Excursion to Hastings. 22nd of April 1862 - 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) |
(Report by The Rev. Alfred Deck, M.A., F.G.S.) (Proc. Vol. i. p. 248.)
On Thursday, the 22nd of April, about fifty members spent some hours in examining the geology of the Hastings Cliffs. The services of a guide having been secured, attention was first directed to the Castle Hill Rock, showing about go feet of nearly pure white friable sandrock, false-bedded, on the top of which was stated to be a bed of shale, containing Endagenites erosa, but owing to the excavations for sand, the shale is now very much cut away.
Near the Chapel and Lifeboat Station of the Fisherman's Town, is a spring in the sandstone, the water coming through a pipe which has within the last few years been driven into the rock. Beneath this conduit is a bed of lignite, continued from behind the Castle Chapel and Pelham Crescent. Close to this spot are the curious caves formed in the sandrock about 200 feet above the beach. Proceeding eastward, the shingle no longer acts as a barrier, and the weather and sea wear away the rocks. Here the bare cliffs exhibit about 100 feet of sandrock covered with shales and limestone, and more yellow sandrock. The limestone is a thin deposit, and is the bluish-grey building-stone of the neighbourhood. It is the "calciferous grit" of Webster and Mantell, being sand hardened by carbonate of lime. Amongst the shales Endagenites seems to occur in great abundance. Under the white sandrock there are three or four beds of rock containing a quantity of ironstone and small seams of false coal, with shales between; these seem gradually to die away towards the east. Beneath this bedded rock are marls and shales, in which Mr. Beckles and others have discovered fine specimens of ferns. Beneath this again are beds of clay passing down to the beach, one of which is excavated for pipeclay. Eastward are still lower beds, consisting of hard irony shale; these are soon obscured by the landslip at Ecclesbourne Glen. On the beach some capital specimens of lignite and ironstone were met with, the latter containing iron in such quantity as formerly to have rendered it worth the working as an ore of that metal. Up the glen are mottled clay beds. The sandstone rocks show excellent examples of weathering, and if these rocks are followed up still further to the eastward, the lignites and clays pass into a large series of purple clay of unknown thickness, with irregular bands of rock, arching upwards at Lee Ness, and forming the whole face at Goldbury Point. They then assume their low form again, and at Cliff End, after a well-marked fault, are succeeded by sands and sandstones, such as are seen at West Hill or Castle Hill. Up in the country these sands seem to be covered by other beds, possibly between zoo and 300 feet thick, before we get to the Weald Clay.
The members then went to the Mayor's house to examine the large footprint of the Iguanodon which the recent fall of the cliff near the town had brought to light.