Excursion to Kew Gardens, Richmond, and Kingston Hill. Saturday, June 12th, 1880 - Geologists' Association excursion

From: A record of excursions made between 1860 and 1890. Edited by Thomas Vincent Holmes , F.G.S. and C. Davies Sherborn, F.G.S. London: Edward Stanford [For the Geologists’ Association], 1891. Source: Cornell University copy on the Internet Archive (Public domain work)

Directors: Sir Joseph D. Hooker, C.B., F.R.S., and J. Logan Lobley, F. G.S. (Proc. Vol. vi. p. 370.)

Sir J. D. Hooker conducted the party through several of the houses and the most interesting parts of the gardens.

On leaving the gardens Mr. Lobley conducted the party by Richmond Green, the old tilting yard of the great historical palace of Richmond, or Sheen, as it was in olden times called, to the "Hill," where, with the Survey maps of the district spread on the ground, the physical features of the portion of the Thames Valley, seen from this commanding eminence, were pointed out. Though the atmosphere was not very clear, the towers of Windsor, marking the commencement of the Western Chalk, were made out, but the elevations of London Clay, on the northern side of the valley, could not be seen. The steep declivity of Richmond Hill, and the somewhat elevated and undulating country on the Surrey side of the valley in this district, are in marked contrast to the broad flat of river gravel forming a considerable portion of the county of Middlesex on the other side of the river. The higher land on the Surrey side is London Clay, covered, for the most part, by High-level Gravels, and in some places by Bagshot Sand, while the low lands of Middlesex present an almost unbroken sheet of Low-level Gravels and Brickearths covering London Clay. These Brickearths are most extensively worked near the Great Western Railway in the neighbourhood of Southall and other places.

Proceeding through the Park a gravel-pit, near the Thatched House Lodge, claimed attention as an interesting indication of the presence of the Bagshot Sand. Another outlier of these beds was passed on Kingston Hill, where an old pottery affords a somewhat unsatisfactory exposure.

Higher up the hill, and near the "George and Dragon", an extensive excavation displays a very fine section of the High-level Gravel, which was examined with great interest, and explained by the Director, who drew attention to the presence of pebbles derived from various and distant rocks, although the great bulk of the gravel is composed of subangular and rounded flint from the Chalk. Ragstone and chert pebbles from the Greensand are common, while subangular quartz pebbles are by no means rare, and others are met with which are doubtless from Silurian rocks.

References

Maps

Ordnance Survey. Geological. Sheets 7 and 8. 8s. 6d. each.

New Ordnance Survey. Sheet 270. 1s.