Sedimentary Geology, 33 (1983) 237-293

237

Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands

STUDIES IN FLUVIATILE SEDIMENTATION: BARS, BAR-COMPLEXES

AND SANDSTONE SHEETS (LOW-SINUOSITY BRAIDED STI~EAMS) IN
THE BROWNSTONES (L. DEVONIAN), WELSH BORDERS

J.R.L. A L L E N

Dept. of Geology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 2AB (Great Britain)
(Received March 12, 1982; revised and accepted September 27, 1982)

ABSTRACT
Allen, J.R.L., 1983. Studies in fluviatile sedimentation: bars, bar-complexes and sandstone sheets
(low-sinuosity braided streams) in the Brownstones (L. Devonian), Welsh Borders. Sediment. Geol.,
33: 237-293.
The fine to very coarse sandstones, gravelly sandstones and intraformational conglomerates of the mid
to upper Brownstones are excellently exposed in large fresh road cuttings near Ro~s-on-Wye in the
southern Welsh Borders. Detailed mapping of the cuttings reveals an hierarchically ordered system of
mainly erosional bedding contacts which divide the beds into hierarchically structured packets. The
smallest packets, involving cross-bedded or plane-bedded sediments or combinations of these, are
consis,ent with deposition from strongly three-dimensional and often large, loosely periodic to non-repetitive bars. A locally developed facies of trough cross-bedded sandstones points to the infrequent
occurrence of fields of three-dimensional dunes. The bar- and dune-related units are grouped into large
complexes (related to the storeys of other workers), with an internal geometry consistent with lateral
accretion (in places clearly symmetrical) combined with forward accretion on shoals (sand flats) within a
braided channel, as in the South Saskatchewan River. In their turn, the complexs are combined into
laterally extensive, conglomerate-floored sandstone sheets several metres thick. These seem to express the
wandering of a braided cha~anel across a mud-draped floodplain. To judge from the sedimentary
stractures and textures, the thickness of the lateral accretion deposits, and the size of the major scours, the
bankfull discharge of the rivers was a few thousand cumecs each.

INTRODUCTION

The enthusiasm shown by sedimentologists for the analysis of fluvial formations

using one-dimensional vertical profiles (reviews by Miall, 1977, 1978a, b) has not
been matched in the light of experience by an equal success in the interpretation of
ancient river types and behavioural patterns (Collision, 1978; Jackson, 1978; Friend
et al., 1979). Channel behaviour and type can practically never be predicted
unambiguously from vertical sequences, if only because each kind of stream is
capable of generating a wide variety of local sedimentological patterns.
0037-0738/83/0000-0000/$03.00

1983 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company

238

In the search for unequivocal criteria, attention has gradually shifted toward the
shape and larger-scale internal geometry of fluvial sandstone bodies. Lateral accretion bedding (epsilon cross-stratification) is a gross structure that seems distinctive
of high-sinuosity streams, provided it is sufficiently extensive laterally and is
symmetrically disposed within the body as a whole. Pre-Quaternary examples of this
structure have been known for some time (Allen, 1965; Moody-Stuart, 1966; Beutner
et al., 1967; Cotter, 1971; Puigdefabrigas, 1973; review by Jackson, 1978) and
descriptions are becoming increasingly detailed (e.g. Puigdefabrigas and Van Vliet,
1978; Stewart, 1981; Allen and Matter, 1982). A less well known but seemingly
equally informative structure is a gross bedding defined by planar but more
generally concave-up and intersecting erosional surfaces. This lenticular or multistorey style of internal geometry is being increasingly recognised from fluvial
sandstone bodies, and is commonly taken to imply low-sinusosity streams (Leeder,
1973; Campbell, 1976; Nami and Leeder, 1978; Friend et al., 1979: Stear, 1980;
Tunbridge, 1981). However, our knowledge of the style has so far been rather
generalised, and detailed descriptions and comparisons are lacking.
This paper gives a detailed account of numerous well-exposed fluvial sandstone
bodies with a lenticular gross internal geometry. They occur in the Brownstones
(Siegenian-Emsian, L. Devonian) near the top of the Lower Old Red Sandstone in
the Forest of Dean, southern Welsh Borders, The bodies reveal an hierarchy of
bedding features in both strike and dip sections. They are individually sheet-like, but
consist of interlocking lenticular complexes, which themselves comprise usually a
substantial number of sedimentation units, many composed of more than one facies.
Amongst these units, a range of bar forms is recognizable, and most of the
complexes seem to record a limited lateral accretion. Braided sand-bed streams of
little sinuosity are implicated, on account of the evidence that the lateral accretion,
which is locally symmetrical, took place on sand flats.
STRATIGRAPHY A N D GENERAL SEDIMENTOLOGY

The Lower Old Red Sandstone (Post-Ludlow to Emsian) in the Forest of Dean
(Trotter, 1942; Welch and Trotter, 1961; Allen and Dineley, 1976) is a red-bed
magnafacies approximately 2.2 km thick overlain unconformably by the Famennian
(U. Devonian) Quartz Conglomerate and Tintern Sandstone Group (Figs. la, 2).
The Townsend Tuff B e d - - a basin-wide marker tuff taken as the local Silurian-Devonian boundary stratotype--is known only from the Monmouth area (Allen and
Williams, 1981), but probably occurs within a covered interval in the important Ross
Spur Motorway sequence to the northeast (Allen and Dineley, 1976, their fig. 2
between Sections D and F).
The succession consists largely of a variety of fluvial facies, derived from the
northwest and north (Fig. 2). The source rocks were at first regional metamorphics
at a substantial distance, contributing abundant phyllite and schist grains and large

239

(o)

(b)

Profiles I,

M.50

Profiles 7, I0,11

~ Ross-on-Wye
7
Profile 3

Ross-on-Wye

~,Fores; of Deon
Profile 2

km

I00

km

Holly Mount
Form

(c)

(d)

Profile 2

Profll~

Court

I 0
I

2oo

p, "

Profile 5
Profile )

250

~ Profile 9

\ Profile 8

Phocle
Green
S

Profile 7
/ Profile II

'~

(f )

Rudt

Profile 4
~,

O=

200~

OL m

200,

Fig. 1. Location of profiles in the Brownstones recording low-sinuosity sand-bed streams. (a) Forest of
Dean in relation to Wales; (b) location of road cuttings in the Ross-on-Wye area; (c-f) large-scale maps
locating profiles within road cuttings.

240

TINTERN SANDSTONE (lOOm)

Shallow marine

ii

0-~

Low~sinuosity streams
QUARTZ CONGLOMERATE (~0 m)
Low-sinuosity s t r e a m s _ _ _ _
Unconformity

(~

L OR S incorporated into source area

BROWNSTONES (1200m]
Low-sinuosity sand-bed streams
k..
%

ST MAUGHAN'S GROUP (650 m)

Low-sinuosity and hiqh-sinuosity streams

C~
~)

I.

RAGLAN MARL GROUP (395 m)

Mixed

tidal-fluvial

,,,j

Intertidal
Littoral-marine (CMB)
~

Mudstone

Calcrete

L_~J

Air-fall tuff

Sandstone

Conqlomerate ~ Upward-coarsening ~ Upward-fining

~

CMB-Clifford's Mesne Beds

Lateral accretion bedding

TTB- Townsend Tuff Bed

PL-Psommosteous

Lst.

Fig. 2. Summary of stratigraphy and environmental succession in the Old Red Sandstone of the Forest of
Dean (based on Trotter, 1942; Welch and Trotter, 1961; Allen and Dineley, 1976; Allen and Williams,
1981).

mica flakes (Raglan Marl Group), but later (St. Maughan's Group, Brownstones)
were assorted Lower Palaeozoic sediments and volcanics nearby (Allen, 1974a, b).
Like its correlatives throughout South Wales and the Welsh Borders, the Lower Old

241

Red Sandstone in the Forest of Dean coarsens upward overall, from the mudstonedominated Raglan Marl Group, with early marine influences, to the coarse fluvial
sandstones with exotic pebbles of the uppermost Brownstones. This upward trend,
terminated by the sub-Famennian unconformity, indicates a gradual southward
offlapping migration of fluvial environmental belts, in response to the increasing
tempo of early-mid Devonian folding (Allen, 1974c, 1979; Tunbridge, 1981). Lowsinuosity rivers seem to have dominated the proximal alluvial plain, whereas
high-sinuosity streams were common in the more distal areas.
LOCALITIES A N D F I E L D METHODS

The sandstone bodies are described from eleven representative two-dimensional

vertical profiles measured from the middle to upper Brownstones, as exposed in four
mostly recent road cuttings near the town of Ross-on-Wye (Fig. 1).
The most southerly cutting, yielding profile 2 (British National Grid Reference
No. SO 567 223), lies on the northwest side of the A.40(T) road near Glewstone (Fig.
lc). Profile 3 (SO 597 241) comes from the cutting beneath the Royal Hotel in
Ross-on-Wye, at the northeastern end of a long cliff on the southeast side of the
A.40(T) road (Wilton Road) (Fig. ld). The somewhat similar beds at the southwestern end of the cliff were described elsewhere (Allen, 1971, 1974a). A long cutting
(Fig. le) where Brampton Road crosses the A.449(T) road north of Ross-on-Wye
gave profiles 1 (SO 599 251), 5 (SO 599 252), 8 (SO 600 252) and 9 (SO 600 252) on
the northwest face, and Profiles 4 (SO 601 253) and 6 (SO 600 252) on the southeast
side. Profiles 7 (SO 623 257), 10 (SO 625 257) and 11 (SO 624 257) come from a
deep cutting on the Ross Spur Motorway M50 near Phocle Green (Fig. l f). Distance
along the profiles taken from A-class roads is given relative to bridges, road
junctions, and distinctive traffic signs. Position on the Motorway is given relative to
the marker By-posts, labelled in kilometres and tenths, and further distinguished
here according as they lie on the south (S) or north (N) side (e.g. By-post 33.8 km
N).
The cuttings were mapped at various times from 1966 onwards, after there had
been sufficient weathering to bring out the detailed bedding, but before serious
degradation and spread of vegetation. There was virtually complete exposure of the
rocks. The profiles (Figs. 15-17) were prepared as follows. Overlapping photographic negatives were taken at a uniform reduction from the appropriate part of
each cutting, a metre scale being included in as many frames as possible. Uniformly
enlarged photographic prints measuring about 0.25 by 0.16 m were made from each
set and attached to removable overlays of transparent cellulose acetate film of the
kind used for limestone peels. With each print serving as a map, bedding contacts
(chiefly erosional discontinuities), details of internal lamination, lithological information and palaeocurrent data were recorded in the field on the overlays using 0.2
mm "Rapidograph" pens. Particular attention was paid to the mapping of bedding

242
contacts, for these are the keys to the structure of the sandstone bodies. As the
cuttings have steep to vertical sides, and ladders and ropes could not be used
because of traffic conditions, direct access was generally restricted to the first few
metres of rock above road level. However, once experience had been gained, the use
of a pair of powerful field glasses resulted in almost as much information as direct
access. It was least easy to assess palaeocurrent directions; few of the arrows shown
in the profiles are more precise than an octant. Little difficulty was later experienced
in drafting up a single, continuous profile from the set of overlapping photographs
and overlays. The discrepancies in the overlaps seldom represented more than
0.1-0.2 m on the rock face and in most instances were significantly less.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SANDSTONE BODIES
The field evidence comprises: (1) a range of lithologies, divisible among a number
of facies states; and (2) an hierarchical set of bedding contacts, particularly discordant erosional surfaces, which express the natural internal geometrical components
and constructional patterns of the sandstone bodies. Very few laminae and strata in
the Brownstones were deposited on a horizontal surface, and many have an
appreciable original depositional dip. In the present paper the term cross-bedded is
reserved to those laminae and strata with an original depositional dip steep enough
to have been caused by avalanching (i.e. a category of low-angle cross-stratification
is not recognised).

