§5 



Carboniferous rocks, having undergone many changes and much 

 denudation, were in later but still very remote geological times 

 overlaid by newer formations which now cover the entire surface 

 of the parish, capping the higher ground with Inferior Oolite and 

 Lias, while the lower slopes and the bottoms of the valleys are 

 occupied by the Rhoetic beds and Keuper Marls. 



The Middle Pit, in which the sinking operations referred to 

 have been carried on, is situated about 100 yards on the North 

 side of the Radstock Market Place, and is easily recognised by 

 its tall, circular stone chimney, which visitors may have noticed 

 on their right in driving into Radstock from Bath. The shaft, 

 being situated in the bottom of the valley, did not meet with the 

 Lias and Rhoetic beds, but passed at once into the Keuper 

 Marls, which are here 89 feet in thickness, and rest on a bed 

 of Conglomerate immediately overlying the Coal Measures. These 

 Marls, fed by the rain and streams from above, and resting 

 on a water-tight bed beneath, yield a large quantity of water ; 

 but it is ordinary spring water, without any special mineral 

 ingredient. 



It is hardly necessary to state that it is these same Marls 

 which, in the Midland Counties, yield almost all the Rock Salt and 

 Brine Springs which we possess in England. Although only about 

 170 feet in thickness in the Radstock area, the New Red Sandstone 

 of Cheshire attains a thickness of 1,700 feet; and it is the 

 upper 700 feet of this formation which contains the Salt Mines 

 and Brine Springs which, in Worcestershire and Cheshire, yield 

 annually from 160,000 to 170,000 tons of prepared Salt. But 

 although geologically identical, no trace of either Rock Salt or 

 Salt Springs has ever, so far as the writer is aware, been met with 

 in the Keuper Marls of Radstock. 



Immediately under the New Red Sandstone, but not at all 

 conformable with it, lies the upper or Radstock group of the 

 Somersetshire Coal Measures, to win which the jVIiddle Pit was 

 originally sunk, and which has here been worked successfully for 



