Excursion to Blackheath and Charlton. July 1st, 1876 - 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)

Director—Professor J. Morris, F.G.S. (Proc., Vol. iv. p. 557.)

Leaving Blackheath Station the party-walked across the Heath to the southeast corner of the plateau, and at the edge of one of the gravel-pits gathered round the Director, who explained the geology of the district. After pointing out the characters of the pebbles composing the so-called "Oldhaven Beds," on which they stood (Proc. Vol. iv. p. 498), Professor Morris stated that these great accumulations of shingle occupied a large area in Kent, forming the plateau of Blackheath, Lessness Heath, and Plumstead Common, as well as the hills of Shirley, and much of the ground about Bromley and. Chiselhurst. The great fault running east and west along the southern side of the Thames, where the ground begins to rise from the alluvial flats, throws down the Lower Eocene beds; and the Chalk (above the 'river-level at Lewisham and Charlton) is more than 120 feet below the surface of the flat land by the river at the Naval College, Greenwich, and probably correspondingly deep below the marshy land of the northern side of this part of the Thames Valley. The escarpment parallel with the fault is capped for the most part by the Pebble-beds, and is indented by small ravines cut by the water issuing at the junction of these porous beds with the clayey Woolwich Beds below. [No additional details of the Charlton sections are given in any subsequent report, but some are referred to in Dr. Lavis's paper mentioned below.]

From: Kent: Lewisham, Blackheath, and Charlton. [The sections at Lewisham and Charlton have generally been visited on the same day, and may therefore be conveniently grouped together here. The first excursion to Charlton took place on August 13th, 1860, and the report of its occurrence occupies four lines in the Proceedings (vol. i. p. 64). The first visit to Loampit Hill, Lewisham, was made in 1868, during the suspension of issue of the. Proceedings, while excursions were made to Charlton in 1866 and 1869, of which no report appeared. The Loampit Hill sections were inspected on May 7th, 1870 (Proc., vol. ii., p. 33), and again on April 25th, 1874, particulars of which follow.]