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The publications of the Shropshire Geological Society have evolved since the Society's formation in 1979 from a brief Newsletter, joined by the Proceedings in 1981, through the growth (in both size and coverage) of the Newsletter through the 1990s leading to suspension of the Proceedings, to the explosion of geological activity at the present day with the web as well as the printed word available for recording the Society's activities.

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The field excursion which met at Craven Arms on May 15th 2004 focused on churches around the Stretton Hills, since this area is already well known for its complex geology and associated landscape patterns, which might be expected to be reflected in the choice of building stones. Geology and local history have made each of the churches different, but they nevertheless reveal some common trends. Three of them (St Laurence Church Stretton, St James Cardington, and St Peter Rushbury) still have Norman naves built of very locally derived rubble, later enlarged with better quality stone from fewer, specialised quarries. Meanwhile, the church of St Margaret at Acton Scott persevered in its use of the stone won from its own local and unique outcrop of Ordovician limestone.

Implications for conservation are discussed and the role of render is considered.

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The field excursion which met at Craven Arms on May 15th 2004 focused on the Stretton Hills. This area is well known for its complex geology and associated landscape patterns, reflected in the choice of building stones. Geology and local history have made each of the churches different, but they nevertheless reveal some common trends. Three of them (St Laurence Church Stretton, St James Cardington, and St Peter Rushbury) still have Norman naves built of locally derived rubble, later modified by better quality stone such as that from Grinshill. Meanwhile, the church of St Margaret at Acton Scott persevered in its use of the stone won from its own local and unique outcrop of Ordovician Acton Scott Limestone.

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Exposures were examined of a thick sequence of fluvioglacial sediments which are being actively extracted for building materials and construction aggregates. The bedrock geology is the Raglan Mudstone Formation (the Downtonian of the Pridoli Stage at the top of the Silurian), and is hundreds of metres in thickness. The Pleistocene superficial geology comprises well-bedded sandy gravels with occasional thin beds of sand. There appears to be very little silt or clay except at the base, where some 0.1 m of red-brown laminated silty clay occurs. The sandy gravels have the appearance of having been deposited by moving water, probably a braided river. The laminated silty clay appears to have been deposited within still water, possibly on a lake bed. The likelihood is that these deposits have been transported by glacial ice and then washed out by meltwater to be laid down by braided rivers; the earliest (lowest) part of the sequence might have been sedimented as a deltaic deposit within a temporary glacial lake (the thin clay at the base may represent a lake-bed mud). Some very large boulders have been encountered at the bottom of the fluvioglacial sequence at Bromfield, for which the name "tobogganite" has been suggested, with the implication of rafting across compacted snow.

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The geological trail of Titterstone Clee and Clee Hill was designed as a guide to lead the geological visitor through the evidence in the ground, tracing over one hundred million years of Earth history from the end of the Silurian when life was just beginning to become established on land, 419 Ma, through the Devonian to the later stages of the Carboniferous, 300 Ma. The Trail also reveals evidence on the ground of the effects of the Quaternary Ice Age, particularly the Devensian Stage which saw the last great advance of the glacial ice across northern and western Britain from 120,000 to just 11,000 years before present.

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All papers.