Welsh Journals

EXCAVATIONS AT TITTERSTONE CLEE HILL CAMP SHROPSHIRE, 1932. By B. H. ST. J. O'NEIL. A. TITTERSTONE AND ITS ENVIRONS. CONSPICUOUS amongst the highlands of South Shropshire, the Clee Hills are the highest land in England between the Pennines and Dartmoor. The highest point on these hills was Abdon BurP on Brown Clee Hill (1,790 feet) the summit of Titterstone Clee Hill, some eight miles to the south, is 1,749 feet above sea level. These hills are of volcanic origin, being the very weathered remains of a once considerable basalt stratum which overlay the Devonian old red sandstone. To-day the basalt exists only as a very small cap to Brown Clee, but in the Titterstone area it is extensive and usually provides employment for some hundreds of quarry workers. For this basalt or Dhu Stone, as it is locally known2 from its colour, is one of the best road metals in the country. The present writer has had the benefit of advice from Dr. R. W. Pocock, of the Geological Survey. He finds herein confirmation of his contention3 that the Midland Basalts are not intrusive but that they are of Coal Measure Age. At Titterstone, as visible in the East End Quarry, the basalt overlies the Middle Coal Measures beneath this is the Cornbrook Sandstone which forms the bed of Shirley Brook. The basalt is overlaid by a sedimentary deposit of the Upper Coal Measures. These latter usually take the form of a very close grained sandstone, yellow in colour at the top and silver grey at a lower level. Although not always the actual top of the subsoil, it was usually taken as a convenient horizon during the excavation. In some instances it was used in prehistoric times (e.g. the road approaching the main entrance and the floor of the east Guardhouse). Another natural feature of these hills has a direct bearing on the name, Clee. The deposits of the Upper Coal Measures have been almost entirely weathered off Titterstone Clee. They exist only on 1 Quarrying has, doubtless, reduced its height. This, also, was crowned by a camp similar to the one about to be discussed. It has, however, been completely quarried away. (Shrops. Arch. Trans., 1929, pp. 85 ff.) A similar camp on Clee Burf, 2 miles S of Abdon Burf, was practically destroyed earlier still by coal workings. Only about 25 yards of its rampart, a close parallel to that at Titterstone, remains. 2 Welsh Du (Ddu). 3Geol. Soc. Quart. J., 1930 (c.).