The small complex of Lower, Middle, and Upper Devonian rocks which occupies a mile by half a mile, immediately south of Paignton, lies between Goodrington and Broadsands. The sequence and structure are well seen in the cliffs and the railway-cutting, but farther inland there is a lack of good exposures. The topography of the area is influenced by the geology in a marked manner. The Massive Limestone forms the high ground on the south and south-east, ending in a steep escarpment. The igneous intrusion with the overthrust limestone forms a remarkably steep-sided, conical hill—the Sugar Loaf. The deep valley between the two hills has been cut in the soft shales and associated tuffs of Upper Devonian age.
The locality is of special interest, since it was here that the Upper Devonian was first recognized in South Devon by Mr. J. E. Lee in 1877 (7).
Since Lee's paper, nothing worthy of mention has been published concerning the beds, except that included in the map and memoir of the district by W. A. E. Ussher (16). Concerning the literature of the area prior to Lee's paper, there is little to mention. De La Beche in 1835 (2) mentions Saltern Cove, and records the occurrence there of altered limestone, shale, and trap. Etheridge in 1867 (4) suggested the probability of the presence of Upper Devonian near Newton Bushel. Holl in 1868 (5), if we may judge from his map, places the shales and the volcanic rocks in his Lower South Devon Group
I. Introduction
The Upper Devonian rocks under consideration occupy a small portion of the area of the 1-inch geological map (Sheet 339). They occur as small faulted inliers on the north-eastern side of the Bovey basin in a region otherwise occupied by Culm overlain by Permian and Cretaceous strata. The main (Chudleigh) outcrop, which is a mile across at its widest part, extends from the neighbourhood of Harcombe to Chudleigh Rocks—a distance of
about 3½ miles. East of this outcrop, and on the same latitude as Chudleigh, is the small triangular patch of Lower Dunscombe, and farther south lies the much larger but partially concealed Ugbrooke-Well inlier, which appears on the map as three detached outcrops. The nearest edge of the Dartmoor granite
lies about 2½ miles to the west. The Devonian inliers include the upper part of the Massive Limestone of South Devon thrust over thinly bedded limestones and shales. The Massive Limestone is here shown to be Lower Frasnian and the thinly bedded limestones and shales Upper Frasnian and Famennian respectively. The Kate Brook, the main stream in the area, has cut its valley along the main outcrop of the Famennian shales. The lowest part of the valley lies below the 100-foot contour. The Massive Limestone flanks the depression on the east, rising to 300 or 400 feet; the surrounding Culm forms undulating ground 400 to 500 feet high. The Permian with its Cretaceous capping rises to 700 feet in the north-east.
My thanks are due to Lord
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