GEOLOGY 



COAL MEASURES 



The Leicester Coalfield occupies that part of the county west of the 

 Charnwood Hills. It extends also into South Derbyshire, but the two are so 

 intimately connected together that it will be necessary in describing this 

 coalfield to include the whole area. 



The formation is composed of a series of sandstones and shales with 

 many seams of coal and ironstone. The coal seams vary in thickness from a 

 maximum of 1 5 ft., but the majority of workable seams are from 7 ft. to 8 ft. 

 or less. 



The strata are bent into a flat arch having its axis running in a north- 

 westerly and south-easterly direction parallel with that of Charnwood Forest, 

 so that the seams on the east dip to the east, while those on the west dip in 

 the main to the west, although there are several minor disturbances which 

 alter this general arrangement. The effect of this is that the coalfield is 

 separated into three areas, the western or Moira Coalfield, the eastern or 

 Whitwick Coalfield, and the central region of lower unproductive measures. 

 The coal seams on either side of the anticline have not as yet been correlated 

 with one another ; there is considerable difference in the nature of the 

 measures on the two sides of the coalfield, and until further advance has been 

 made in the palaeontology of these rocks it is not possible to compare the 

 seams with any certainty. 



The following is a list of the principal seams on the two sides of the 

 coalfield : 



MOIRA OR WESTERN COALFIELD WHITWICK OR EASTERN COALFIELD 



Average Average 



Name of Coal Seam Thickness Name of Coal Seam Thickness 



ft. in. ft. in. 



Ell 3 Stone Smut Rider .... 3 8 



Dickey Gobler 36 ( 3 o 



Jack Dennis, Block or Wat- Stone Smut \ to 



son 40 (60 



Little or Five Feet ....50 Swannington 40 



Main 140 Soft or Three Quarters ..20 



Toad or Little Woodfield ..40 Slate Coal Rider . . . . i o 



Slate 38 Slate 50 



Woodfield 60 Yard 40 



Stockings 70 Rattlejack 30 



Eureka 4 6 Stinking or Sulphurous ..30 



Stanhope 46 Main 60 



Kilburn 46 Smoilc 36 



Upper Lount 3 



Middle Lount 56 



Nether Lount 60 



Roaster 



Associated with some of these seams are beds of fireclay which are of 

 much importance, especially about Moira and Swadlincote, where they are 

 employed for the manufacture of firebricks, saggers, &c. The clays in the 

 upper part of the measures are also extensively used for sanitary pipes, &c. 



In the south-eastern part of the coalfield the seams are worked beneath 

 a thick covering of Keuper Marl and Sandstone, the Coal Measures them- 

 selves, except at Heather, being entirely hidden by this formation. 



7 