Facies states
Nine partly intergrading states are recognised, three involving conglomerate, five
consisting of sandstone, and one of mudstone. Most profiles furnish examples of
most facies states. The mudstone facies, however, is rare.
The mudstone-clast stringer facies (G i) is a single line of strung-out to crowded
intraformational red mudstone and calcretised mudstone clasts arranged along an
erosional bedding contact. Typically, the clasts are of pebble size, cobbles being
uncommon and small boulders rare. They may be confined to a limited part (1-2 m)
of the contact or may range over its full extent of several tens of metres. Cant and
Walker (1976) and Rust (1978) recognise a similar facies in other fluvial sandstones.
By an increase in the number of layers of clasts, the massive intraformational
conglomerate facies (G2) is achieved. The beds range between 0.15 and 1 m in
thickness and typically comprise a mixture of well-rounded pebbles, cobbles and
commonly boulders of red mudstone and calcretised mudstone, in a sparse to
moderately abundant matrix of very coarse to granule-grade quartz sandstone rich in
exotic pebbles. The larger boulders, some exceeding 1 m in diameter, stand proud
from the top of the bed, which ranges from sharp to gradational upward into
sandstones. The base is invariably erosional and normally markedly irregular, with

243
potholes and other scours up to several decimetres deep. Internal stratification is
obscure or lacking, although the clasts are locally well-imbricated and some sandstone wedges can be found. Some beds are restricted to localised scour holes,
whereas others are sheet-like and many metres wide.
The cross-bedded sandy conglomerate facies (G3) is widely represented, examples
from profile 1 (units 2 and 3) and profile 2 (unit 7) appear in Fig. 3. The beds range
in thickness from about 0.2 m to as much as 1.2 m, consisting of clasts of red
mudstone and calcretised mudstone set in an abundant matrix of pink to red coarse
to very coarse quartz sandstone with numerous granules and plentiful exotic pebbles.
The whole forms a single, solitary cross-bedding set, with a true dip (25-30 )
sufficiently steep as to imply avalanching. The base is invariably erosional, and may
also be markedly irregular, whereas the top is mostly an upward transition into
sandstone.
A cross-bedded pebbly sandstone facies (S l) arises from facies G 3 by an increase in
the proportion of sandstone matrix and decrease in the amount and calibre of the
intraformational clasts. It occurs in nearly every profile and in some outweighs all
other facies put together, notably profile 3 (e.g. units 8, 14, 22, 25 and 39) (Fig. 4).
The beds comprise pink to red coarse to very coarse sandstones containing rare to
common pebbles and locally small cobbles of intraformational mudstone and
calcretised mudstone, accompanied by plentiful quartz granules and small to occasionally large exotic pebbles. The range in thickness is from 0.15 to 1.1 m, each bed
representing a single, solitary cross-bedding set of avalanche origin. The base is
erosional and irregular, but seldom of such pronounced relief as in facies G 2 and G 3.
Many beds have an erosional top ranging over either the whole or a part (or parts) of
their lateral extent. A transitional top is normally succeeded by plane-bedded
sandstones.
Loss of gravel-size debris converts facies S l into the cross-bedded sandstone facies
($2), examples of which occur in many profiles. It is represented by fine to very
coarse grained red sandstones in the form of laterally extensive solitary cross-bedding sets typically 0.05-0.20 m thick but exceptionally reaching 0.35 m. The base is
invariably erosional, but more often smooth than irregular, whereas the top is a
transition into plane-bedded sandstones, the convex-up to sigrnoidal foresets gradually levelling out upward into topsets.
The trough cross-bedded sandstone facies (S3) appears to a small extent in several
profiles, but in profile 5 abounds (Fig. 5). It consists of grouped, trough-shaped
cross-bedding sets measuring in vertical transverse section from 0.5 to 5 m in width
and between 0.15 and 0.6 m in height. The cross-strata are markedly concave-up and
tangentially or concordantly related to the underlying bounding surfaces. The
lithologies present range from medium-grained red sandstones with scattered pebbles to sandstones that are pink or red, very coarse, and richly pebbly. A similar
fluvial facies is widely known (e.g. Cant and Walker, 1976; Rust, 1978).
A coarse plane-bedded sandstone facies (S4) is recognizable in most profiles (Fig. 4,

Fig. 4. Part of the sandstone sheet (between arrows) at approximately 23 m along profile 3 (SO 597 241)
depicted in Fig. 15. Scale is 1 m long.
Fig. 3. Sections nearly parallel with the depositional strike through composite-compound bars. (a) Bar
exposed at the extreme WSW end of profile l (SO 599 251) and composed of cross-bedded sandy
conglomerate (G3) overlain by coarse plane-bedded sandstone ($4); see also Fig. 15; (b) bar exposed in
profile 2 (SO 567 223) about 12 m along the section and composed of cross-bedded sandy conglomerate
(G3) with some coarse plane-bedded sandstone ($4). See also Fig. 15. Scale in a and b is 1 m long. A:
planar-convex minor contact; B: sigmoidal minor contact; C: discordant non-erosional minor contact.

246

Fig. 5. Locally pebbly trough cross-bedded sandstone (S3) at the extreme WSW end of the sandstone
sheet (between arrows) or profile 5 (SO 599 252) depicted in Fig. 16. Scale is 1 m long.

unit 9). It is represented by coarse to very coarse red sandstones with granules and
some pebbles, formed into laterally extensive parallel laminae typically several
millimetres thick and extending obliquely across beds ranging to more than a metre
in thickness. The laminae vary in shape from gently concave-up, through planar, to
convex-up, their original depositional dip reaching as steep as 22 . A coarse parting
lineation generally oriented obliquely across the strike of the lamination can be seen
in some exposures.
The fine plane-bedded sandstonefacies (S 5) is conspicuous in m a n y of the profiles.
G o o d examples are unit 15 of profile 3 (Fig. 4), and units 5, 6, 12 and 13 in profile 7
(Figs. 6 and 7). The facies occurs as tabular, wedge-shaped or lenticular beds locally
as much as 2 m thick. Texturally, fine and medium-grained red quartz sandstones
predominate, but very fine grained brown sandstones occur locally. Granules and
exotic pebbles are sparse to absent and intraformational debris also is scarce. The
sandstones display innumerable laterally extensive laminae 0.5-2 m m thick which in
favourable sections are seen to carry parting lineations on a fine to medium scale.
The laminae have the same range in shape as in facies $4 but generally dip less
steeply. The lineations normally are oblique to the strike of the more steeply inclined
laminae, but a strike-parallel relationship is locally common.
Facies S4 and S5 resemble Miall's (1977) and Rust's (1978) facies Sh and S1, but

Fig. 6. Mainly fine plane-bedded sandstones ($5) in the sandstone sheet (between arrows) of profile 7 (SO 623 257) about 10 m along the section (see also Fig.
16). Scale is 1 m long. Units 12 and 13 are suggested to lap against the side of a major channel form.

Fig. 7. Mainly fine-plane-bedded sandstones (S5 ) in the sandstone sheet (above arrows) of profile 7 (SO 623 257) at about 23 m along the section depicted in
Fig. 16. Scale is 1 m long.

249

differ in that substantially steeper maximum dips and a wider range of textures are
observed.
The rare mudstone facies (M) (Allen and Dineley, 1976, fig. 5) is represented by
red to massive, brown, sandy mudstones in laterally impersistent beds with a
maximum thickness of 1.2 m. Typically, the base is a transition up from sandstone
(fine or very fine grained), whereas the top invariably is irregular and erosional.
Some mudstone units were lightly calcretised, revealing bands of irregular concretions of impure calcite. Mudstones of these kinds--largely a ghost facies seldom
represented by preserved b e d s - - a r e unquestionably the source of the intraformational debris which abounds in the middle and upper Brownstones. A substantial
erosional remnant is preserved below profile 10 (Fig. 17). The sandstone sheet in
profile 8 rests in places on patches of mudstone.
Hierarchical set of bedding contacts

The idea that sandstone bodies are divisible internally into "packets" of genetically related strata by an hierarchically ordered set of bedding contacts has been
exploited sedimentologically for many years, although not always in an explicit
manner. For example, McKee and Weir (1953) distinguished the hierarchy of the
stratum, the set of strata, and the coset of sets of strata, bedding contacts being used
implicitly to separate these entities. Allen (1965, fig. 2) showed an hierarchical set of
bedding contacts, including a major or master bedding, in his model of laterally
accreted fluvial sandstone bodies. The concept of the bedding hierarchy is fully
explicit in Brookfield's (1977, 1979) analysis of the construction of aeolian sandstones.
Four kinds of bedding contact are known from the Brownstones. A concordant
non-erosional contact ("normal" bedding) arises when one stratum is deposited
parallel with and upon another lying either vertically below or laterally adjacent to
it, but without an intervening erosional episode. When strata are deposited in
sequence in such a way that they discordantly onlap but do not erode another
stratum older than the series, then a discordant non-erosional contact arises. Concordant erosional contacts are locally irregular and erosional but separate strata that are
parallel overall; a discordant erosional contact is a curved, planar or irregular surface
which transects a group of strata, separating them from a younger group of different
dip. These contacts form hierarchies by virtue of their order of transection.
Figure 8a depicts a hypothetical sandstone body of Brownstones type, its constituent facies and bedding-contact hierarchy, and the conventions used in the
profiles (Figs. 15-17). The ordinary non-erosional condordant bedding contacts
between strata or laminae in facies such as G 3, S 1 and S5 form the (zeroth) order of
bedding contact (Fig. 8b, c). First-order contacts bound such entities as individual
trough cross-bedding sets or bundles of plane-bedded laminae genetically associated
with cross-strata (Fig. 8a-c). Typically, these contacts are erosional and planar or

250

(,(,(,~a)--3 grou,p

~ a l

. . .

.....

<Z><

~Mudstone-clast
~Massive

stringers (G I)

Trough cross-bedded sandstone (S3)

introforrnationol conglomerate (G2)

~Cross-bedded

sandy conglomerate (G3)

~Cross-bedded

pebbly sandstone (S I)

~Cross-bedded

sandstone (S 2)
5- Position in depositional sequence
Order-number in contact hierarchy

Plane-bedded

sandstone

Mudstone (M)

Into face
Left ~

(e)

Right

"

'

"era.

"

"

"

'

b,~ Right

I Bedding
or cross-I bedding

Out of face

"

Into face
Left

Ib'l Parting
" I Iineation

"

($4, S5)

Out of face

"

"

Fig. 8. Schematic summary of the features of the sheet sandstones present in the Brownstones, together
with the conventions used in their diagrammatic representation. (a) Hierarchy of bedding contacts.
sedimentary facies and position of sedimentation units in depositional sequence; (b and c) hierarchy of
the lower-order bedding contacts; (d) features of composite-compound bars; (e) representation of
palaeocurrents.

concave-up. Second-order contacts (Fig. 8a) b o u n d clusters of s e d i m e n t a t i o n units of

the kinds delineated by first-order contacts. These groupings, here termed complexes,
comprise s e d i m e n t a t i o n units that are genetically related by facies a n d / o r palaeocurrent direction, a n d thus distinct from adjacent groupings. The complexes differ
from McKee a n d Weir's (1953) cosets, as more than one facies is usually involved,
but are like the "storeys" of F r i e n d et al. (1979). This term is not preferred, however,

251
as it gives, so far as the Brownstones are concerned, a misleading impression of the
spatial and temporal sequence and association of the complexes. The second-order
contacts, ranging from convex-up (rare), through planar (fairly common), to concave-up (very common), nonetheless resemble in shape and function their storeyscours, and may partly equate with the "truncation surfaces" of Cant (1978a). The
third-order contacts (Fig. 8a) divide groupings of complexes from each other and thus
define the sandstone bodies themselves, in a similar manner to Cant's (1978a)
hypothetical "major erosion surfaces". Typically, a third-order contact is a planar or
very gently concave-up surface overlain by rocks of facies G 2 or G3, weathering back
to form a deep shaded notch in the wall of a cutting (Fig. 9). These notches extend
laterally for distances ranging from a few to many tens of metres, and invariably
over the full extent of the available exposure. As the vertical separation between
notches rarely exceeds a few metres, the sandstone bodies are considered to be sheets
as defined by Friend et al. (1979). Tunbridge (1981) has described sandstone sheets
from a somewhat older and muddier facies of the Brownstones exposed in central
South Wales, where bodies several metres thick are visible laterally over many
hundreds of metres.

