307
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB—REPORTS OF
MEETINGS.
VISIT TO CHELMSFORD (656TH MEETING).
SATURDAY, 27TH APRIL, 1929.
A party of nearly forty members travelled down to Chelmsford by
motor coach, arriving thereat 11.30 o'clock, and were joined by other local
members, the combined party totalling nearly sixty persons. Here, too,
the day's leaders, Messrs. H. Mothersole, G. W. Saunders and F. W.
Thorrington, duly met the visitors and assumed their charge.
After refreshment at some nearby cafes the entire party walked out of
the city about a mile to visit Beach's Clay Pits at Writtle : here those
interested in geological matters busied themselves with an examination
of the section, whilst others of botanical tastes went on a short ramble in
the neighbouring fields in search of wild flowers.
The section in the Clay Pits showed some 5 feet of bedded river-gravel
overlain by 2 to 4 feet of brickearth. A small trial-digging below the
gravel revealed dark grey Chalky Boulder Clay, whether in situ or redistri-
buted is not yet proved, which it is intended to work for "gault bricks"
after the overlying gravel has been worked off. Mr. Mothersole has found
a Mousterian flake in the gravel, and on the occasion of our visit the
President picked up a good core in the pit : in the near neighbourhood a
portion of mammoth-tusk has been found in the gravel, which is clearly
Valley Gravel laid down by the rivers Can and Wid.
Leaving the pit the section (now sloped) formed by a recent widening of
the Roxwell Road was examined ; it shows several small patches of Chalky
Boulder Clay material redistributed in hollows on the brickearth. A pit
or trench, probably of Romano-British date, containing burnt earth and
fragments of dark-grey pottery, was noticed in the brickearth.
At 1.15 o'clock the visitors arrived at Mr. Mothersole's residence,
Warren House, and received a very warm welcome from our host and
Mrs. Mothersole. Lunch was taken in the delightful garden, which,
notwithstanding the late season this spring, seemed to have specially
hastened to "say it with flowers" in honour of our visit, at all events,
flowers were much more forward here than we had expected. The old
red brick wall bounding Mr. Mothersole's little Paradise was covered with
lichens in good fruiting condition—a sure sign of the purity of the atmos-
phere—the following being noted : Xanthoria parietina, Candelariella
vitellina, Lecanora galactina, Diploschistes scruposus, and Buellia canescens.
After lunch the visitors were shown Mr. and Mrs. Mothersole's wonderful
collection of bygone domestic utensils, costumes, jewellery, prehistoric
specimens, etc., which makes the house a veritable museum. Considerable
time was spent in the inspection of this varied collection, which appealed
to so many diverse tastes, and it was with difficulty that some of the
more interested individuals could be dragged away from its contemplation.
At 3 o'clock a specially chartered omnibus conveyed the party back
into Chelmsford, where the cathedral was the first place visited. Here
the visitors were met by Mr. Wykeham Chancellor, F.R.I.B.A., the