Just before World War I started, Jackson received a grant from the Royal Society of London to undertake geological survey work in the Dovedale area. Work was suspended during the war, but continued between 1918 and 1928. Jackson also conducted studies of the geology and palaeontology of other areas of North Derbyshire, especially in the Edale region. Jackson's study of the geological succession below the Kinder Scout grit, in which he demonstrated the presence of the Namurian Zones by their content of fossil Goniatites, was acknowledged by as an important contribution to Carboniferous stratigraphy.