THE ANCIENT INDUSTRIES OF CANNOCK CHASE. 138 
In considering the different seams of coal which were formerly 
worked in this district, some of which have already been alluded to, 
we are brought face to face with an interesting Geological fact. The 
Upper Seams occur in the following order : 
Cannel Coal. 
Old Men’s Coal. 
Brooch Coal. 
Five Feet Coal. 
Top Hard Coal. 
Main Hard Coal or Old Park. 
All these seams were more or less worked. At Littleworth, Old 
Hednesford, Rawnsley, and at Cannock Wood, the “Cannel,” 
the ‘‘Old Men’s Coal” and the “ Five Foot” were worked; yet 
in adjoining fields to the North and all over Beaudesert Park 
and Pleachley and Hazel Slade, the only seam worked was the 
“Old Park,” all the others being absent. The reason being 
that a Fault running nearly East and West passes through New 
Hayes Covert, and throws up the measures North of it 100 yards. At 
some Geological period the coal measures were subjected to a great 
erosion, and the seams above the horizon of the ‘ Old Park” seam 
North of the Fault were washed away. So that we read in Miss 
Fienne’s Diary that the miners in 1695, working in the Beaudesert 
Park coal pits, complained of having ‘lost the vein of Cannel coal.” 
The Cannel coal appears to have been one of the first seams worked, 
and naturally so, because the uppermost. Besides its value as fuel, 
it was also valued on account of its capacity for taking a high polish, 
and was made up into a variety of fancy articles resembling jet. 
Dr. Plott, writing in 1686, says: 
“The floor of Lichfield Cathedral was paved with pieces of polished 
“Cannel Coal and Alabaster arranged in lozenge patterns of black and 
‘‘ white.” 
It is probable that this pavement was laid down in the Cathedral 
before the Estates of Beaudesert and Longdon were taken from the 
Bishops by King Henry VIII. The date of removal of the pavement 
