COAL 835 



coal, it appears to belong to the lowest stratum of the Hastings sands, known as the 

 Ashburnham beds, which have never yet been fully explored. They rarely crop out 

 to the surface, and would be less known than they are were it not that they are occa- 

 sionally laid bare by water-courses, and are at times exposed at the base of clifls when 

 the sea makes deeper inroads than usual. It was this same kind of coal which gave 

 so great a zest, at the beginning of the present century, to the costly speculation at 

 Bexhill, near Hastings. In a boring near the seashore ' smut coal,' three feet thick, is 

 reported to have been found at the depth of 30 yards ; ' strong coal,' two feet thick, 

 at a depth of rather more than 50 yards ; and sulphureous coal of bad quality, more 

 than four feet thick, at a further depth. Being very near the sea the salt water 

 percolated into the boring, and although a powerful steam-engine was employed, the 

 exploration at that spot had to be abandoned. Another attempt was made further 

 inland, on Bexhill Down ; but coal does not seem to have been found in this second 

 effort, and after a large outlay ruinous to the principal adventurer the attempt -was 

 abandoned. The Bexhill coal, there is reason to believe, belonged to an upthrow of 

 the Ashburnham beds. 



The question of the existence of coal in our Southern Counties was carefully examined 

 by the Eoyal Coal Commission. Several witnesses, more especially Mr. Godwin Austen 

 and Mr. Prestwich, were examined, and the reports of their evidence are full of interest. 



The following is the general purport of the report made to the Koyal Coal Commis- 

 sion by Mr. Prestwich on the probabilities of finding coal in the South of England. 



' About two centuries ago the Belgian coal-field was found to extend, beneath the 

 newer formation on the frontiers, into Prance as far as Valenciennes. An uninter- 

 rupted chalk district extended northward, and the coal-measures were supposed to be 

 lost. But at a later period valuable coal was found to exist at Anjin. This led to 

 further search, and the coal-measures have been gradually followed in a western 

 direction under the chalk to within thirty miles of Calais. Looking at these facts, 

 and reasoning on theoretical considerations connected with the formation of coal in 

 the west of Europe, Mr. Godwin Austen concluded that coal-measures might possibly 

 extend beneath the south-eastern part of England. He showed that the coal-measures 

 which thin out under the chalk near Therouanne probably set in again near Calais, 

 and are prolonged in the line of the Thames Valley, parallel with the North Downs, 

 and continuing thence under the Valley of the Kennet extend to the Bath and 

 Bristol coal area. He showed, upon theoretical grounds, that the coal-measures of a 

 large portion of England, Prance, and Belgium were once continuous, and that the 

 present coal-fields were merely fragments of the great original deposit preserved in 

 hollows. These views are supported by many eminent geologists who gave evidence 

 before the Commission ; but they have been controverted by Sir Roderick Murchison, 

 who contends that in consequence of the extension of Silurian and Cambrian rocks 

 beneath the secondary strata of the south-east of England, and of the great amount 

 of denudation which the carboniferous rocks had undergone over the area of the South 

 of England previous to the deposition of the secondary formations, little coal could be 

 expected to remain under the Cretaceous rocks. Upon a general review of the whole 

 subject, Mr. Prestwich adopts, with slight variations, the views of Mr. Godwin 

 Austen, and is led to the conclusion that there is the highest probability of a large 

 area of productive coal-measures existing under the Secondary rocks of the South of 

 England. He shows that the thickness of these overlying rocks is not likely to exceed 

 1,000 to 1,200 feet, and considers that there is reason to infer that the underground 

 coal-basins may have a length of 150 miles, with a breadth of two to eight miles, 

 limits within which are confined the rich and valuable coal-measures of Belgium.' 



Mr. Prestwich shows that there are grounds for believing in the existence of coal 

 on the south side of the Mendips, and under adjacent parts of the Bristol Channel, 

 but at a depth of not less than 1,500 to 2,000 feet, and mentions also a small new 

 coal basin in the Severn valley, near New Passage. 



As the existence of coal under the unexplored area of the South of England is still a 

 question of theory, an attempt is now (1873) being made to settle this important question. 



The boring now going on in the parish of Netherfield, near Battle, is designed 

 to accomplish something more than a mere exploration of the Wealden strata. In 

 this case there is the hope of finding the Primary rocks, an expectation which was 

 deemed chimerical by the early school of geologists, but which is now vierwed in a very 

 different light. Experience has shown than all the strata which probably intervene 

 between one formation and another do not invariably occur. Several members of the 

 series may be absent, and we may experience a kind of plunge from upper secondary 

 rocks into those of the primary order. This is the probability which encourages the 

 sub-Wealden explorers. The Ashburnham beds have been ' pierced,' and it appears 

 that the boring tool is in some lower stratum. This may be so ; but the geology of 

 this Netherfield boring is not very clear, the depth of the boring is now above 300 



SH 2 