Fig. 9. General view looking due N at the NW face of the Brampton Road cutting (SO 59 25) (see Fig.
le), to show conspicuous notches formed by the weathering of the intraformational conglomerates
underlying the sandstone sheets. Several of the sheets reveal on close inspection an inclined internal
master bedding, indicative of either lateral or forward accretion (see inset sketch).

Fig. 10. Planar-convex minor contacts in the Wilton Road cutting (SO 59 24) near Ross-on-Wye (see Fig.
ld): (a) Minor contact in cross-bedded sandstones (S~) and cross-bedded pebbly sandstones (S I ) of unit
25 in profile 3 (see also Fig. 15); unit 25 is here approximately 0.35 m thick: (b) minor contact in a unit
(approximately 0.4 m thick) exposed high up in the mediaeval well about half-way along the Wilton Road
cutling and to the SW of profile 3. Insets give interpretation of bedding.

253

Sheets defined by third-order contacts seem to be.the largest natural units present
in the Brownstones near Ross-on-Wye. Many are upward-fining with conglomerates
or gravelly sandstones at the lower contact, and fine and very fine sandstones or
even mudstones appearing below the top (e.g. profile 10, Fig. 17). Other sandstone
sheets show no clear-cut upward-fining, but none are seen to coarsen upward.
Many cross-bedded sedimentation units include minor bedding contacts which,
because of their restricted lateral extent, merit no formal order-number, although
they contribute to an understanding of the bars identified below. One commonly
occurring form (Fig. 8d) is described as a planar-convex minor contact (Fig. 10; see
also Fig. 3a). It involves a foreset-truncating, near-horizontal erosion surface which,
traced in the palaeocurrent direction, turns downward among cross-strata to become
concordant and non-erosional. To this extent the contact resembles a common
variety of reactivation surface (McCabe and Jones, 1977), but differs in that the
sub-horizontal part is as frequently overlain by plane-bedded sandstones as by
another cross-bedding set. There is a closer geometrical parallel with the minor
scours detected by Williams (1970, fig. 13E) in rapidly aggraded sand bars from

Fig. 11. Sigmoidal minor contact (and part of a planar-convex contact) in unit 14 of profile 3 (SO 597
241) about 23 m along the section (see Fig. 15). Unit 14 is here approximately 0.3-0.4 m thick. Inset gives
interpretation of bedding.

./'.

'

~\

"~

C ~

-'~,~

~ "

~,-,<< <G'~,

L__..-i f - - ' ~

=~..---~

F ~,

>

'

....

Current

-"

Current

i
D

(d)

(b)

F~

l--.-~.~.

~--~

"-'-.

....

<

5>

'

Current

"

Current

<'

Fig. 12. Inferred types of bar and their internal structure in vertical sections parallel to the d e p o s i t i o n a l dip and strike. (a) C r o s s - b e d d e d simple bars: (b)
p l a n e - b e d d e d simple bars; (c) a c o m p o u n d bar; (d) a c o m p o s i t e - c o m p o u n d bar. C o n v e n t i o n s for facies and e o n t a c t s as in Fig. 8.

(c)

(o)
tx

255

Australian ephemeral stream channels. In the Brownstones, however, there is no

association with minor cross-strata. Equally common are sigmoidal minor contacts
(Fig. 11; see also Fig. 3b). Proximally, these resemble the planar-convex contacts,
but distally remain erosively related to the underlying cross-strata, their inflected
trace descending beneath a spoon or scoop-shaped downward thickening of the set.
They accordingly resemble a type of reactivation structure recognised by Allen
(1973, fig. 3a), as well as features seen in river bars by Williams (1970, fig. 13C), but
differ in that the proximal part of the contact is normally overlain by plane-bedded
sandstones which downstream roll over into foresets of avalanche steepness. The
third kind of minor contact is the discordant non-erosional relationship introduced
above (Figs. 3 and 8d). Each is marked by a local steepening of the apparent foreset
dip, commonly accompanied by a change in grain size, either from finer or to
coarser sediment.
Figure 8a shows the conventions used in illustrating the bar reconstructions (Fig.
12) and profiles (Figs. 15-17). Facies states and groups of related states are
indicated by appropriate symbols, and third-order contacts are distinguished from
the others by breadth of line. The sedimentation units are where practicable
numbered in their inferred order of deposition and preservation. Inset sketches
define the complexes. As regards palaeocurrents, a rose diagram oriented relative to

Fig. 13. A compound bar (base at arrows) of pebbly cross-bedded sandstone overlain by coarse to
medium grained plane-bedded sandstones with parting lineations. Black Nore Sandstone, Redcliff Bay
(ST 438 758), near Postishead SW of Bristol. Hammer 0.3 m long. Photograph kindly supplied by Dr I.P.
Tunbridge (Plymouth Polytechnic).

256

the face (Fig. 8e) is used instead of the conventional north-oriented diagram, for
most of the palaeocurrent directions were visually estimated and not directly
measured.
SAND-GRAVEL BARS

Most of the sedimentation units are suggested to represent varieties of either sand
or mixed sand and gravel bar, where the term is used purely descriptively to mean an
upstanding barrier of sediment emplaced across the current. Four varieties of bar are
recognised: (1) cross-bedded simple; (2) plane-bedded simple; (3) compound; and
(4) composite-compound.

Cross-bedded simple bars"

Evidence for these is limited virtually to profile 3 (e.g. units 14 and 22; Figs. 4, 11
and 15), and even there few units exemplify the type. Simple bars comprise a solitary
coarse-textured cross-bedding set (G 3 o r S : ) bounded by an irregular erosional top
and base. The sets range up to 0.5 m thick and extend downstream for up to 25 m
with little change, except for the occasional sigmoidal minor contact and fluctuations
in the gravel calibre and content.
The solitary character, great length relative to thickness, and internal consistency
of these units suggests a rather flat loosely periodic to non-repetitive river bar (Fig.
12a), of the broad kind described from modern streams as transverse (Smith, 1970,
1971, 1974; Williams, 1970), slipface (Cant, 1978a), or cross-channel (Cant and
Walker, 1978). Tabular planar cross-bedding sets with erosional boundaries are
widely associated with such features (Collinson, 1970; Smith, 1970, 1971; Williams,
1970; Boothroyd and Nummedal, 1978; Cant and Walker, 1978). The bar top in the
Brownstones could have been horizontal to gently upstream-dipping, like a conventional dune, but the two-dimensional road cuttings admit of no distinction between a
long-crested form and a linguoid bar preserved in axial or near-axial section.
Moreover, the erosional surfaces above and below would permit what is now
preserved to have originally been the lower part of a structure larger and more
complex than depicted in Fig. 12a.
Judging from the coarse to very coarse sandstone matrix, the bar-top currents
flowed at not less than about 0.6 m s- l (Sundborg, 1956, fig. 13). Even faster flows,
perhaps up to 2-3 m s- 1, are suggested by the cobbles and pebbles in their turn. The
observed downstream fluctuations in grain size imply that either the currents were
unsteady, or that there was a significant temporal variation in the calibre of debris
supplied to the bars, perhaps in response to channel wandering upstream. A
temporary strengthening of the separated flow downstream of a bar, particularly of a
flank vortex on a skewed feature (Allen, 1968, figs. 10, 11 and 14.9a), could explain
the observed sigmoidal scours and local thickenings, equivalent to deepenings.

Fig. 14. Laterally accreted fine plane-bedded sandstones (S~) with some cross-bedded sandstones ($2) of units 19, 20 (not separately numbered), 23 (not
separately numbered), 24 and 25, approximately 45 m along the section of the sandstone sheet (between arrows) of profile l 1 (SO 624 527) depicted in Fig. 17.
The sheet here measures approximately 3 m in greatest thickness.

258

Plane-bedded simple bars

These are represented by erosively-bounded sedimentation units composed of one
or a combination of the plane-bedded sandstone facies (S4, S5), in some cases with
facies G l at the base. Somewhat more numerous than the cross-bedded simple bars,
the plane-bedded type is represented in several cuttings, for example, by units 20
and 27 in profile 3 (Fig. 15), units 33 and 35 in profile 6 (Fig. 16), units 6 and 9 in
profile 7 (Figs. 6 and 16), units 9 and 13 in profile 9 (Fig. 17), and unit 24 in profile
10 (fig. 17). The beds range in thickness up to 1.2 m and in exposed length to as
much as 17 m. The base, sharp and erosional, varies from gently to boldly concave-up,
through planar, to weakly convex-up. Rarely, it is smoothly and gently undulating.
The internal laminae range from concordant to discordant relative to the base, and
both styles are frequently to be found in the one set. However, the original dips are
nowhere steep enough to record avalanching. Gently arched-up laminae are seen in
many near-strike sections, each foot resting on the erosional base~ as in unit 18 of
profile 1 (Fig. 15), and unit 33 in profile 6 (Fig. 16). In unit 9 of profile 8 (Fig. 17L
the laminae vary between concave-up and discordant, to trough-shaped, symmetrical
and concordant. They range across a boldly sculptured erosional ridge beneath.
Although plane-bedded sands occur widely amongst the deposits of modern
low-sinuosity streams (Harms and Fahnestock, 1965; Coleman, 1969; Smith, 1970;
Williams, 1970; Shelton and Noble, 1974; Cant and Walker, 1978; Schwartz, 1978a),
the facies is generally uncommon and not known to typify any particular variety of
bar. Smith (1970) and Williams (1970) found plane-bedded sands only in the tops of
transverse or longitudinal bars that were mainly cross-bedded internally. The above
evidence, however, points to the common occurrence in the Brownstones rivers of
loosely periodic or non-repetitive bars formed wholly of plane-bedded sand (Fig.
12b). To judge from the size, shape and internal configuration of the exposed
sedimentation units, the bars were large, smooth, extremely flat, and markedly
three-dimensional in plan. The height ranged from a few decimetres to perhaps as
much as 2 m, whereas the other dimensions measured a few to many tens of metres.
The surface was smooth and gently sloping, except locally along the flanks and in
some of the frontal embayments. The laminae were deposited generally at an angle
to the erosional surface over which the bar was travelling, but never on a slope steep
enough to have caused avalanching. The configuration of laminae in such beds as
unit 33 in profile 6 (Fig. 16) is consistent with a long and narrow lobe-shaped bar.
Patterns of lamination such as those seen in unit 18 of profile 1 (Fig. 15), and unit 9
of profile 8 (Fig. 16), suggest a more diversified leading edge which presented
smoothly curved embayments and long salients.
Vigorous currents shaped these bars and simultaneously carved the erosional
surfaces over which they travelled. Current speeds even at their edges, where the
water was deepest, perhaps as much as a few metres, cannot have been less than
about 1-2 m s - i to judge from Allen and Leeder's (1980) value of approximately

259
0.6 for the Shields-Bagnold boundary shear stress at the lower bound on upper-stage
plane beds, and the Darcy-Weisbach friction coefficient of about 0.02 typifying
plane bed conditions (Guy et al., 1966). Hence the plane-bedded simple bars
represent currents at least as severe as those which gave the cross-bedded ones, the
contrasts in shape and internal geometry being explained by the different grades of
debris made available.
Compound bars

These are represented by numerous, erosively bounded sedimentation units

composed of two or more lithological ingredients, typically a cross-bedded facies (S~
a n d / o r S2) grading laterally a n d / o r vertically into a commonly thicker development
of plane-bedded sandstone (S4 a n d / o r $5). Facies G~ may be developed locally at
the base. What distinguishes these units, in both the Brownstones of the Forest of
Dean and correlative formations (Fig. 13), is that the laminae can be traced without a
break from the cross-bedded lower part of the set up into the succeeding plane- bedded
sandstones, without even minor bedding contacts to disrupt them. The cross-bedded
and plane-bedded rocks are therefore genetically related, representing foreset and
topset. In the Ross-on-Wye cuttings, the units reach 1.1 m in thickness and measure
5-35 m long. Typically, the base is smooth, ranging from concave-up, through
planar, to gently convex-up, but in some cases is irregular.
Only two facies states are represented in the simplest kind of compound bar. The
bar shown in Fig. 13, and unit 15 in profile 9 (Fig. 17), exemplify the type, which in
these cases involves a laterally persistent cross-bedding set a few decimetres thick
graduating upward into plane-bedded sandstones of facies $4. Note that the crossstrata in unit 15 have much too steep an apparent dip to have been built in precisely
the same direction as the current that gave the overlying plane-bedded deposit. Rust
(1978, fig. 10) attributed similar beds from .the Malbaie Formation of Quebec, to
deposition in shallow scours. Schwartz (1978a, figs. 11-13) has described from point
bars of the Red River in Texas a type of bar-related sedimentation unit in which
connected foresets and topsets are recognizable.
In other simple beds composed of only two facies, the cross-bedded sandstones
are laterally restricted and the base is in places directly overlain by plane-bedded
rocks with an original dip of less than avalanche steepness. Good examples are unit
13 and an unnumbered bed (in the figure) below unit 8 in profile 3 (Fig. 15), in
which facies S l and S4 or S5 are combined, and also units 23 in profile 4 (Fig. 16), 15
in profile 7 (Fig. 16), and 22, 23 and 26 in profile 10 (Fig. 17), in each of which
facies S2 and S5 are blended. The excess of plane-bedded over cross-bedded
sandstone is especially marked in these finer-grained beds.
A more complex bed is represented by unit 14 in profile 7 (Fig. 16) and by unit 19
in profile 10 (Fig. 17), in each of which there is a lateral transition between facies S 1
and S2.

