If we lay aside for the moment all the minor irregularities, we find, upon examination of a geological map of England, two structural features of outstanding importance. (1) The first is the great anticline of the Pennine Hills which dominates the northern half of England from the Scottish border to Derby. Its central core of Lower Carboniferous rock is broadly displayed towards the north, while southward it contracts; on either side lie the younger rocks, the coal-fields, the Permian strata and the Triassic formations, the last-named, while sweeping round the southern extremity of the Carboniferous axis of the uplift from its eastern and western flanks, spread out in a large sheet over the midland counties. (2) The second striking feature is the regular succession of Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks which crop out in almost unbroken lines from the coast of Dorsetshire, whither they appear to converge, to the Cleveland Hills and the Yorkshire coast. Lying upon the Cretaceous rocks in the S.E. of England are the two Tertiary basins of London and Hampshire, separated by the dissected anticline of the Weald.
The older rocks in England occupy relatively small areas. Pre-Cambrian rocks are represented by the gneisses of Primrose Hill and schists of Rushton in Shropshire; by the gneisses forming the core of the Malvern Hills, and by the ancient volcanic and other rocks of the Wrekin, Charnwood Forest and Nuneaton. The slates of the Long Mynd, on the Shropshire border, belong to this system. Cambrian strata appear in Shropshire in the form of sandstones and quartzites; in the Malvern Hills they are black shales, while in the Lake District they are represented by the Skiddaw slates. Next in point of age comes the Ordovician system, which is well developed upon the Shropshire border and in the Lake District. In the same two areas we find the Silurian rocks, shales and limestones with grits and flags. In N. and S. Devon are the Devonian limestones, grits and shales; the corresponding Old Red Sandstone type of the system (marls and sandstones) being exposed over a large part of Herefordshire, stretching also into Shropshire and Monmouth. Next in order of succession comes the Carboniferous system, with shales and limestones in the lower members, grits, sandstones and shales—the Millstone Grit series—in the middle of the system, followed by the Coal Measures—a great series of shales with coal, sandstones and ironstone at the top. This important system occupies a large area in England. The limestones and shales are well exposed in Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Northumberland, the Mendip Hills and at Clifton. The Millstone Grit series is prominent in Lancashire, Derbyshire, N. Staffordshire, Yorkshire and in the Forest of Dean. The Coal Measures rest upon the Millstone Grits in most places, generally in synclinal basins. On the eastern side of the Pennine range are the conterminous coal-fields of Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and the coal-field of Durham and Northumberland; on the western side are the Whitehaven, Burnley, S. Lancashire and N. Staffordshire coal-fields. Farther south are the S. Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Coalbrook Dale, Forest of Wyre, Forest of Dean and Bristol and Somerset coal-fields; while much concealed coal lies under younger formations in the south-east of England, as has been proved at Dover. A large part of N. Devon is occupied by the Culm shales, limestones and grits of Carboniferous age. The principal development of Permian rocks is the narrow strip which extends from Nottingham to Tynemouth; here the Magnesian limestone is the characteristic feature. On the other side of the Pennine Hills we find the Penrith sandstone of the Vale of Eden and the Brockram beds of the Lake District. Red sandstones and conglomerates of this age constitute some of the red rocks which form the picturesque scenery about Dawlish and Teignmouth.
The Triassic rocks, red sandstones, marls and conglomerates cover a broad area in the Midlands in Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Leicestershire, whence they may be followed south-westward through Somerset to the coast at Sidmouth, and northward, round either flank of the Pennine Hills, through Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire to Middlesbrough on the one hand, and upon the other through Staffordshire, Cheshire and Lancashire to Carlisle.
