Bagshot Sands

Bagshot Sands, a series of sands of Middle and Upper Eocene age, named from Bagshot Heath in north-west Surrey, where they cover a large area. They are variously coloured and generally unfossiliferous, but include bands of clay and lignite, which contain tapir-like animals, turtles. crocodiles, sea-snakes, sharks, numerous marine shells, and land plants indicating tropical conditions. They form three divisions: the Lower, 100 to 150 feet thick in the London basin, 660 feet in the Isle of Wight, and at Bournemouth and Studland; the Middle, less than 100 feet in the London basin, and represented by the thicker fossiliferous Bracklesham beds in Sussex, Hants, and Dorset; and the Upper, over 100 feet thick in the London area, but represented by the Barton Clay, 300 feet thick, in Hampshire.