260
The internal geometry of many units is more complicated than the external form
would imply, particularly where the beds are exposed in near-strike section. Unit 21
in profile 1 (Fig. 15) shows concave-up passing laterally into convex-up laminae, a
thin cross-bedding set occurring at the transition. An even larger number of dip
reversals is seen in unit 19 of profile 10 (Fig. 17).
The above observations suggest that the compound bars combined aspects of
both the cross-bedded and plane-bedded simple types (Fig. 12c). The height ranged
to more than a metre and the plan dimensions were measured in tens of metres. The
configurations of laminae seen in near-strike section point to strongly three-dimensional bars whose leading edges were divided into prominent salients and embayments, such as locally characterise bedforms in the R. Benue (NEDECO, 1959, p.
258). The margin of the bar was in places a moderately steep surface, down which
either gravel or relatively coarse sand avalanched, succeeded upward by a more
gently inclined, smooth slope underlain by significantly finer plane-bedded sands.
Evidently the coarser debris in transport responded to the plane sand bed forming
the bar top as though to a smooth surface (footballs on ping-pong balls), becoming
"overpassed" (McCave, 1973; Everts, 1973; Allen, 1983)before achieving ultimate
deposition on the slipface downstream. Similar evidence for coarse-debris overpassing appears in the beds figured by Rust (1978, fig. 10) and Schwartz (1978a, fig. 16).
Elsewhere, however, the bar-margin was a gently inclined smooth slope underlain
only by plane-bedded sand, as in Fig. 12b depicting plane-bedded simple bars.
The hydraulic interpretations separately developed for the kinds of simple bar
apply in combination to the compound structures. Vigorous currents prevailed.
Unfortunately, the compound bars have no known modern counterparts, unless they
be the cloud-like bars locally developed in the Benue and Niger (NEDECO, 1959,
pp. 257, 603). However, they closely resemble Saunderson and Lockett's (1981)
experimental humpback dunes produced under flow conditions hovering near the
dune-plane bed (upper stage) transition, as well as the thin sand units from the Red
River, attributed by Schwartz (1978a, figs. 11-13 and 16) to transverse bars. These
structures reveal gently dipping topset beds which merge uninterruptedly into
coarser-grained foresets (overpassing?) traceable in turn into bottomsets, the crest of
each dune being set well back from the brink marking the top of the avalanche slope
(Allen, 1968, fig. 4.2).

Composite-compound bars
Bars of this type abound (Fig. 8d). They comprise single or clustered sedimentation units composed of cross-bedded (S 1 a n d / o r $2) and plane-bedded sandstones
(S4 a n d / o r S5), arranged in two or more locally erosively related parts. Laminae can
in places be traced from the cross-bedded into the plane-bedded rocks without a
break, as throughout the compound bars, but in other parts are broken by a minor
erosional contact. Units representing composite-compound bars range up to 1.5 m in

261

thickness and in both strike and dip sections are exposed laterally for as much as
30-40 m.
Many composite-compound bars are seen as units or groups of beds in dip
section, for example, units 1-4 in profile 1 (Figs. 3a and 15). Planar-convex minor
contacts divide the cross-bedded and plane-bedded parts over large parts of each
section whereas elsewhere topsets and foresets merge. Further examples, with an
almost rhythmical distribution of planar-convex contacts, are furnished by unit 7 in
profile 2 (Figs. 3b and 15), and by unit 15 between 12 and 41 m along the section in
profile 3 (Figs. 4 and 15). Unit 8 of profile 3 could have been grouped with the
cross-bedded simple bars, were it not for the clear break in its erosional top at about
23.5 m along the cutting. Unit 39 in the same profile is practically a compound bar.
The distinction between bar types may therefore be somewhat arbitrary.
Composite-compound bars seen in strike reveal many complications of bedding
configuration and erosional relationship. Unit 17 of profile 4 (Fig. 16) involves a
thick cross-bedded gravelly sandstone which passes upward and laterally into
plane-bedded coarse-and fine-grained rocks with a palaeocurrent direction oblique
to the cross-stratal dip-azimuth. The lamination in the left of the set stands
arched-up on the erosional base. Reversals in the apparent dip-direction of the
cross-bedding occur in units 10 and 11 of profile 7 (Fig. 16), as well as typifying the
cross-bedded lower portion of unit 5 from the same profile. A reversal in the latter
stems from two converging cross-bedding sets. Perhaps the most complicated section
is the oblique one involving units 5-11 in profile 11 (Fig. 17). It mainly reveals
erosively related spoon-shaped complexes of plane-bedded graduating to cross-bedded sandstone that overlap progressively to the right.
The beds representing composite-compound bars are formed from elements
already recognised and interpreted from the simple and compound features, but
arranged in new and complicated ways. In size and plan, the composite-compound
bedforms resembled the other kinds of bar, to judge from the preserved thicknesses,
lateral extents, and internal lamination patterns. The bars differed, however, in the
variety and changeability of the surface features.
The planar-convex erosional minor contacts which typify the composite-compound bars are laterally discontinuous in both strike and dip sections. Erosional
breaks disposed in this way, contrasting with the passages of foreset into topset
laminae at a similar level elsewhere in the same units, prove that from time to time
and place to place within the bounds of each bar, the loci of deposition of
cross-bedded and plane-bedded sediments became separated by temporary and
areally restricted erosional surfaces (Fig. 12d). The multi-fronted bar therefore drove
forward beneath the current by a process of leap-frogging amongst its morphologically and texturally distinct internal elements. Thus the unusually rapid downstream
advance of a gravelly slipface, along a restricted sector of the leading edge of the bar,
could have allowed a localised erosion surface to spread upstream between it and a
more gently sloping surface of plane-bedded sand left behind. In this way, a new

262

planar-convex minor contact could have arisen. The unusually rapid downstream
advance of a gently sloping topset of plane-bedded sand, however, would have led to
the gradual smothering of that bar-top erosion surface, and to the eventual drowning
out of the slipface leading the bar, plane-bedded sand being spread for a period over
the erosional surface underlying the whole structure. Only where the topset surface
and slipface were joined, and when they advanced together at the same rate, could
continuity of lamination between cross-bedded and plane-bedded facies be maintained.
The changeability inferred is attributable either to local variations in current
strength allied to the changing shape of the bar surface, or to fluctuations in the
calibre of the debris supplied to the bar-head combined with a shifting pattern of
distribution of those strongly contrasted materials within the limits of the bedform.
Variation in supply and distribution is largely preferred, in view of the strong
control exerted by grain size over the internal geometry of the component facies. The
development of a planar-convex minor contact was encouraged whenever the supply
of gravel or relatively coarse sand locally outpaced that of finer-grained sediments.
On the reversal of this trend, localised erosional surfaces became smothered by
wholly or predominantly plane-bedded sands, until topsets caught up with foresets.
Only where the supply was balanced did topsets and foresets advance together in the
same place, continuity of lamination persisting between the two. Fluctuations in
current strength probably account for the sigmoidal minor contacts and for some of
the variations in grain size observed within the facies.
T H R E E - D I M E N S I O N A L DUNES

Units attributable to the trough cross-bedded facies (S 3) are readily distinguished

from those representing bars by their shape, generally smaller size, interlocking
nature, and internal festoon-like bedding. The facies is clearly represented in only
three profiles. It dominates profile 5 (Fig. 16), as well as the clustered units
numbered 2 in profile 3 (Fig. 15), and forms the group labelled 21 in profile 4 (Fig.
16). It may be represented locally within the group of units numbered 1 in profile 3.
Trough cross-bedding is common in modern river sands in association with
three-dimensional dunes (Frazier and Osanik, 1961; Harms et al., 1963; Harms and
Fahnestock, 1965; Williams, 1968; McGowen and Garner, 1970; Shelton and Noble,
1974; Levey, 1978; Cant and Walker, 1978; Schwartz, 1978a). As such dunes grow,
advance and die beneath the flow, the hollows along their troughs sweep out
interfering, scoop-shaped erosion surfaces upon which build concave-up cross-strata
deposited on the slipfaces following behind (Allen, 1963). To judge from laboratory
studies (Allen, 1968), the dune fields were shaped by less vigorous currents than the
bars.

263
BAR-COMPLEXES AND SANDSTONESHEETS

Profile 1 (Fig. 15)

This sandstone sheet is 2.7-3.2 m thick and consists of three complexes. It
overlies an irregular erosional surface mantled toward the right by a substantial
spread of intraformational conglomerate (G 2). Dominating the oldest complex (units
1-4) is a large composite-compound bar (Fig. 3a) composed of facies G 3 and S4,
which grew upward and toward the left from a cobble- and pebble-strewn floor.
Beneath the smooth bar-top sloping gently leftward accumulated thick plane-bedded
sandstones. The intraformational clasts scattered through these toward the right
denote a bar-head nearby upstream. The complex could represent a channel either
axially or obliquely filled.
The second complex (units 5-20) is seen mainly in strike section. The interfingering deposits of small composite-compound and simple bars (units 5-7) were eroded
prior to the advance through the cutting of a large three-dimensional compositecompound bar (units 8-11). This has a cobble- and boulder-strewn base followed by
facies S 1, S2 and S4. Units 12-30 record simple, compound and composite-compound bars of small to moderate size; they advanced out of the section, each on an
erosional surface sloping down to the left, the bar-complex spreading leftward
incrementally. The lateral accretion deposit thus defined by the first-order surfaces
and internal palaeocurrent indicators suggests a shoal bounded by a sidewaysmigrating channel not less than about 2 m deep.
Units 21 and 2 2 - - t h e youngest complex--also appear in strike section, but rest
each on an erosional surface gently inclined to the right, as though a channel had
migrated laterally in that direction.

Profile 2 (Fig. 15)

The sandstone sheet, exposed mainly in dip section, thickens downstream from
1.7 to 2.8 m and is dominated by facies G3, S 1 and S4, arranged in two complexes.
The base is irregular, with deep scour pits.
The older complex (units 1-5) is an oblique section through a series of what
probably were simple and compound bars accompanied by scours. Accretion was at
times extremely rapid, to judge from the continuation of the laminae between
vertically stacked cross-bedding sets (unit 5).
By the same token, a high deposition rate seems to have promoted the advance of
the small mainly composite-compound bars of the overlying complex. Unit 7 (Fig.
3b) advanced upward and erosively across the older complex, the pattern of the
strata in places connecting the cross-bedded and plane-bedded parts reminding one
of climbing cross-laminations (type B) more familiar from current-rippled deposits
(Allen, 1970). A neighbouring but upstream bar (unit 9) seems to have been

264
advancing simultaneously with this structure, for bedding can locally be traced
between the two. Units 10-12 proclaim further bar accretions. A large compositecompound bedform (unit 13) then descended about 1.25 m leftward across units 9
and 12. To judge from the terminal planar-convex minor contact, the bar represented by unit 9 remained active virtually up to the moment of being smothered by
the larger structure. Another large bar (unit 15) similarly spread downward, across
units 13 and 14.
The second complex suggests the combined upward and forward construction of
a sand shoal, as bars were first stacked vertically on each other but later became
overlapped downstream. Similar growth patterns are recorded by Williams (1970,
figs. 11 and 12) from bars in modern ephemeral streams, and by Conaghan and
Jones (1975) from the Hawkesbury Sandstone.