The outcrop of the Lias, mainly clay with thin limestones and ironstones, runs in an almost continuous band across the country from Lyme Regis, through Bath, Cheltenham, near Leicester, and Lincoln to Redcar in Yorkshire. Closely following the same line are the alternating clays and limestones of the Oolitic series. Next in order come the Greensands and Gault, which lie at the base of the Chalk escarpment, between that formation and the Oolites. The Chalk occupies all the remaining portion of the south-east of England, save the Wealden area, and extends northward as far as Flamborough in Yorkshire, forming the Yorkshire Wolds, the Lincolnshire Wolds, the Chiltern Hills, the N. and S. Downs, the Dorsetshire heights and Salisbury Plain. But in the eastern and southern counties the Chalk is covered by younger deposits of Tertiary age; the Pliocene Crags of Norfolk and Suffolk, the Lower London Tertiaries (London Clay, Woolwich and Reading Beds, &c.) of the London Basin comprising parts of Essex, Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Bucks and Berks, and northern Kent. Again, in the Hampshire Basin and Isle of Wight, Eocene and Oligocene formations rest upon the Chalk.
When we attempt to decipher the physical history of the country from the complicated record afforded by the stratigraphical palimpsest, we are checked at the outset by the dearth of information from being able to picture the geographical condition in the older Palaeozoic periods. All we can say is, that in those remote times what is now England had no existence; its site was occupied by seas which were tenanted by marine invertebrates, long since extinct. As for the boundaries of these ancient seas, we can say nothing with certainty, but it is of interest to note the evidence we possess of still older land conditions, such as we have in the old rocks of Shropshire, &c. In the Devonian period it is clear that an elevatory movement had set in towards the north, which gave rise to the formation of inland lakes and narrow estuaries in which the Old Red Sandstone rocks were formed, while in the south of England lay the sea with a vigorous coral fauna. This condition led up to the Carboniferous period, which began with fairly open sea over the south and north of England, but in the centre there rose an elevated land mass from which much of the Millstone Grit was derived; other land lay towards the north. Slowly this sea shallowed, giving rise to the alternating estuarine marine and freshwater deposits of the Coal Measures. Continual elevation of the land brought about the close of the coal-forming period and great changes ensued. Desert conditions, with confined inland seas, marked the Permian and Triassic periods. It was about this time that the Pennine Hills, the Lake District mountain mass, and the Mendip Hills were being most vigorously uplifted, while the granite masses of Cornwall and Devon were perhaps being injected into the Carboniferous and Devonian rocks. From this period, more or less of the Pennine ridge has always remained above the sea, along with much of Cornwall and parts of Devonshire.
In early Jurassic times the sea probably again occupied most of England with the exception of the above-mentioned areas, the Lake District and eastern part of the London Basin; Wales, too, and much of Scotland were land. Elevation gradually caused more land to appear in later Jurassic and early Cretaceous times when a river system, now entirely obliterated, drained into the Purbeck estuary and Wealden lake; but a subsequent depression led to the wide extension of the Chalk sea. By the beginning of the Eocene period we find the sea limited to the S.E. of England, where the London Clay, &c., were being laid down. It was not until quite late in Tertiary time that these islands began to assume anything like their present form. In the earlier part of the Pleistocene period, England and Ireland were still incompletely severed, and the combined activity of certain extinct rivers and the sea had not yet cut through the land connexion with the continent. The last well-marked lowering of the land took place in the Pleistocene period, when it was accompanied by glacial conditions, through which the greater part of northern England and the Midlands was covered by ice; a state of things which led directly and indirectly to the deposition of those extensive boulder clays, sands and gravels which obscure so much of the older surface of the country in all but the southern counties.
Throughout the whole period of its geological history, volcanic activity has found expression with varying degrees of intensity along what is now the western side of the island, with the exception that in the Mesozoic era this activity was in abeyance. We may note the pre-Cambrian lavas and tuffs of the Wrekin district in Shropshire and the somewhat later volcanic rocks of Charnwood; the porphyrites, andesites, tuffs and rhyolites of the Borrowdale volcanic centre, erupted in the Ordovician period, and the Silurian granites of the same region. The volcanic outbursts which followed became feebler in the Devonian and Carboniferous periods and ceased with the Permian. When again the volcanic forces became active, it was in the early Tertiary era; the evidences for this lie outside the English border.
The principal directions of crust movement in England are: (1) north and south, by which the Pennine folds and faults, and the Malvern Hills have been produced; (2) east and west, by which the folds of the Weald and the Mendip Hills, and those of Devonshire have been formed. Another less important direction is N.W. and S.E., as in the Charnwood folding.
Further details of the geology are given under the heads of the counties.