Notices of Memoirs — Coal at CheacUe, Staffordshire. 323 

 ITOTIGIES OIF lsd:E1^0II^S, ETC 



I. — The Geological Survey of England and important 

 Coal-Developments in North Staffordshire. 



LAST week the important announcement was made that the 

 Dilhorne seam of coal had been recovered at the Klondyke pit 

 No. 7, near Draycott Cross, Cheadle. For years sinking operations 

 have been conducted with the object of winning what was known 

 to be one of the most valuable seams of coal in the district, and 

 considerable sums of money have been spent in the quest. It had 

 always been held by old miners that although the Dilhorne seam 

 did exist at Dilhorne, it did not exist in or about Cheadle proper. 

 But from the inspection which was made of the Cheadle district 

 about two years ago by Mr. George Barrow, F.G.S., of the Geological 

 Survey, he came to the conclusion that the Dilhorne seam did exist 

 at Cheadle, and that there was an area of some four square miles 

 of it waiting to be worked.^ This conclusion was borne out by 

 Mr. Stobbs, the County Council lecturer in mining, from his 

 ■examination of the fossils found in the strata overlying the 

 coal-seams. In addition to these assurances, Mr. James Lockett, 

 Chairman of the Cheadle Park Colliery Company, who has undertaken 

 the researches that have at last proved successful, had the advantage 

 of the observations which were made by his son, Mr. William 

 Lockett, of the sections of strata which were penetrated by a borehole 

 on the estate of the Cheadle Park Colliery, as well as in the Foxdale 

 shaft and the Major Barn sinking, to assure him in his own con- 

 viction that the Dilhorne seam would be eventually won at the 

 Draycott Colliery. Mr. Lockett commenced sinking from the 

 Four-feet seam at the Draycott pit on January 1st this year. The 

 difficult work of sinking through the water-bearing strata which 

 lay beneath that seam has since been carried out efficiently, until 

 on the 16th inst. the Dilhorne seam was reached, lying at a depth 

 of 74 yards below the Four-feet seam and 150 yards from the 

 •surface, the seam at this point being about 5 ft. 1 in. thick and 

 clean and bright. It is understood to be Mr. Lockett's intention 

 to proceed with the opening out of the seam without delay, and it is 

 expected that there will be an output from the Draycott Colliery 

 within three years of a thousand tons a day. The land leased by 

 Mr. Lockett amounts to 710 acres, owned partly by Sir Thomas 

 Pilkington, Mr. F. Bolton, Oakamoor, and Mr. F. Mather, Betley, 

 and if Mr. Barrow is right in his estimate there should be in the 

 four square miles which comprise the Cheadle district a quantity 

 of coal, taking the Four-feet and the Dilborne seams together, of 

 from 20 to 25 million tons. In addition to this, there are two 

 seams below the Dilhorne seam which have not yet been tapped. 

 First, there is the ' cobble ' vein, which is 2 feet thick, and then 

 there is the Woodhead seam, 2 ft. 10 in. in thickness. 



1 [See "The Geology of the Cheadle Coalfield," by George Barrow, F.G.S., 

 Mem. Geol. Survey, 1903, pp. 27, 28.— Edit. Geol. Mag.] 



