THE SOUTH-EASTERN COALFIELD 405 



are collected with care, and information is thus obtained which 

 is as valuable to the engineers in their practical work as it is 

 to the pure geologist. 



VII. The New Collieries 



So great was the faith of moving spirits in these later 

 explorations, that two trial shafts were started even before 

 the Coal Measures were struck at the Waldershare boring. 

 These two exploratory pits had each a diameter of 7 ft. One 

 was situated in Singledge Lane, about a quarter of a mile south 

 of the Waldershare boring and about a mile north-east of 

 Lydden ; the second is in the parish of Eythorne, on the 

 Sandwich road, near the village of Tilmanstone. The former 

 has since developed into the Guilford Colliery, the second is the 

 well-known Tilmanstone Colliery. 



Guilford Colliery had attained a depth of nearly 300 ft. 

 when it entered the wet chalk. During the delay caused by 

 the preparation of the pumping plant, coal was struck at the 

 boring, and consequently the programme was enlarged. Instead 

 of widening the 7-ft. pit, it was decided to convert it into a 

 water-pit for the boiler supply, and to commence a pair of full- 

 sized 18-ft. shafts for a real colliery. No. 2 was marked out, 

 sunk the first 40 ft., the pillars erected, and then left to await 

 its future completion. No. 3, the Frances Shaft, was carried 

 down to the water-level, and then operations were suspended 

 for a few months owing to the attitude of the highway authori- 

 ties, as the bad weather and the works involved considerable 

 damages to the roads, and the consequent expenses were very 

 heavy. In the summer of 1907 operations were resumed, and 

 several months were spent in providing a sinking-plant suitable 

 to the more ambitious programme. The winding-engine was 

 ordered in January 1907: it was not under steam until twelve 

 months later. This illustrates the difficulties which have to be 

 contended with in this kind of work, and the long and tiresome 

 delays which are so irritating to staff and shareholder alike. 



When progress was resumed in the pit with the powerful 

 equipment of engines and boilers, it was found that the total 

 quantity of water coming from the combined feeders in the 

 zone of Holaster planus and in the marl bands of Terebratulina 

 gracilis was easily mastered by means of a water-barrel alone ; 

 this pit has the distinction of being the first to pass through 