Profile 3 (Fig. 15)

At a thickness of approximately 5.5 m, this sheet sandstone is one of the most
substantial described, The base is a level but irregular and locally gravel-strewn
surface cut into fine- and medium-grained, chiefly plane-bedded sandstones. The top
lies beneath a futher extensive development of intraformational conglomerate associated with a substantial swing in palaeocurrents. Five bar-complexes are recognised,
the third and fifth of which are the largest.
The oldest complex is the cluster of units labelled group 1, seen largely in an
oblique section (palaeocurrents into face). They seem to represent mainly crossbedded simple (S l, S2), plane-bedded simple (mainly S5), and compound (S t and S 4
or $5) bars. Locally there are cross-bedded intraformational conglomerates. Thin
cross-bedded fine sandstones near the base (6-13 m along cutting) may represent
the trough cross-bedded facies in dip section. Extreme juxtapositions of texture mark
this complex.
The second complex (units labelled group 2) appears in strike section and rests on
a complicated scour descending about 1 m into the older sequence. It comprises
pebbly trough cross-bedded sandstones ($3) capped by a laterally extensive unit
probably representing a plane-bedded simple bar. The complex is interpreted as the
lower part of a plugged channel, perhaps originally of substantial size in view of the
position of the complex relative to the top of the sandstone sheet.
The third complex (units 3-27) introduces a significant change in conditions. It
appears in dip section and covers a level but locally irregular surface inclined gently
downcurrent relative to the base of the sandstone sheet as a whole. A series of
simple, compound and composite-compound bars (Fig. 4) descended to the right
parallel with the surface underlying the complex, to judge from the attitude and
internal geometry of the beds. Facies G3, St, $2, S4 and S5 are well-represented. The
tallest bars, represented by units 8 with 9 and probably with 10, and by units 12-15,
occur in the lower part of the complex. The oldest seems to have advanced into an

PI

-4

3
metres
2

-I

'

ssw

'

PROFILE

-3

-2

"

"

"

metres
0
I

metres

5
I

-6
~
30

__~

"'..

...

PROFILE
-

34~.

metres

-3

"

"

"

-~or~,,~ ".~~....
-|

0"

0
i

" "

"

--

"

"~"<

5
I

metres

"~.

PROFILE

2 7 0 m to B r o m p t o n

Rood

Bridge

I-4

20

Complexes

o~

,~

me,r.

..

.,D

~"

,80,

-- . 7 ~"

,o

qlD

-,

i~

15
I

20
I

~9

54

. . .

29

"'"

IO
I

Rood-sign

f o r foiling

rock &
/

;-.~w

...~r.F.iltba
I0
I

:lion

15
I

20
I

'

'

9"

20
I

i'.

..
...

25
I

39
.

=13

37

20
I

25
i

30
I

pp.265-268

ENE

,.._~,-.f~..._:-...o._-e'_~

~.

=.~.~

...-..----o-:;-:i

-..

--,

. . . . . .

jo.

-.

~-:: ..... - - - : " ~ ~ : = .... ;:- ..........

PROFILE 4

ENE

,el

15m to

Bramptol

-2
metres
I

Complexes
I0

metres

5
i

-3

PROFILE

WSW

0
I

metres

-6

-5

-4
m

-5
3 0 - 38
-2

Complexes
12 - 2 9
I-II

-I

'@'140 m to Brompton
0
I

metres

~-

Road

16

PROFILE

Bridge
I0

I!

-6
metres

PROFILE

I-9

~,..

10-13

metres

Fig. 16. Details of profile 4 (SO 601 252), profile 5 (SO 599 252), profile 6 (SO 601 252) and profile 7 (SO 623 257).

e - I 15m to

Brampton Rood Bridge

21 Group

es

5
i

' PROFILE

I0
I
5

~)'240

m to

Brompton

15
I
Rood' Bridge

'

wsw

metr
0

metres

15
I

PROFILE

I0

15

20
I

25
I

7
Comolexes

metres
t and profile 7 (SO 623 257).

IO

15

15

20

25

,eo

37

3p
I

~o
I

20

25

30

,41--1 6 5 m to By-post

33.9 km N

pp. 269-272
i

WSW

.---.-

35

40

45

m N

16

"

14

25

30

35

PROF'ILE

-4
-3

WSW '

iB
C

0
i

metres

I10 m to Brompton
' Rood

~ _ ~ _ . ~ - ~ ~

20-------e

Bridge

5
I

I0
I

PROFILE

-s

I0

-4
metre
-3

-2

23

meTres

f 3 ~3 I

o
I

3 .'."

IU

~.....

"'" "' f"

metre

20

25
I

PROFILE
(Cont'd)

Fig. 17. Details of profile 8 (SO 600 252), profile 9 (SO 600 252), profile 10 (SO 625 257), and profile 11 (SO 624 257).

3ridge

16
- -

--

I;ROFILE 9

ENE

.-

--

17
WSW

.. p.~....~ . . . .

~--~_~_~.t~__

....

metres
-I

15
I

r-~145

20
I

~
m to Brompton
Bridge

Rood

0
I

20

O U

115

31

I
~

~57).

'

'

21

:;)2

'

30

35

40

pp. 273- 278

ENE

5
i

metres

I0

15

I0

26

410

'

279
obliquely flowing current, for unit 8 merges to the right with a complex of beds in
strike and oblique section that record probably small bars and possibly some dunes.
The following bar (units 12-15), in places 1.6 m tall, entered the section as a
compound form (unit 12, left), but later split up into several smaller bars (units
12-15, right) on advancing into deeper water. The bars younger still (units 16-27)
seem modest in scale. In view of these features, the third complex may represent a
sand shoal that built obliquely downstream into a channel a few metres deep.
Hanging vegetation partly masks the fourth complex. The oldest beds (units 28
and 29), occupying large trough-shaped scours, seem to be present in strike section,
whereas the younger ones (units 30-32) suggest by their internal geometry a series of
small bars that built obliquely or down-dip to the fight. They perhaps plug a small
channel crossing the top of the previously inferred shoal.
the sandstones and gravelly sandstones of the final complex (units 33-39) seem
by their attitude and internal bedding to represent bars that descended downstream
to the right. Evidently the episode of channel cutting and filling caused no significant modification to the shoal.

Profile 4 (Fig. 16)

Although a mere 1-2 m thick, this sandstone sheet is surprisingly diverse, falling
into three complexes. The base is a level but irregular erosional surface richly strewn
with intraformational pebbles, cobbles, and small boulders locally heaped into a
massive conglomerate (G2). The oldest complex (units 1-6), in which facies G3, $1,
S4 and S5 are well-represented, seems to record in oblique and strike section a
variety of bars, arranged in two depositional sequences. Whereas the older sequence
(units 1-3) built along surfaces inclined to the left, the younger (units 4-6) spread to
the right, as though a shoal was being episodically widened. The beds of the second
complex (units 7-20) suggest that a series of composite-compound bars (chiefly
facies S 1 and $4) moved obliquely from the left through the cutting. The plugging of
a small shoal-top channel by dunes is implied by the fine to medium grained trough
cross-bedded sandstones of unit 21. The bars of the third complex (units 22 and 23)
scoured down across each of the earlier sand accumulations. This feature, combined
with the reappearance of coarse intraformational debris, points to a resurgence of
strong flows.

Profile 5 (Fig. 16)

This sandstone sheet is up to 2.5 m thick but comprises
exposed in strike section. The units in the centre and left
lenticular and upward become smaller and finer grained in
assigned largely to facies S3 and attributed to aggradation
three-dimensional dunes, perhaps including a few small bars. A

only one complex,

(Fig. 5) are mainly
lithology. They are
beneath a field of
bar-like character is

280
gradually assumed by the majority of units toward the right, but with no significant
shift in palaeocurrent direction. The dune-field seems to have been flanked by a
group of small bars with embayed fronts.

Profile 6 (Fig. 16)

The sheet sandstone here depicted in oblique section is up to 6.2 m thick and
comprises three roughly tabular complexes. A marked upward fining is apparent.
facies S2 and S5 dominating the youngest complex.
The lowest complex (units 1-11) proclaims the advance obliquely into the profile
of plane-bedded simple, compound and composite-compound bars. These bar-deposits are shaped into a mound or ridge by the extensive arch-like scour underlying
the second complex. Units 12 and 13 lie at the foot of the mound on its steeper side
and seem to record channel-floor bars that spread to the left as they entered the
cutting. The scour was finally smothered by the growth of a large composite-compound bar (units 14-17), spilling to the right over the crest of the sand ridge (units
1 11). Later bars (units 18-29) spread over a levelled surface. The beds of the third
complex (units 30-38) suggest by their shape, size and internal features a series of
large, relatively fine-grained, plane-bedded simple and compound bars. As the
section is nearly strike-parallel, the sloping erosional surfaces traceable beneath units
36-38 probably record lateral accretion.

Profile 7 (Fig. 16)

This cutting reveals in near-strike section a complicated sandstone sheet 2.9-4.9 m
thick composed of four bar-complexes. The base is level, slightly irregular, and
locally conglomeratic.
The oldest complex (units 1-9) points to the build-up of a sand shoal and its
leftward lateral accretion. The earliest beds (units 1-4) lie thinly preserved beneath a
horizontally extensive, gravel-strewn scour lying parallel with, but a few decimetres
above, the erosional base to the sheet. Across this surface, and out of the face,
advanced a large composite-compound bar (unit 5) with an embayed front. Younger
bars (units 6-9) migrated over surfaces inclined gently to the left.
The second complex (units 10-13) plugged a wide channel-like scour (Fig. 6)
which ranged upward from the base of the sandstone sheet to within about t m of its
top. Filling began with the migration out of the profile of an embayed compositecompound bar (units 10 and 11). Several plane-bedded simple bars (units 12 and 13)
may have followed, but one cannot be certain other than locally of the erosional
contacts within these regularly bedded sandstones. The current flowed out of the
face, but as the bedding in units 12 and 13 is mainly inclined to the left, the scour
beneath the complex may record the final position of a channel that had wandered
leftward at the same time as the deeps in which the first complex had been laterally
accreted.

281
Large mainly compound bars (units 14-16) later invaded the top of the channelplug and the adjoining shoal, eventually to be cut by a small gravelly channel (unit
17). The mudstone boulders at 17 and 18 m along the section must have long lain
stationary on the channel bed, for the surface of each carries a profusion Of
sand-blasted flutes and scallops.

Profile 8 (Fig. 17)

This small profile shows part of a sandstone sheet up to 4.5 m thick. It rests on a
very irregular base cut into very fine sandstones and mudstones, and is thickly
mantled by massive intraformational conglomerates (units 1 and 2) with local
sandstone wedges. The overlying beds (units 3-716), dominated by facies S4 and S5,
decline in thickness upward, suggesting by their shape and internal geometry a series
of mainly plane-bedded simple bars with embayed fronts and associated scours. The
presence of three-dimensional dunes cannot be wholly excluded, in view of the
marked lenticularity and internal festoon-like bedding of the smaller units. Much of
the internal bedding and the erosional surfaces in this oldest complex tend to dip
leftward, as if the sandstone sheet had been laterally accreted.
The overlying complex (units 17-21) undeniably formed in this way. The units
are mainly tabular, in contrast to those of the underlying complex, and record strike
sections in plane-bedded simple and compound bars dominated by facies S4 and S5.

