636 REPORT— 1886. 



4. On tlie Extension and prolalle Duration of tJie South Staffordshire 

 Coalfield. JBtj Henry Johnson, F.G.S. 



After giving an historical sketch of the progress of coal-mining iu South 

 Staffordshire, with special reference to the trials in search of coal beneath the Red 

 Rocks, the writer went on to describe in detail the results of some borings put down 

 by the Sandwell Park Colliery Company. After passing through 16 yards of 

 surface drift, containing rounded pieces of coal, limestone, and other rocks, the 

 Permians were entered, having a uniform dip of one in three to the east. The 

 sinking then continued through red rocks until a depth of 80 yards was reached, 

 •when red and purple marls set iu and continued to a depth of 200 yards, 

 at which point the base of the Permians was reached, and the Upper Coal Measiu-es 

 entered. These Upper Coal Measures (unknown iu the parent portion of the coal- 

 field, and composed of blue shales and white sandstones, containing irregularly 

 deposited thin bands of coaly matter) continued uutil a depth of 287 yards was 

 reached, and after passing thi-ough 131 yards of Lower Coal Measures (comprising 

 purple marls, conglomerates, and blue binds) the Thick Coal was reached, at a 

 depth of 418 yards, on May 28, 1874, and proved to be about nine yards in thick- 

 ness. At 123 yards, and in the red aud purple marls, a band of limestone, about 

 12 inches thick, and containing Spirorbis carbonarius, was passed through, this being 

 the first instance in South Staffordshire. The sinking of the 10-feet diameter trial 

 shaft occupied about four years, and the maximum quantity of water encountered 

 in the sinking was about 750 gallons per minute, which, however (after the water- 

 bearmg strata to the rise had been drained), diminished to about 40 gallons. It 

 was met with principally in the red rocks ot the Permians and in the sandstones of 

 the Upper Coal Measures. 



Beautiful and rare plant-remains of Coal Measure types were met with in the 

 Permians, and many others were found in piercing the Coal Measures proper — the 

 former circumstance seeming to suggest that the Permians would perhaps be more 

 correctly named Upper Coal Measures ; and if they were coloured on the Geo- 

 logical Survey maps as Coal Measures it would put a different complexion on our 

 geological maps of the country. It would, in any case, be interesting and 

 valuable information to know where the Permians end and the Coal Measures 

 begin. 



The whole of the fossils found during sinking operations are now in the able 

 hands of Dr. Henry Woodward, of the British Museum, and they will, no doubt, 

 form an interesting study when thoroughly investigated and described, as they no 

 doubt will be. Since the discovery of the coal in 1874, explorations to the north 

 for upwards of a mile and a quarter, and to the south for about a quarter of a 

 mile, have been made, and the Thick Seam was fouud to be of average quality and 

 about nine yards thick. It has also been explored for about a quarter of a mile to 

 the east towards Birmingham, and found to first dip rapidly, then slowly^, and then 

 almost level, until a small upthrow fault is reached, beyond which it rises gently 

 towards Birmingham. The underground explorations to the west or towards the 

 parent coalfield, together with explorations from the Spon Lane Colliery to the 

 east, have undoubtedly proved Sir Roderick Murchison's theory of the existence of 

 an underground Silurian bank, for, whilst the Spon Lane explorations have 

 extended to where the seam is found partially removed by denudation and in a 

 fragmentary condition on the western slope of the bank, the Sandwell explorations 

 have extended to a point where the seam is lost by a sudden thinning out on the 

 eastern slope, after having been subjected to numerous slight dislocations. 



I should mention that the information relating to the Spon Lane side of the 

 bank is from notes kindly supplied by Messrs. Cooksey and Son, who conducted the 

 explorations : that relating to the Sandwell side is i'rom my own personal obser- 

 vations. A large quantity of salt (brackish) water was met with in making the 

 Sandwell explorations, and took a considerable period to drain off. 



Benefiting by the discovery at Sandwell, the Perry and Hamstead sinkings 

 were commenced about two-and-a-half miles to the north-east and considerably to 

 the deep of Sandwell, the former being more than two miles and the latter about 



