibit a broad external zone of bleaching. Although this may be disguised by a thin layer of cortex stained red by infiltration of iron oxide from the surrounding red clay, when these nodules are broken open many are found to be whitered almost to the centre.
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