Profile 9 (Fig. 17)

This is a restricted section through a sandstone body up to 4.5 m thick divisible
into two bar-complexes. The lowermost (units 1-13) resembles the oldest complex in
profile 8, and is similarly explained. The younger complex (units 14-17) drapes over
an arch-like erosional surface which sweeps upward from the base of the sheet to
curve over the mound formed by units 1-13. Mounted on this surface is a large
composite-compound bar (units 15 and 16) in which plane-bedded sandstones (S4,
some $5) predominate over cross-bedded ones (S I, some $2). To judge from the
palaeocurrent indicators, and the apparent dips, the bar crest lay obliquely across
the current.

Profile 10 (Fig. 17)

This profile reveals in strike section a complicated sandstone sheet up to 4.2 m
thick. It lies on a deeply scoured base patchily mantled by intraformational
conglomerate (G 2 and G3) and locally dotted with cobbles and large sand-blasted
boulders. To the left, the sandstones bury a steep-sided but fiat-topped erosional
remnant of mudstone projecting up from the sheet below. Erosional welts (Friend,
1965) moulded by the overlying sandstones indicate palaeocurrents nearly per-

282
pendicular to the cutting. Directional structures within the sheet point to flow into
the face. Four complexes are recognised.
The oldest (units 1-6) is mounted above the side of a boulder-strewn hollow in
the centre of the profile. The earlier beds (units 1-5), by their shape and internal
structure, point to the nearly symmetrical upward and sideways growth of a sand
shoal as successive bars became draped over a gravelly core. Only unit 6 departs
from this pattern.
Emplacement of the second complex was preceded by the bevelling of the
right-hand side of the shoal. The succession of beds (units 7-11), together with the
apparent internal dips, is consistent with lateral accretion toward the right. Mainly
simple bars are implicated.
An even more convincing lateral accretion is revealed by the two younger
complexes, in many respects similar. Units 12-18 bevel the sand shoal on its
left-hand side, the facies recorded being mainly $2, S4 and S5, with some G 1 and S~.
Their shapes and bedding configurations are consistent with the travel into the cliff
of a series of mainly compound bars dominated by plane-bedded sandstones. The
internal geometry of unit 12, for example, suggests a bar revealing in plan a single
large lobe with a small embayment and lobe on its right-hand side. The youngest
complex begins with unit 19. Ranging over all but 10 m of the profile, it has its toe
practically on the base of the sandstone sheet, but climbs to drape up and over the
tall sand mound formed by the older beds. The internal structure suggests a large
bar with several frontal embayments and lobes. Most of the succeeding beds (units
20-26), lying typically on planar surfaces inclined gently leftward, range vertically
through the full local extent (2.5-3.0 m) of the sandstone sheet, implying the former
presence of a channel equally as deep. Their internal features suggest that the mainly
compound bars which fashioned them had a substantial component of motion
directed up these lateral accretion surfaces. In every case, either the section reveals
but one flank of a lobe-shaped bar, now partly concealed, or the bar had a long but
relatively straight crest oblique to flow.
The character of profile 10 suggests that, beginning with a gravelly core, a large
sand shoal rose up by an episodic process of lateral combined with some vertical
accretion.

Profile 11 (Fig. 17)

This profile is the longest described and reveals an oblique-strike section in a
sandstone sheet 2.0-3.4 m thick. The base is an extensive erosional surface showing
deep hollows filled with intraformational conglomerates (G 2 and G3) and pebbly
sandstones (S~). Internally, the sheet fines upward, especially to the centre and right
where plane-bedded sandstones of facies S5 predominate in the upper levels. Three
complexes are recognised.
The oldest begins with cross-bedded conglomerates and pebbly sandstones (units

283

1-4) that imply the erosive advance of cross-bedded simple bars out of the section.
The overlying complex of beds (units 5-11) suggests an oblique section through a
large composite-compound bar, perhaps associated along its front with scour hollows and a few small cross-bedded simple bars (e.g. unit 7). The upward continuity
of unit 11 (S4 passing up to $5) is broken at 22 m along the section by a short
erosional surface capped by cross-bedded sandstone (S2), and again at 30 m by the
cluster of intersecting, locally pebble-strewn scours (G1) underlying units 12-16.
Unit 11 is bevelled to the right by unit 19 (Fig. 14), in which gently inclined plane
bedding extends upward from the base almost to the top of the sandstone sheet. To
judge from the palaeocurrent indicators, this widespread sandstone unit, and probably unit 20 above, accreted laterally as well as upward.
The evidence for lateral accretion is even clearer in 'the second bar-complex (units
21-28), which presents a change in depositional style. As in the terminal complex of
profile 10, the mainly plane-bedded sandstones comprise thin, essentially tabular
units with irregular bases. Their internal geometry proclaims mainly compound bars
(S2, with much $5) that had long and relatively straight crests and a substantial
component of motion directed up the lateral accretion surfaces.
The third complex (units 29-33) is confined to the left and top of the profile. It
records the vertical aggradation of the older complexes by bars spreading in a wide
fan of directions.
CONCLUDING DISCUSSION
Architectural elements

Eight kinds of depositional feature contribute significantly to the internal architecture of the sandstone sheets described: (1) sedimentation units representing
simple, compound, and composite-compound bars (Fig. 12) (most or all profiles); (2)
tabular layers of dune-bedded sandstone (Pig. 18a) (profile 5 only); (3) assemblages
of down-climbing bar units (Fig. 18b) (profile 2; profile 3, third complex); (4)
channel forms with a vertical extent much less than the thickness of the sandstone
sheet to which they contribute (Fig. 18c) (profile 3, beneath fourth complex; profile
4, beneath third complex; profile 7, beneath third complex); (5) channel forms in
vertical extent equal to or comparable with the enveloping sandstone sheet (Fig. 18d)
(profile 7, beneath second complex; profile 3 (?), beneath second complex in view of
position relative to top of sandstone sheet); (6) unsymmetrical groups o f laterally
accreted bar units (Fig. 18e) (profile 1, second complex; profile 4, first complex;
profile 6, third complex; profile 7, first complex; profile 8, first and 'second
complexes; profile 10, all complexes; profile 11, second complex); (7) sandstofie
ridges or mounds (shoals) giving evidence of symmetrical growth, by the draping of
bar units over arched-up erosional surfaces and/or addition on each side in turn
after erosion (Fig. 18f) (profile 6, first and second complexes; profile 9; profile 10,

284

~c~ - ~

Fig. 18. Summary of the main kinds of depositional feature recorded from sheet sandstones preserved in
the Brownstones. (a) Tabular layers of dune cross-bedded (trough cross-bedded) sandstone: (b) assemblages of down-climbing (forward-accreting) bar units; (c) minor channel forms and fills; (d) major channel
form and fill; (e) groups of laterally-accreted bar units: (f) symmetrical complexes (sand shoals) of
laterally accreted bar units with gravel cores.

within first complex, all complexes together); and (8) tabular mudstone beds,
normally present as laterally restricted erosional remnants at the tops of sandstone
sheets (rare, below profiles 8 and 10 only).
The bars will not be interpreted further, but it remains to elaborate on the
"channels" and "shoals" invoked in the description and preliminary analysis of the
profiles. Modern sand-bed rivers furnish the necessary clues.

Sedimentology of low-sinuosity sand-bed rivers--a sketch

Sedimentological studies of varying detail from numerous rivers of this kind
permit several generalisations. Rivers of macrothermal hydrological regime (Beckinsale, t969) are represented by the Benue and Niger, West Africa (NEDECO,
1959) and by the Brahmaputra (Coleman, 1969) and Ganges (Morgan, 1970), Indian
sub-continent. The southern plains of the U.S.A. give the following mesothermal
rivers: Loup (Brice, 1964), Platte (Smith, 1970, 1971; Blodgett and Stanley, 1980),
Cimarron (Shelton and Noble, 1974; Shelton et al., 1974), Red (Schwartz, 1978a, b),
South Canadian (Kessler, 1971), the Rio Grande (Harms and Fahnestock, 1965),
and the Colorado and Amite (McGowen and Garner, 1970). The microthermal rivers

285
in the sample are the Clearwater (Kellerhals et al., 1972) and South Saskatchewan
(Cant, 1978a, b; Cant and Walker, 1978) of the Canadian plains, the Sachs River in
the Canadian Arctic (T.R. Good, pers. commun., 1982), Skeidhrasandur in Iceland
(Boothroyd and Nummedal, 1978), the Tana in Norway (Collinson, 1970), the Oka
and Volga in the U.S.S.R. (Shantzer, 1951), and the Yellow River (Hwang Ho),
China (Chien, 1961). Not all of these are now in a natural state. For example, the
Rio Grande is straightened and revetted, while the South Saskatchewan is regulated
by a dam.
Although differing significantly in the sources of their aqueous discharge, these
rivers are typified in their natural state by large to very large seasonal discharge
variations, and by a strong tendency, overriding in some cases, to flashiness. The
flood season is relatively short and its onset rapid, whereas the recession is ordinarily
more gradual, in some instances with steady flow for a period.
Sand tending toward the coarser grades dominates the bed material. A little
gravel occurs in most of the rivers, in some places dispersed in the sand, but
elsewhere in local concentrations. Intraformational debris is reported from the Red
and Tana Rivers. The bed-material of the Yellow River, however, is described as silt,
although the presence of sand banks is several times reported.
Most of the rivers at bankfull flow have very broad but comparatively straight
channels. A few large vegetated islands only are visible at this stage. As the
water-level falls, the river either becomes moderately sinuous for a period before
taking a braided-meandering character at the lowest flows (e.g. Benue, Cimarron,
Red), or braids at a comparatively high recessive stage (e.g. Platte, South
Saskatchewan).
In addition to vegetated islands (absent in the coldest climates), the morphological features recogniseable in the channels of these rivers are: (1) triangular to
kite-shaped emergent sand fiats (equivalent to braid bars); (2) various transverse
bars; (3) large mainly curved major channels bordering the flats; (4) small and in
places sinuous minor channels dissecting the tops of flats; and (5) fields of dunes
(ordinarily three-dimensional), on channel floors and on sheltered parts of sand
flats. The commonest sorts of transverse bar (Collinson, 1970; Smith, 1970, 1971;
Cant, 1978b; Cant and Walker, 1978) are: (1) lobe-shaped linguoid forms chiefly
found either within major channels or as large fields spanning the whole flow width;
and (2) long sinuous-crested oblique cross-channel features, either blocking the
mouth of a channel bordering a sand flat or the whole flow between bank-attached
shoals. Lobe-shaped chute bars occur at the downstream ends of the channels
(chutes) that locally cross point bars in the more sinuous streams (e.g. Amite River;
McGowen and Garner, 1970).
Size as measured by overall channel width or discharge may in the case of the less
sinuous rivers be the main factor controlling the relative abundance of the above
channel features. Intermediate to large rivers like the South Saskatchewan (Cant and
Walker, 1978) and the Brahmaputra (Coleman, 1969) include fairly frequent vege-

