141 THE ANCIENT INDUSTRIES OF CANNOCK CHASE. 
Beaudesert Park the ore occurs in bands and balls immediately above 
the Old Park Seam; the coal measures, in fact, are full of ironstone 
bands 3 to 4 inches thick. There isa place in the Park known as 
“Stone Pit Green,” and it is very probable that the old Bell pits 
were sunk there to get ironstone only, before coal had come into use. 
Near Stone Pit Green are large cinder heaps and traces of a smelting 
furnace site. This ironstone above the Old Park Seam was also got 
at the outcrop near Castle King, near which place are some large 
cinder heaps. This ore is not of very good quality, and may be that 
alluded to by Dr. Plott, who says in his Natural History before 
referred to :— 
‘«The meanest of the iron ores they call ‘ yellow share,’ an ill sort 
‘‘that runs all to dirt, and is good for nothing, and such is the iron 
‘““made of the Cannock stone, the lowest measure of iron ore about 
““ Dudley, which is so very sulphureous and terrestial that it is not fit 
‘to make iron.” 
There is, however, an excellent ironstone lying 3 or 4 feet below 
the “Old Men’s” Coal, and on the south side of the 100 yard Fault. 
there are evidences that it was got in large quantities, especially in 
the neighbourhood of Court Banks, Cannock Wood, Old Hednesford, 
and Noddy Fields. It consists of three beds or bands of iron ore 
lying in four feet of black clod. Besides these local supplies of ore, 
it is quite likely that ore of the same quality was brought from the 
surface mines of Cheslyn Hay and elsewhere on pack horses. This 
may be the reason why the road leading from Chasetown to Rawnsley 
is called the *“ Ironstone Road.” The following analysis is believed 
to be of the iron ore below the ‘‘ Old Men’s” Coal :— 
37:10 i iron 
10°70 % oxygen 
Protoxide of Iron .. _ ee o. 641680 
Carbonic Acid Me S 3 Bie | Si) Pa 
Silica is oa Se 
Alumina and Phosphate Ys is ve | Od 
Lime es a of. oe 1 62 
Magnesia .. ss Bt * vo) Sep 
Moisture .. ze *80 
Bituminous matter, “Magnesia, nd loss .. “49 
100-00 
