The Upper Estuarine Series of Northamptonshire and Northern Oxfordshire

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Abstract
In Northamptonshire, between the Lincolnshire Limestone and the Great Oolite Limestone in the north-eastern part of the county, and between the Northampton Sand (or the Lower Estuarine Beds) and the Great Oolite Limestone in all other parts of the county, occurs a series of variable beds, largely variegated clays containing abundance of vegetable matter of probably freshwater origin, interspersed with brackish-water beds and with distinctly marine beds. To this aggregate J. W. Judd, in 1867, gave the name ‘Upper Estuarine Series’, which he then thought represented the Stonesfield Slate or Lower Zone of the Great Oolite of the more south-westerly parts of England, Oxfordshire in particular. In Northern Oxfordshire, between certain Inferior Oolite Limestones or White Sands (the time-equivalents of the Lincolnshire Limestone), or ferruginous sands (the equivalents of the Variable Beds of the Northampton Sand or even the ironstone series) below, and the Great Oolite Limestone above, occurs a series of beds which in various parts physically, and in others palæontologically, agree, as does the complete set in sequential position, with the Upper Estuarine Series of Northamptonshire. It is an important object of this part of the paper to show how the Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire sections at this geological horizon may be more definitely correlated. The name ‘Upper Estuarine’ is retained for the complete series in both counties as free from the complication of an incomplete local place-name (Chipping Norton Limestone Series) and an incomplete and unsatisfactory palæontological one (Neæran Beds). In attempting to correlate a variable set of

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