286
tated islands within their channels and very many small to large sand flats.
Transverse bars are restricted to the ends of the major channels and to scattered
locations within these channels. The Tuna (Collinson, 1970), with only half the
discharge of the South Saskatchewan, reveals significantly more linguoid and crosschannel bars, and noticeably fewer flats. The Loup and Platte Rivers (Brice, 1964;
Smith, 1970, 1971) are one-quarter to two-thirds the size of the Tuna. Their channels
are dominated by fields of linguoid bars which, although dissected when stage falls,
tend to retain their identity through the low-water period.
These sand-related features are highly mobile, changing rapidly and often in
number, size and position under the impact of the fluctuating discharge. Sand flats
are born in the smallest rivers when transverse bars begin to emerge with stage
reduction (Shantzer, 1951; Brice, 1964; Smith, 1970, 1971; Boothroyd and
Nummedal, 1978; Blodgett and Stanley, 1980). As the crest emerges, its higher parts
deflect and concentrate the flow to either side, becoming sculptured meanwhile into
triangular or V-shaped islands pointing upstream and flanked by shallow channels.
Simple lobe-shaped or frilled deltas then spread downstream from the ends of the
channels, as extensions of the original bar front. However, it is only in intermediate
to large rivers that these islands at all commonly nucleate a substantial sand flat.
Shantzer (1951, pp. 73-77) has explained how, by vertical and lateral accretion, such
large flats arise in the Volga. A vivid and detailed account from the South
Saskatchewan River of their nucleation and upward, sideways and downstream
growth is given by Cant and Walker (1978). Once the island nucleus has emerged at
some point on a bar crest, it acts like any other bluff body on a flow boundary, the
current being accelerated around the flanks while a more sluggish wake arises to lee.
Sideways growth is by lateral accretion beneath the bars sweeping down the adjacent
major channels and upward toward the streamwise axis of the island nucleus. As can
be seen in many of the photographs illustrated by Cant and Walker (1978), the bar
crests lie deepest in the axial parts of the channels bordering each sand flat, but can
be traced up from there through the shallows on to the flat itself. The bars are, so to
speak, captured and turned by particularly the prow and upstream flanks of the
island, the bedform pattern closely resembling that of current ripples to lee of small
bluff bodies (e.g. Axelsson, 1967, fig. 74). All subsequent vertical and most downstream growth (forward accretion) seems to occur at high and flood stages, when the
sand flat is largely or wholly submerged and its wake is partly damped by overflow.
Comparatively straight-crested bars with a toe in the deeps of one or both bordering
channels may then sweep onto or downstream over the flat, lying arched-up across
its top and flanks. A lowering of stage exposes the sand flat, when one or more
shallow minor channels may be scoured across its top.
As one sand flat builds outward and downstream by lateral and forward
accretion, erosion on the outer banks of the adjoining major channels diminishes
nearby flats or thrusts them onward. The process somewhat resembles meander
enlargement and point-bar growth in high-sinuosity streams, but in a section across

287
the channel as a whole occurs at a number of places simultaneously.
Little is known of the sediments accumulating on what amount to the floodplains
of low-sinuosity sand-bed rivers, namely, the vegetated islands and the adjoining
valley-flats. Blodgett and Stanley (1980), Cant and Walker (1978) and Schwartz
(1978a), however, report substantial thicknesses of pedogenically modified muds
interbedded with both waterlaid and wind-blown sand.

Local facies-model for the middle-upper Brownstones

The model (Fig. 19) draws on all available data but leans most on the evidence of
the South Saskatchewan River; as has been noted, modern streams provide few
precise parallels with the bar types recorded from the Brownstones. It differs from
Cant's (1978a, fig. 4) and Cant and Walker's (1978, fig. 14) diagrammatic models
based on the same river in showing lateral accretion structures, and thus fully
acknowledges lateral accretion to be an important local process in low-sinuosity
sand-bed rivers. Curiously, lateral accretion bedding does not figure in the geometry
of Cant and Walker's models, although the process is repeatedly mentioned and its
acceptance is fully justified by the photographic evidence they and others advance.
The level erosional base to a sandstone sheet, and the overlying strews of
intraformational debris, arise as the river bites laterally into mud-draped valley-fiats,
and as the vegetated islands, sand flats, and major channels form and reform within
the broad braided channel. The complexes probably represent either whole sand
fiats or their substantial components related to major growth episodes. Where a
mudstone bed is preserved, the upward growth of a flat to a vegetated island or a
valley flat can be assumed.
The assemblages of downclimbing bars (architectural element 3 above) proclaim
an axial or near-axial section in the distal part of a large sand flat that grew
downstream by forward accretion as bars advanced over its top, down its leading
face, and round the flanks (Fig. 19a). The third complex in profile 3 (Fig. 15) is an
excellent example. Half of a bilaterally symmetrical growth structure is shown in the
associated strike section (Fig. 19a) and is well matched by the lateral accretion
bedding of profile 11 (Fig. 17).
Figure 19b depicts a strike section through the proximal or middle portion of a
sand flat, a major flanking channel, and part of an adjacent valley fiat. The major
stratification in the active flat closely resembles in pattern the bilaterally symmetrical bedding of sediment drifts lying downstream from small bluff bodies (e.g. Karcz,
1968, fig. 6b, d). As listed under architectural element 7 above, several profiles
disclose such a symmetrical pattern, a decisive indication of their formation as
mid-channel sand islands. An outstanding example is profile 10 (Fig. 17), there
being even a gravelly core, which perhaps served as the initial nucleus of sand
deposition, as required by Leopold and Wolman's (1957) braiding model. Most of
the profiles show evidence of local lateral accretion (architectural element 6 above), a
pervasive feature of strike sections through sand fiats (Fig. 19).

288
Major
channel

Sand flat with bars

I

Major
channel

(a)

Floodplain

Major channel Sand flat

with dunes
I

Major
channel

Fig. 19. Local facies models for sheet sandstones in the Brownstones of the Ross-on-Wye area: (a) a wide
sand fiat exposed in sections parallel with the depositional strike and dip; minor channels related to
falling stage may be expected to cross the top of the fiat, but are not shown; (b) the proximal part of a
sand fiat and its structure in strike section, together with a major channel and adjacent floodplain
(vegetated island, valley fiat). Vertical scales greatly exaggerated in both diagrams.

T h e s p r e a d of o n e s a n d flat at the e x p e n s e of o t h e r s a d j a c e n t to it (Fig. 19b)

satisfactorily e x p l a i n s the p a t t e r n of m a j o r scour, w i t h i n - s c o u r b e d d i n g , a n d b e d d i n g
i n the d i m i n i s h e d d e p o s i t expressed b y the first three c o m p l e x e s of profile 4 (Fig.
16). T h e scour b e n e a t h the third c o m p l e x , r a n g i n g vertically t h r o u g h m o s t of the
s a n d s t o n e sheet, p l a u s i b l y records the final p o s i t i o n of a m a j o r c h a n n e l a f t e r w a r d s

289
plugged by sand. The smaller scours, listed under architectural element 4 above,
could represent minor channels cut into the tops of fiats as stage fell.
Profile 2 (Fig. 15) is the only one not to include evidence for lateral accretion. It
may therefore represent a channel aggraded by combined fields of dunes and small
bars, either one that was broader than normal or which carried a flow of less than
usual vigour.
In view of the relative mobility of cross-channel bars and fiats in rivers like the
Benue (NEDECO, 1959) and South Saskatchewan (Cant and Walker, 1978), it is
tempting to attribute the rocks visible locally in a sandstone sheet to no more than a
few hundreds of years of fiver activity. If this is true, the bulk of the geological time
represented by the parts of the Brownstones described is stored in the higher-order
erosional contacts.

Palaeohydraulics of the sheet sandstones

The bankfull channel depth of the streams that created the sheets cannot be less
than the vertical range of the major scours, the assemblages of down-climbing bar
units, and the individual sets of laterally accreted bar-related beds, namely, between
about 3 and 6 m. The mean is 4.5 m and, to judge from the arguably corresponding
modern rivers (Brice, 1964; Smith, 1971; Cant and Walker, 1978), an overall channel
width some 200 times greater would not be exceptionable. Introducing an arbitrary
factor of one-half, to cover sand flats blocking the flow, a final cross-section of
about 2000 m 2 is obtained. A bankfull discharge of not less than about 3000 m 3 S - 1
is afforded with the flow velocity of about 1.5 m s-1 earlier deduced from the
textures and structures of the bars. The Brownstones fiver(s) was therefore similar in
scale to the Tana, peaking between 1250 and 3000 m 3 s - l (Collinson, 1970, fig. 2),
and the South Saskatchewan, with a m a x i m u m unregulated annual discharge of
800-3800 m 3 s -1 (Cant and Walker, 1978, fig. 2). The proximal streams that
Tunbridge (1981) sees in parts of the Brownstones were therefore not insubstantial.

Lateral-accretion bedding and channel type

Jackson (1978) and Collinson (1978) argue that the presence or absence of
lateral-accretion bedding in fluvial deposits is an unreliable criterion of channel
pattern. There are certainly m a n y textural and geometrical reasons why lateral-accretion bedding should be unobservable in fluvial sandstone bodies, besides those
relating to accidents of exposure, although the process is probably common to all
streams, inasmuch a s all have either curved thalwegs or comprise a more or less
complicated mesh of ordinarily curved channel segments. Perhaps of greater importance than mere presence or absence is the relative horizontal extent of the structure.
The lateral-accretion bedding of the middle and upper Brownstones is invariably
local in character, with individual accretion sets ranging laterally within sandstone

290
sheets for no m o r e than 5 - 1 0 sheet thicknesses. The sets, in c o m b i n a t i o n with other
sedimentological features, point toward a braided stream e n v i r o n m e n t . However, a
quite different m o d e of occurrence characterises lateral-accretion b e d d i n g in older
parts of the Lo w e r Old R e d Sandstone. F o r example, the correlatives of the St.
M a u g h a n ' s G r o u p (Fig. 2) in southwest Wales afford m a n y instances of sheet
sandstones c o m p o s e d of a single set of lateral-accretion b ed d i n g with a horizontal
extent 3 5 - 1 0 0 times m o r e than the sheet thickness (Allen et al., 1981, pp. 1.14 1.16).
This is a feature consistent with the b e h a v i o u r of a high-sinuosity stream but not a
sandy braided channel. It is generally u n d e r s t o o d that high-sinuosity streams have
m e a n d e r belts that in a m p l i t u d e are several to m a n y times the channel width, while
the width in turn is 10-20 times the m a x i m u m channel depth. Th e relative extent of
any lateral-accretion b e d d i n g within the point bars is the p r o d u c t of these ratios.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It is a pleasure to thank Dr. G.P. Black ( N a t u r e C o n s e r v a n c y Council) and the
D e p a r t m e n t of the E n v i r o n m e n t for a M o t o r w a y walker's permit, and Mr. D.H.
Black (Surveyor to the former C o u n t y of H e r e f o r d ) for the generous provision of
m a p s of M o t o r w a y M.50.
REFERENCES
Allen, J.R.L., 1963. Asymmetrical ripple marks and the origin of water-laid cosets of cross-strata.
Liverpool Manchester Geol. J., 3: 187-236.
Allen, J.R.L., 1965. Sedimentation and palaeogeography of the Old Red Sandstone of Anglesey, North
Wales. Proc. Yorks. Geol. Soc., 35: 139-185.
Allen, J.R.L., 1968. Current Ripples. North-Holland, Amsterdam, 433 pp.
Allen, J.R.L., 1970. A quantitative model of climbing ripples and their cross-laminated deposits.
Sedimentology, 14: 5-26.
Allen, J.R.L., 1971. The sedimentation of the Old Red Sandstone in the Forest of Dean. In: D.A. Bassett
and M.G. Bassett (Editors), Geological Excursions in South Wales. Geologists" Association South
Wales Group, Cardiff, pp. 9-19.
Allen, J.R.L., 1973. Features of cross-stratified units due to random and other changes in bed forms.
Sedimentology, 20: 189-202.
Allen, J.R.L., 1974a. Source rocks of the Lower Old Red Sandstone: exotic pebbles from the Brownstones, Ross-on-Wye, Hereford and Worcester. Proc. Geol. Assoc., 85:493-510.
Allen, J.R.L., 1974b. Sedimentology of the Old Red Sandstone (Siluro-Devonian) in the Clee Hills area,
Shropshire, England. Sediment. Geol.. 12: 73-167.
Allen, J.R.L., 1974c. The Devonian rocks of Wales and the Welsh Borderland. In: T.R. Owen (Editor),
The Upper Palaeozoic and Post-Palaeozoic Rocks of Wales. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, pp.
47 -84.
Allen, J.R.L.. 1979. Old Red Sandstone facies in external basins, with particular reference to southern
Britain. Spec. Pap. Palaeontol., 23: 65-80.
Allen, J.R.L., 1983. Gravel overpassing on humpback bars supplied with mixed sediment: examples from
the Lower Old Red Sandstone, southern Britain. Sedimentology (in press).

