THE ANCIENT INDUSTRIES OF CANNOCK CHASE. 140 
is uncertain, but it most likely took place during the restoration of 
the Choir by Wyatt about 1788 in consequence of the pavement 
having become worn and broken. Among the curiosities of 
Beaudesert in 1730 were the Family Arms cut out of Cannel coal. 
So much was this seam valued as a gas coal that it continued to 
be worked until 35 years ago by the Cannock Chase Colliery Co., Ld. 
in spite of its thickness being only on an average 11 inches. It was 
necessary to remove so much stone in getting it that the pit was 
abandoned, and the great heaps at Wimblebury known as the “ Can- 
nel mounds” bear testimony to this. ‘The coal here lay between two 
Faults, and it is a curious fact that the coal was found broken up 
into angular ‘blocks, the cracks being filled with white clay forced 
up from the bed of fire clay below, showing that a great pressure had 
been brought to bear on it. The Old Men’s Coal was worked at Can- 
nock Wood and in the neighbourhood of Noddy Fields, &c. The seam 
crops out at Cannock Wood and at No. 7 pit, and also at Piggot’s clay 
pit, where some years ago the clay diggers broke into some old pit 
workings. The Five-foot Coal was worked at Rawnsley, but only to a 
limited extent. The Old Park Seam is an excellent coal, 4 ft. 6 in. to 
5 ft. thick. It was extensively worked in Beaudesert Park, north of the 
100 yard Fault, being there at a depth of about 30 yards. From the 
great number of old pit-holes in the Park and its vicinity, it is 
evident that the method of working carried out was that known as 
Bell or Beehive pits. The method was to begin the shaft about 5 ft. 
diameter at the top, increasing the diameter to about 12 ft. at bottom, 
and getting the coal it covered and as far round the margin as was 
considered safe. The difficulties of underground haulage and venti- 
lation prevented the old miners from extending their workings far 
_ from the shaft bottom. After the coal was extracted the shaft was 
abandoned and another sunk not far away—the dirt out of the new 
shaft being used to fill up the old one. 
The iron ores which for so many centuries supplied the smelting 
furnaces of Rugeley and district were to a great extent local. In 
