Excursion to Sheppey, Monday, May 23rd, 1881 - 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) |
Note: [Sheppey was first visited by the Association in 1861. (Proc., vol. i. p. 166.) The next excursion there took place in 1868, while the publication of Proceedings was suspended. The third excursion, on June 7th, 1875, is reported at some length (Proc., vol. iv. p. 320.) A fourth visit was made on May 23rd, 1881, and a short account of it appears in Proc., vol. vii. p. 149. Sheppey was also the scene of another excursion in 1887, a record of which appears in the excursion, or November, number for that year. The following account is derived from the reports of the visits in 1875 and 1881.]
Excursion to Sheppey, Monday, May 23rd, 1881
Director: W. H. Shrubsole, F.G.S. (Proc. Vol. vii. p. 149.)
The members were met at Sheerness station by the Director. After a pleasant drive of about nine miles, via Minster and Eastchurch, the cliff edge at Warden Point was reached. Six years before, when the Association visited this spot [see preceding report], the church was standing in dangerous proximity to the cliff. Since then it has been pulled down, and the materials have been removed to prevent them descending to the shore. The Director, in the course of a short address, spoke of the extensive waste of land that had occurred during the thirty years he had known the locality. He also called attention to the fact that whilst the fruits of endogens were very abundant, the fossil wood that came from the clay was exogenous. The absence of the endogenous wood might be accounted for by its incoherent fibrous structure, which probably caused it to float until &composition took place. Getting down to the foot of the cliff, fossils were eagerly looked for amongst the shingle, pyrites, and fragments of septaria scattered on the beach and foreshore. Wood bored by Teredo was observed to be in abundance, and shark's teeth, crabs, and fruits were found. The best specimen was a fairly good chelonian. After a rough and slippery walk of five miles, the cliff-top was regained near East End Lan; where a good section of the Lower Bagshot Sand was examined; the junction with the London Clay below was found to be quite sharp and well-defined. Here, also, the changes that had taken place between the two visits of the Association pointed to the conclusion that the land-area of Sheppey had, even in these six years, been considerably lessened.
References
Maps
Ordnance Survey. Geological. Sheets 2 (4s.) and 3 (8s. 6d.).
New Ordnance Survey. Sheets 272, 273. each.
Books
W. Whitaker, "The Geology of the London Basin," 8vo. London (Geol. Survey), 1872. [For literature.] 135.
H. B. Woodward, "Geology of England and Wales," ed. 2. 8vo. London, 1887.
J. S. Gardner, "Notes on the London Clay and its Deposition," Proc. Geol. Assoc., vol. x. (1887), pp. 115-122.