Publications
On Supposed Casts of Footprints in the Wealden, by S. H. Beckles, published January 1851 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 7, issue 1-2, article, p.117) View Online
Abstract:Certain large trifid bodies, presenting a resemblance to the casts of the impressions of birds' feet, are rather numerous in the cliffs to the east and west of Hastings (from the latter locality Mr. Beckles has obtained eight specimens), in a limestone containing Cyrencæ, remains of Lepidotus, &c., and Dr. Mantell has discovered a specimen in the Wealden of the Isle of Wight.
On the Ornithoidichnites of the Wealden, by S. H. Beckles, published January 1852 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 8, issue 1-2, article, pp.396-397) View Online
Abstract:Since the publication in January 1851 of the notice of the peculiar trifid bodies occurring in the Hastings rock, the author has added several specimens to his collection, some of which appear to afford additional evidence in favour of the opinion of their being natural casts of the prints of birds' feet.
On the lowest strata of the cliffs at Hastings, by S.H. Beckles, published January 1856 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 12, issue 1-2, article, pp.288-292) View Online
Abstract:The strata of which this communication is intended to be a very brief notice form the base of that range of cliff which extends from Hastings to Cliff End.
The group that I am about to describe consists of sandstone and clays, remarkable for their great diversity of hue, and are subordinate to those beds of conglomeratic shale and ironstone which Mr. Webster has described as the lowest strata visible in the series. They are supplemental, therefore, to the strata comprised, or intended to be comprised, in that author's notice. At the date, however, of his Memoir they were partially disclosed, although perhaps not at those detached points where he traced his lowest strata.
Mr. Webster, in speaking of the strata to the east of Hastings, remarks, that "the lowest strata visible in this series consist of a dark-coloured shale (m, m), which is seen at the Govers and at Cliff End, and contain small roundish masses of sandstone, together with several layers (two of them from two to three inches thick) of rich argillaceous iron-ore." On the west of Eaglesbourne this last bed rises, in an arch, to the height of about twelve feet and then descends to the east. At Cliff End it reappears, and may be traced at low-water, forming a ledge.
The group that I am about to describe consists of sandstone and clays, remarkable for their great diversity of hue, and are subordinate to those beds of conglomeratic shale and ironstone which Mr. Webster has described as the lowest strata visible in the series. They are supplemental, therefore, to the strata comprised, or intended to be comprised, in that author's notice. At the date, however, of his Memoir they were partially disclosed, although perhaps not at those detached points where he traced his lowest strata.
Mr. Webster, in speaking of the strata to the east of Hastings, remarks, that "the lowest strata visible in this series consist of a dark-coloured shale (m, m), which is seen at the Govers and at Cliff End, and contain small roundish masses of sandstone, together with several layers (two of them from two to three inches thick) of rich argillaceous iron-ore." On the west of Eaglesbourne this last bed rises, in an arch, to the height of about twelve feet and then descends to the east. At Cliff End it reappears, and may be traced at low-water, forming a ledge.