291
Allen, J.R.L. and Dineley, D.L., 1976. The succession of the Lower Old Red Sandstone (Siluro-Devonian) along the Ross-Tewkesbury Spur Motorway (M.50), Hereford and Worcester. Geol. J., 11:
1-14.
Allen, J.R.L. and Leeder, M.R., r980. Criteria for the instability of upper-stage plane beds. Sedimentology, 27: 209-217.
Allen, J.R.L. and Williams, B.P.J., 1981. Sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Townsend Tuff Bed
(Lower Old Red Sandstone) in South Wales and the Welsh Borders. J. Geol. Soc. London, 138: 15-29.
Allen, J.R.L., Elliott, T. and Williams, B.P.J., 1981. Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous fluvial
sediments in South Wales. In: T. Elliott (Editor), Field Guides to Modern and Ancient Fluvial
Systems in Britain and Spain. Int. Fluvial Sedimentology Conference, Keele, pp. 1.1-1.39.
Allen, P.A. and Matter, A., 1982. Oligocene meandering stream sedimentation in the eastern Ebro Basin,
Spain. Eclog. Geol. Helv., 75: 33-49.
Axetsson, W., 1967. The Laiture delta. Geogr. Annal. A49: 3-127.
Beckinsale, R.P., 1969. River regimes. In: R.J. Chorley (Editor), Water, Earth and Man. Methuen,
London, pp. 455-472.
Beutner, E.C., Flueckinger, L.A. and Gard, T.M., 1967. Bedding geometry in a Pennsylvanian channel
sandstone. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 78:911-916.
Blodgett, R.H. and Stanley, K.O., 1980. Stratification, bedforms and discharge relations of the Platte
braided river system, Nebraska. J. Sediment. Petrol., 50: 139-148.
Boothroyd, J.C. and Nummedal, D., 1978. Proglacial braided outwash: a model for humid alluvial-fan
deposits. Mem. Can. Soc. Pet. Geol., 5: 641-668.
Brice, J.C., 1964. Channel patterns and terraces of the Loup Rivers in Nebraska. Prof. Pap. U.S. Geol.
Surv., 422-D: 1-41.
Brookfield, M.E., 1977. The origin of bounding surfaces in ancient aeolian sandstones. Sedimentology, 24:
303-332.
Brookfield, M.E., 1979. Anatomy of a Lower Permian aeolian sandstone complex, southern Scotland.
Scott. J. Geol., 15: 81-96.
Campbell, C.V., 1976. Reservoir geometry of a fluvial sheet sandstone. Bull. Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., 60:
1009-1020.
Cant, D.J., 1978a. Development of a facies model for sandy braided river sedimentation: a comparison of
the Soufh Saskatchewan River and the Battery Point Formation. Mem. Can. Soc. Pet. Geol., 5:
627-639.
Cant, D.J., 1978b. Bedforms and bar types in the South Saskatchewan River. J. Sediment. Petrol., 48:
1321-1330.
Cant, D.J. and Walker, R.G., 1976. Development of a braided fluvial facies model for the Devonian
Battery Point Sandstone, Quebec. Can. J. Earth Sci., 13: 102-119.
Cant, D.J. and Walker, R.G., 1978. Fluvial processes and facies sequences in the sandy braided South
Saskatchewan River, Canada. Sedimentology, 25: 625-648.
Chien, N., 1961. The braided stream of the lower Yellow River. Sci. Sinica (Peking), 10: 734-754.
Coleman, J.M., 1969. Brahmaputra River: channel processes and sedimentation. Sediment. Geol., 3:
129-239.
Collinson, J.D., 1970. Bedforms of the Tana River, Norway. Geogr. Annal., A52: 31-56.
Collinson, J.D., 1978. Vertical sequence and sand body shape in alluvial sequences. Mem. Can. Soc. Pet.
Geol., 5: 577-586.
C0naghan, P.J. and Jones, J.G., 1975. The Hawkesbury Sandstones and the Brahmaputra: a depositional
model for continental sheet sandstones. J. Geol. Soc. Austr., 22: 275-283.
Cotter, E., 1971. Paleoflow characteristics of a late Cretaceous river in Utah from analysis of sedimentary
structures in the Ferron Sandstone. J. Sediment. Petrol., 41: 129-138.
Everts, C.H., 1973. Particle overpassing on flat granular boundaries. J. Waterw. Harbors Div. Am. Soc.
Civil Eng., 99 (WW4): 425-438.

292
Frazier, D.E. and Osanik, A., 1961. Point-bar deposits, Old River Locksite. Louisiana. Trans Gulf Coast
Assoc. Geol. Soc., 11: 121-137.
Friend, P.F., 1965. Fluviatile sedimentary structures in the Wood Bay Series (Devonian) of Spitsbergen.
Sedimentology, 5: 39-68.
Friend, P.F., Slater, M.J. and Williams, R.C.. 1979. Vertical and lateral building of river sandstone bodies,
Ebro Basin, Spain. J. Geol. Soc. London, 136: 39-46.
Guy, H.P., Simons, D.B. and Richardson, E.V., 1966. Summary of alluvial channel data from flume
experiments, 1956-61. U.S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Pap., 462-I: 1-96.
Harms, J.C. and Fahnestock, R.K., 1965. Stratification, bedforms and flow phenomena (with an example
from the Rio Grande). Soc. Econ. Paleontol. Mineral., Spec. Publ., 12:84-115.
Harms, J.C., Mackenzie, D.B. and McCubbin, D.G., 1963. Stratification in modern sands of the Red
River, Louisiana. J. Geol., 71: 655-680.
Hobday, D.K., 1974. Interaction between fluvial and marine processes in the lower part of the Late
Precambrian Vadso Group. Norsk Geol. Undersok., 303: 39-56.
Jackson, R.G., 1978. Preliminary evaluation of lithofacies models for meandering alluvial streams. Mem.
Can. Soc. Pet. Geol., 5: 543-576.
Karcz, 1., 1968. Fluviatile obstacle marks from the wadis of the Negev (southern Israel). J. Sediment.
Petrol., 38: 1000-1012.
Kellerhals, R., Neill, C.R. and Bray, D.I., 1972. Hydraulic and geomorphic characteristics of rivers in
Alberta. River Engineering and Surface Hydrology Report 72-1, Research Council of Alberta,
Edmonton, 52 pp.
Kessler, L.G., 1971. Characteristics of the braided stream depositional environment with examples from
the South Canadian River, Texas. Earth Sci. Bull. West. Geol. Assoc., 4 : 2 5 35.
Leeder, M.R., 1973. Sedimentology and palaeogeography of the Upper Old Red Sandstone in the Scottish
Border Basin. Scott. J. Geol., 9: 117-144.
Leopold, L.B. and Wolman, M.G., 1957. River channel patterns; braided meandering and straight. U.S.
Geol. Surv. Prof. Pap., 282-B: 39-85.
Levey, R.A., 1978. Bed-form distribution and internal stratification of coarse-grained point bars, Upper
Congaree River. S.C. Mem. Can. Soc. Pet. Geol., 5: 105-127.
McCabe. P.J. and Jones, C.M., 1977. Formation of reactivation surfaces within superimposed deltas and
bedforms. J. Sediment. Petrol., 47: 707-715.
McCave, I.N., 1973. The sedimentology of a transgression: Portland Point and Cooksburg Members
(Middle Devonian), New York State. J. Sediment. Petrol., 43: 484-504.
McGowen, J.H. and Garner, L.E., 1970. Physiographic features and stratification types of coarse-grained
point bars: modern and ancient examples. Sedimentology, 14: 77-111.
McKee, E.D. and Weir, G.W., 1953. Terminology of stratification and cross-stratification. Bull. Geol.
Soc. Am., 64: 381-390.
Miall, A.D., 1977. A review of the braided stream depositional environment. Earth-Sci. Rev., 13: 1-62.
Miall, A.D., 1978a. Fluvial sedimentology: an historical review. Mem. Can. Soc. Pet. Geol., 5: 1-47.
Miall, A.D., 1978b. Lithofacies types and vertical profile models in braided river deposits: a summary.
Mem. Can. Soc. Pet. Geol., 5: 597-604.
Moody-Stuart, M., 1966. High- and low-sinuosity stream deposits, with examples from the Devonian of
Spitsbergen. J. Sediment. Petrol., 36:1102-1117.
Morgan, J.P., 1970. Depositional processes and products in the deltaic environment. Soc. Econ. Paleontol.
Mineral. Spec. Publ., 15: 31-47.
Nami, M. and Leeder, M.R., 1978. Changing channel morphology and magnitude in the Scalby
Formation (M. Jurassic) of Yorkshire, England. Mem. Can. Soc. Pet. Geol., 5: 431-440.
N E D E C O (Netherlands Engineering Consultants), 1959. River Studies and Recommendations on Improvement of Niger and Benue. North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1000 pp.

293

Nijman, W. and Puigdefabrigas, C., 1978. Coarse-grained point bar structure in a Molasse-type fluvial
system, Eocene Castisent Sandstone Formation, South Pyrenean Basin. Mem. Can. Soc. Pet. Geol., 5:
487-510.
Puigdefabrigas, C., 1973. Miocene point-bar deposits in the Ebro Basin, northern Spain. Sedimentology,
20: 133-144.
Puigdefabrigas, C. and Van Vliet, A., 1978. Meandering stream deposits from the Tertiary of the southern
Pyrenees. Mem. Can. Soc. Pet. Geol., 5: 469-485.
Rust, B.R., 1978. Depositional models for braided alluvium. Mem. Can. Soc. Pet. Geol., 5: 605-625.
Saunderson, H.C. and Lockett, F.P.J., 1981. Flume experiments on the dune-plane bed transition.
Modern and Ancient Fluvial Systems: Sedimentology and Processes, Abstracts. University of Keele,
Keele, p. 106.
Schwartz, D.E., 1978a. Sedimentary facies, structures and grain size distributions: the Red River in
Oklahoma and Texas. Gulf Coast Assoc. Geol. Soc., 28: 473-491.
Schwartz, D.E., 1978b. Hydrology and current orientation analysis of a braided-to-meandering transition:
the Red River in Oklahoma and Texas, U.S.A. Mem. Can. Soc. Pet. Geol., 5: 231-255.
Shantzer, E.V., 1951. Alluvium of River Plains in a Temperate Zone and its Significance for Understanding the Laws Governing the Structure and Formation of Alluvial Suites. Trans. Inst. Geol. Nauk,
Akad. Nauk, U.S.S.R., Geol. Ser. 135, 271 pp. (in Russian).
Shelton, J.W. and Noble, R.L., 1974. Depositional features of a braided-meandering stream. Bull. Am.
Assoc. Pet. Geol., 58: 742-752.
Shelton, J.W., Borman, H.R. and Noble, R.L., 1974. Directional features in braided-meandering stream
deposits: the Cimarron River, north-central Oklahoma. J. Sediment. Petrol., 44:1114-1117.
Smith, N.D., 1970. The braided stream depositional environment: a comparison of the Platte River with
some Silurian clastic rocks, north-central Appalachians. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 81: 2993-3014.
Smith, N.D., 1971. Transverse bars and braiding in the lower Platte River, Nebraska. Geol. Soc. Am.
Bull., 82: 3407-3420.
Smith, N.D., 1974. Sedimentology and bar formation in the Upper Kicking Horse River, a braided
outwash stream. J. Geol., 82: 205-223.
Stear, W.M., 1980. Channel sandstone and bar morphology of the Beaufort Group uranium district near
Beaufort West. Trans. Geol. Soc. S. Afr., 83: 391-398.
Stewart, D.J., 1981. A meander-belt sandstone of the Lower Cretaceous of southern England. Sedimentology, 28: 1-20.
Sundborg, A,., 1956. The River Klar~ilven: a study of fluvial processes. Geogr. Annal., 38: 127-316.
Trotter, F.M., 1942. Geology of the Forest of Dean Coal and Iron-Ore Field. Mem. Geol. Surv. U.K., 95
pp.
Tunbridge, I.P., 1981. Old Red Sandstone s e d i m e n t a t i o n - - a n example from the Brownstones (highest
Lower Old Red Sandstone) of south central Wales. Geol. J., 16:111-124.
Welch, F.B.A. and Trotter, F.M., 1961. Geology of the Country around M o n m o u t h and Chepstow. Mem.
Geol. Surv. U.K., 164 pp.
Williams, G.E., 1968. Formation of large-scale trough cross-stratification in a fluvial environment. J.
Sediment. Petrol., 38: 136-140.
Williams, G.E., 1970. Flood deposits of the sand-bed ephemeral streams of Central Australia. Sedimentology, 17: 1-40.