VOL. XVI. (2) EXCURSION-NEWENT, CLIFFORD’S MESNE_ 107 
The Cotteswold Club visited Newent on May 14th, 1874, and the 
Rev. W. S. Symonds then expressed very much the same opinion as 
Murchison. If speculators wished to prosecute their search with any 
hope of a remunerative result in that district, they must sink, he held, 
at some place further away from the neighbourhood of the outcrop, 
where the beds were known to be so disturbed. ‘‘ They might 
dig under Newent itself with more hope ; at Colin Park and westwards 
of it with better hope still; so also eastwards of Pauntley or Tibber- 
ton.”* The same Club visited the Newent Colliery on September 
15th, 1892, when Mr W. C, Lucy exhibited a section by Mr Fox, C.E., 
of the rocks passed through by one of the shafts, but, unfortunately, 
it affords little information concerning the Coal-Measures.* 
The boring at the Gloucester Corporation Waterworks, about 
half a mile west of Newent, showed that ‘‘ the bottom Bunter beds 
were not completely pierced at 1190 feet,” 3 so that upon this evidence 
at least 400 yards of Waterstones and Bunter sandstones would have 
had to be pierced before the Coal-Measures would have been reached 
if this spot had been selected for a sinking for coal ; and, needless to 
say, the further east the trial was made the greater would be the 
thickness of the deposit to be pierced. From the foregoing remarks 
it is obvious that there is workable coal in the neighbourhood, 
and that the seams may have a considerable subterranean extent ; but 
that little remunerative work can be effected by starting too close to 
the outcrop of the beds, as has hitherto been the practice. On 
the other hand, starting in a suitable place near Newent would mean 
that a considerable thickness of water-containing sandstones would 
have to be traversed before the Coal-Measures could be reached. 
In the Radstock Coalfield, a miner informed me, water is a great 
trouble. A thin bed of ‘‘ Millstone Grit” (the local term for a thin 
bed of ‘‘ Dolomitic Conglomerate ”’) underlies the Keuper Marls. In 
sinking a shaft, when the ‘‘ grit” is reached, it is necessary to make 
sure that the shaft is watertight (or as near as possible) before piercing 
the grit-bed and passing into the Coal-Measures. In the Newent 
Coalfield also, much attention would have to be paid to the shaft down 
to the clay-beds of the Coal-Measures that act as a natural bottom to 
the reservoir of water (stored in the Waterstones and Bunter beds), 
which is drawn upon by the Gloucester Water-Works. 
While returning to Newent the Director drew attention to some 
of the physical features of the country, and pointed out their bearing 
on the native flora. He drew attention to the gorse and broom which 
brightened the landscape, and mentioned that whilst these plants were 
not altogether absent from the Cotteswold district, their presence 
there indicated an arenaceous deposit. They flourished on the west 
side of the Severn, because sand-rocks, rather than limestone, were in 
evidence, and it was because limestone preponderated in the hills 
on the eastern side that the gorse was so sparingly found. 
1 Proc. Cotteswold Nat. F. C., vol. vi, pt. 3, for 1874-75 (1876), p.133. 2 Jbid., 
vol. xi, pt. 1, for 1892-3 (1893), table facing p. 16. 3 Jézd., vol. xii, pt. 1, for 1895-96 
(1896), p. 25. 
J 
