The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Headon Hill Formation

Computer Code: HEHI Preferred Map Code: HH
Status Code: Full
Age range: Priabonian Age (GI) — Priabonian Age (GI)
Lithological Description: Divided into nine members (see Supplementary Information) comprising interbedded clay, silt and sand units with several limestone and lignite beds. Variably shelly.
Definition of Lower Boundary: The shelly silty clays and fine-grained sands with some lignite of the Totland Bay Member rest on an erosion surface overlying the fine- to medium cross-bedded sands of the Becton Sand Formation.
Definition of Upper Boundary: Everywhere the top of the formation is at the erosive contact into the various lithologies of the constituent members at the base of the Bembridge Limestone Formation.
Thickness: Up to 75 to 90m on the Isle of Wight.
Geographical Limits: The Isle of Wight and the mainland cliff sections from Barton-on Sea to Lepe Point and inland to include the New Milton, Lymington, Brockenhurst and Beaulieu areas in southern New Forest, Hampshire.
Parent Unit: Solent Group (SOLT)
Previous Name(s): Headon Beds And Osborne Beds (Undifferentiated) (HEOS)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Type Area  Various localities at which the constituent members are exposed throughout the Isle of Wight and the southern Hampshire cliffs. 
Reference(s):
King, C. In press. A correlation of Tertiary rocks in the British Isle and adjacent areas. Special Report of the Geological Society of London, No.12. 
Insole, A, Daley, B, and Gale, A. 1998. The Isle of Wight. Geologists’ Association Guide. No. 60. (The Geologists’ Association.)  
White, H J O. 1921. A short account of the geology of the Isle of Wight. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, (1994 reprint). 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
E330