MR. E. W. BINNEY ON THE ORIGIN OF IRONSTONES. 33 



which had been long noticed by geologists, whilst those of 

 South Staffordshire had their attention directed to the oolitic 

 deposits near Northampton. True.it is that the ironmasters 

 of South Staffordshire had for some years received a consider- 

 able amount of calcined blackband, from the rich deposit of 

 that valuable mineral in the north of the county, found in the 

 upper part of the Pottery coal field ; but this had begun to 

 be used in a great measure by the furnaces on the spot, and 

 its extent is supposed not to be very great, unless it can be 

 followed under the new red sandstone, which, I believe, has 

 not yet been done ; on this account the ironmasters of South 

 Staffordshire have turned their attention to the ironstones of 

 the oolite near Northampton and Blisworth. These are not 

 of the richest class, and are much improved by the admixture 

 of other ores, such as haematite. 



Shortly after public attention had been directed to the 

 deposits in the oolite of the midland counties nearest South 

 Staffordshire, a gentleman of the name of Bishop discovered 

 a bed of haematite in the lower coal measures at Ipstones, a 

 few miles south of Leek ; although I am informed that no one 

 had in modern times worked this bed, from old workings and 

 other circumstances there is little doubt that it was known in 

 ancient times. Mr. Farey, in his Geology of Derbyshire and 

 the Adjoining Counties, at p. 402 of Vol. I. of his work, in 

 giving a list of the places where red and yellow ochres are 

 found, states that they are to be met with in the coal measures 

 near Dilhorn, in the same county (Staffordshire), and called 

 raddle. However, he says, that none of these ores had been 

 worked for iron making. Even so late as the year 1852, 

 Mr. Blackwell, the eminent South Staffordshire ironmaster 

 previously quoted, when he read his excellent paper at the 

 Society of Arts, appeared not to be aware of the existence of 

 this deposit, although he had been at the trouble of collecting 

 some hundreds of specimens of the iron ores of the United 

 Kingdom for the Great Exhibition. 

 F 



