476 Farming of Warwicksldie. 



The Warwickshire Coal-Fidd stretches from the east of Tam- 

 worth, alons^ the borders of Leicestershire to Nuneaton, and thence 

 on each side of the road to Coventry, to within two miles of the 

 town. The coal-measures preserve a breadth of about three miles. 

 As the beds dip rapidly, and are mantled round by the superior 

 strata of sandstone and marl, the agricultural character of the 

 district differs little from that of the surrounding country ; and 

 there is little of that cold, poor clay-land which often prevails 

 near the coal-fields elsewhere. Large masses of compact green- 

 stone are found in this district, and are now transported to every 

 part of the county for the mending of roads. It is called, from 

 the spot where it is dug, Hartshill-stone. 



The New Red Sandstone spreads over the greater part of War- 

 wickshire. It occupies the whole of the central and northern 

 portion, with the exception of the coal-fields. On the south it 

 meets the lias at a line drawn across the county from a point a 

 mile south of Dunc;hurch, through Long Itchington, and thence 

 to Friz Hill, and into Gloucestershire, a little to the south of 

 Stratford-on-Avon. We have not the means of pointing out 

 with exactness the beds of marl, sandstone, and conglomerate of 

 which this formation consists. The red clays are found at the 

 south-west corner around Henley and Alcester. At Kenilworth, 

 and thence to Coventry, the soil rests upon a sandstone rock, 



known as the " Northern drift." Quartz pebbles especially abound in it; granite, 

 gneiss, sienite, porphyry, slate, mica schist, trap, and almost every other variety of 

 the primary rocks may be collected. 



The course of the Lias may be traced from the neighbourhood of Edge Hill (where 

 its upper beds of black shale, with bands of blue and grey limestone, occupy the 

 same relative position as in Gloucestershire and Somerset, forming the top stratum 

 of the hills, overlying the marlstone), towards Harbury. where its lower beds are 

 intersected by a long deep cutting of the Great Western Railroad, being composed 

 of blue clay and shale, traversed by irregular beds of limestone. The marlstone, 

 between the upper and lower beds of the lias, is a hard micaceous sandstone, 20 feet 

 thick, and is largely developed at Edge Hill. The strata immediately below it 

 consist of clay and ironstone, rich in iron ore, especially at Chipping Campden. 

 Some fine sections of the lower lias may be seen at Mr. R. Greaves' extensive 

 quarries at Stockton. It traverses the county by Henley in Arden, Stratford, 

 Kineton, Southam, and Rugby, whence it may be traced into Leicestershire. The 

 total thickness of the Lias in the midland counties is .500 feet. 



The new red sandstone, spreading out from Gloucestershire and following the 

 lias in its north-east course, occupies a considerable area in Warwickshire. Its r(ppcr 

 red marls may be observed iiear Alcester and Stratford. It is the great depository 

 of salt and gypsum, furnishing the mineral waters of Cheltenham and Leamington, 

 tfuderneath this, capping tlie Alne Hills and stretching towards Henley in Arden 

 and Preston Bagot, is the gi'ey and white sandstone, called the Keuper sandstone. 

 Near Knowle there is a kind of basin of red marl, with a small outlier of lias in 

 the centre ; the Keuper striking thence by Lapworth and Kowington to Shrewley, 

 where the following section may be seen in the cutting of the Great Western Rail- 

 way, viz., red marl, 40 feet; sandstone and green marl, "20 feet ; red marl, 10 feet : 

 total 70 feet. Between this and the Warwick sandstone there is a great thickness 

 of red marl, well displayed at Hatton Hill. This is succeeded by the soft white 

 sandstone of Warwick, and the still lower red or hunter sandstone of Kenilworth 

 and Coventry. — C. W. Hoskyns. 



