COAL MEASURES. l8l 



The best household coal was for many years procured from the 

 High Main coal of the Tyne, at a colliery at Wallsend. The 

 superior ' Wallsends ' of the Tyne being worked out, the term 

 ' Wallsend ' is now-a-days indifferently applied to coal from various 

 localities, which, however, furnish that best adapted for household 

 purposes. The term ' was originally descriptive of the coal drawn 

 from the spot where the old Roman wall ends on the northern side 

 of the Tyne.' The original Wallsend pit was sunk in 1770, and 

 abandoned in 1853. In one year a clear return of ^60,000 is said 

 to have been realized. 



The Newcastle Coal-field, as this district is sometimes called, 

 does not contain any anthracite, and only in one locality a thin 

 bed of cannel coal. Among the well-known collieries are those of 

 Hartley and Seaton, north of Tynemouth, Lambton, Hetton, 

 Monkwearmouth, etc. The south-eastern portion of the coal-field 

 is concealed by Permian rocks. 



Two extensive " slip dykes," or faults, cross the entire coal-field 

 from east to west. One is the great ninety-fathom dyke, which 

 extends from the sea near Cullercoats, on the east, to Tynedale 

 Fell on the west. The beds are thrown down on the north, and 

 the dyke produces an extraordinary prolongation of the coal-field 

 westwards along its course, forming the small detached coal-fields 

 at Stublick, Coan Wood, Midgeholme or Hartley Burn, etc., south 

 of Hexham and Haltwhistle. The other dyke is called the Butter- 

 knowle forty-fathom dyke, the strata being depressed along the 

 south side of it to that extent. There are several basaltic dykes 

 crossing the coal-field, generally in an east and west direction. 

 One of them, the " Cockfield Dyke," extends through the New Red 

 Sandstone, Liassic and Oolitic strata of North Yorkshire.^ 



Here and there in the Middle and Upper Coal-measures, layers 

 known as " Mussel Bands " are met with. These consist almost 

 entirely of the shells of Anthracosia. Mr. Lebour notes also the 

 occurrence of Lingida mytiloides in one of these shell-beds at 

 Ryhope, in Durham. From the Low Main Coal-shales Mr. T. P. 

 Barkas has obtained numerous fish-remains, as well as other fossils." 



Among the stones of economic importance, the Shawbank stone, of Stainton 

 quarries, Barnard Castle, in Durham, belongs to the Lower Coal-measures ; and 

 freestones have been worked at Heddon-on-the-Wall, west of Newcastle, and at 

 Kenton, north of the city. Newcastle grindstones are made from fine-grained 

 sandstones obtained at Byker Hill, Whickham Banks, and Gateshead Fell. 

 There are iron-works in the Wear valley, west of Bishop Auckland. 



2. WHITEHAVEN OR CUMBERLAND COAL-FIELD. 



This Coal-field extends along the coast of Cumberland by 

 Whitehaven, Harrington, Workington, and Maryport ; and as the 



^ For many of the above particulars I am indebted to a Report on Coal, Coke, 

 and Coal Mining, published by N. of Eng. Inst, of Mining Engineers, 1S63. 

 2 G. Mag. 1S68, pp. 4S6, 495 ; 1S73, p. 315 ; 1S74, p. 163. 



