In England the Cambrian successions include relatively continuous, dominantly argillaceous sequences (Nuneaton area, > 900 m thick) and arenaceous successions punctuated by hiatuses (Malvern, Shropshire). The Tremadoc (lower Ordovician) succeeds paraconformably; it is widespread, dominantly argillaceous and locally very thick (> 2000 m). Deposition of the lower Tremadoc is thought to have been rapid. Uplift of regional extent occurred in early Ordovician (post-Tremadoc) times and inversion of the basins, such as the Tremadoc Worcester Graben, occurred during the Variscan Orogeny. The disposition of the Cambrian–Tremadoc beneath the Upper Llandovery unconformity is thought to reflect the arrangement of basins and highs at that time. Evidence from seismic profiles indicates deposition in half-grabens. In the Welsh Borderland, evidence from outcrops and boreholes suggests that the St David's Series (Middle Cambrian) is locally thickened against syn-depositional faults. The thinning and local absence of the St David's Series across such faults is attributed to the influence of tilt-block highs. Rifting and tilting allowed thick Tremadoc to accumulate (e.g. in a precursor Worcester Graben), but evidence for the direction of thickening is masked by lack of seismic markers and by the effect of pre-landovery erosion.

The sedimentology and palaeontology of carbonate beds in the lower part of the Fosses Formation (Ashgill of the Condroz area, central Belgium) have been investigated. Two depositional interpretations are suggested: deposition either near a platform-ramp margin as bioclastic turbidites and interbedded shales or on a shelf as a transgressive sequence following a regressive event. Faunal affinities with the Baltic area and Wales are confirmed, and the location of Belgium in the tropics during the Ashgill is supported by the calcareous algae and the coral fauna.

Core material from proven or probable Silurian sedimentary rocks beneath East Anglia has been re-examined. Four recognizable facies probably represent an environmental transition from anoxic basin slope or outer shelf through oxygenated outer shelf to storm-dominated inner shelf. This transition could have occurred laterally, from east to west across the Anglian Basin, or in time, from Llandovery (early Silurian) up to Př (late Silurian). Partial biostratigraphical constraints allow either interpretation, but the regional setting favours a marked facies transition through time as the Anglian Basin shallowed prior to the Acadian Orogeny. Reddening of the Silurian is mostly secondary beneath the sub-Triassic unconformity.

The early Palaeozoic convergence of Avalonia and Laurentia created a foreland basin at the suture zone of the former lapetus Ocean. Sedimentological and stratigraphic evidence of shallowing and contemporaneous shortening suggests that the southern part of the basin (the Windermere Group) became detached from its basement in the late Ludlow, and began to invert. The detachment beneath the basin rooted into a northwest-dipping mid-crustal thrust system. Contemporaneous uplift to the north of the late Silurian basin involved shortening of the Avalonian foreland basement by thrusting. Basin inversion occurred ahead of a southeastward-advancing mountain front. We postulate a foreland (southeast) prograding sequence of thrusting through the Ludlow in the Lake District. The basin continued to migrate onto the Avalonian foreland through the early Devonian, ahead of an advancing orogenic wedge, finally coming to a stop in the Emsian.