The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

WHITE LIMESTONE FORMATION
Computer Code: WHL  Status Code: FORMAL, NATIONAL 
Preferred Map Code: WhL 
Age or Age Range: [ JN ] BATHONIAN  to [  ]  
Lithological Description:
A pale grey to off-white or yellowish limestone, peloidal wackestone and packstone with subordinate ooidal and shell fragmental grainstones, recrystallised limestone and/or hardgrounds at some levels with rare sandy limestone, argillaceous limestone, marl and mudstone or clay. 
Definition of Lower Boundary:
The base of the described peloidal wackestone, packstone or grainstone, overlying marls or fine-grained ooidal grainstones of the Hampen Formation or Rutland Formation. 
Definition of Upper Boundary:
Generally a sharp, erosive boundary, with a cross-bedded shell-fragmental ooidal limestone of the Forest Marble Formation or mudstone of the Forest Marble Formation. 
Thickness:
Up to 30 m, and typically 20 m thick in the type area. 
Geographical Limits:
The Stroud to Cirencester area, where it passes south-westwards into the Athelstan Oolite Formation, and north-eastward through Oxon and Bucks to the Brackley area, where it passes north and east into the Blisworth Limestone Formation. 
Parent Unit: Parent Unit Code:
GREAT OOLITE GROUP  GOG
Previous Name(s): Previous Code(s):
WHITE LIMESTONE  WLM 
BLISWORTH LIMESTONE  BWL 
GREAT OOLITE LIMESTONE   
Alternative Name(s):
none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Type Section  Shipton-on-Cherwell Quarry 
Reference Section  Ardley Railway Cutting. 
Type Area  From Woodstock to Ardley, in the Cherwell Valley, north of Oxford. 
Reference(s):
Cox, B M, and Sumbler, M G. 2002. British Middle Jurassic stratigraphy. Geological Conservation Review Series, Vol.26. (Peterborough: Joint Nature Conservation Committee.) 
Barker, M J, 1976. A stratigraphical, palaeoecological and biometrical study of some English Bathonian gastropoda (especially Nerinacea). (University of Keele: Unpublished PhD thesis). 
Arkell, W J, 1931. The Upper Great Oolite, Bradford Beds and Forest Marble of south Oxfordshire, and the succession of gastropod faunas in the Great Oolite. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol.87,p. 563-629. 
Palmer, T J, 1979. The Hampen Marly and White Limestone formations: Florida-type carbonate lagoons in the Jurassic of central England. Palaeontology, Vol.22, 189-228. 
Richardson, L, Arkell, W J and Dines, H G. 1946. Geology of the country around Witney. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. Sheet 236 ( England and Wales). 
Sumbler, M G, 1984. The stratigraphy of the Bathonian White Limestone and Forest Marble formations of Oxfordshire. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, Vol.95, 51-64. 
Arkell, W J, Richardson, L and Pringle, J, 1933. The Lower Oolites exposed in the Ardley-Fritwell railway cuttings, between Bicester and Banbury, Oxford. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, Vol.44, 340-354. 
Sumbler, M G, Barron, A J M and Morigi, A N, 2000. Geology of the Cirencester district. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheet 235 (England and Wales). 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
Map Code Sheet Name
E  235
E  236
E  237
E  219
E  218
E  217
E  234

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