A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



at Mixon on the crest of a long oval-shaped dome that is bent into a large 

 number of lesser anticlines and synclines, and threaded with mineral lodes 

 containing ores of copper and lead. The top beds are also brought up on 

 another sharp fold in an old quarry near Congleton Edge, close to the 

 county border, west of Biddulph. In this section the highest thin bands 

 of limestone are intercalated with layers of tuffs, fragments of lava and 

 ashy fossiliferous limestone, thus denoting the presence of volcanic action 

 during the deposition of the strata. 1 Such evidences of igneous or vol- 

 canic activity during or closely subsequent to the deposition of the limestone 

 are abundant in Derbyshire, but do not actually occur within the county. 



A curious bed made up of rolled shells and fragments of waterworn 

 limestone has been traced by Dr. Wheelton Hind in the valley of the 

 Manifold, from Apes Tor to Ecton Bridge and Warslow. It occurs at 

 or near the summit of the limestone, a position it occupies in several 

 places in Derbyshire, notably near Castleton. 



The Carboniferous Limestone abounds in fossils, including genera 

 and species of corals, brachiopods, lamellibranchs, gasteropods, crustaceans 

 and cephalopods, and other invertebrates. The prolific trilobite fauna 

 of the Silurian and Devonian seas is however represented by only 

 three genera Bracbymetopus, Griffitbides and Pbillipsia forms distinct 

 from those of the preceding formations. Fish remains are not 

 abundant within the Staffordshire area, but numerous specimens have 

 been obtained at Park Hill in Derbyshire, just across the county border, 

 including types with pavement teeth such as would be adapted for 

 grinding and crushing corals. Attempts have been made, but with little 

 success, to distinguish one part of the massive limestone from another 

 by means of the fossils. Dr. Wheelton Hind regards the limestone as 

 one big zone, of which Productus giganteus, P. cora, Ghonetes papilionacea, 

 Amplexus coralloides constitute the zonal forms, and have a general dis- 

 tribution throughout the deposits of the period. 



PENDLESIDE SERIES 



The clear waters of the limestone seas became ultimately charged 

 with silts and muds brought down by a large river which spread its 

 deposits not only over North Staffordshire but also over a wide area in 

 mid-England, and which possibly reached the Isle of Man. 2 



With this change of conditions the varied marine fauna of the Car- 

 boniferous Limestone seas vanished and was replaced by a few mud-loving 

 molluscs, some of which are found attached to pieces of timber floated 

 out into the turbid waters. Muds ceased at times to be borne seaward, 

 enabling a marine fauna to establish itself. These periods of compara- 

 tively clear water, of which the fauna is abundantly preserved on Congleton 

 Edge in the strata exposed in a quarry to the east of the limestone inlier, 



1 W. Gibson and W. Hind, 'On Agglomerates and Tuffs in the Carboniferous Limestone 

 Series of Congleton Edge,' Quart. Journ. Geol. Sac. p. 548 (1899). 

 J W. Hind, Stuart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Ivii. 374 (i9 O1 )- 



8 



