The Stratigraphy of the Albian Beds at Leighton Buzzard

Abstract

The unusually interesting Albian beds exposed in the neighbourhood of Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire have been the subject of descriptive papers by Lamplugh and Walker (1903), Kitchin and Pringle (1920), and Lamplugh (1922), as well as a number of short notes and excursion reports. These papers give details of the stratigraphy of the Leighton Sands, the overlying Gault, and the extraordinary beds which occur in between them round Shenley Hill. Many of the ammonites from the “regularis nodules” of Billington Crossing, south of the town, were described by Spath (1922–1943). He also referred, in the same work, to a number of Upper Albian forms from the Nodule Bed at the base of the Upper Gault on Shenley Hill. Our own collecting, carried out intermittently since 1937, has produced many new records, including several new species, and recent work has enabled us to amplify the stratigraphical picture given by the authors mentioned above. The present paper deals only with the stratigraphy but we hope that it will be followed by papers on several elements of the fauna.