A. R. Horwood— Upper Trias, Lewestershire. 457 
worked at Dane Hill, where old quarries still exist. Many of the 
Roman architectural remains in the Leicester Museum testify to its 
use in Roman buildings. It hardens on exposure, but is friable and 
soft. The Orton-on-the-Hill Sandstone group’ has been used for 
building at Diseworth and Kegworth, and probably at Orton, but no 
quarries now exist. 
Building sand is obtained from the Lower Keuper near Atherstone, 
and it is used for the same purpose at Leicester, the Upper Keuper 
Dane Hill Sandstone being utilized. Where of a sandy character the 
Upper Keuper marls are used for sand at Leicester. The marls of 
the Lower Keuper are used for brick-making at Coalville, Ellistown, 
Ibstock, Heather, Measham, and about Atherstone, as well as in the 
Nottingham and Derby district. 
In the Red Marl area brick-making is carried on extensively, being 
the main industry, close to the principal towns and lines of railway. 
Some forms, with much lime and skerry, are unsuitable for this, but 
the higher beds as a rule yield a good form of brick-clay, and the 
local glacial clays when free from stones are sometimes mixed with 
them, as at Sileby and near Leicester. Pits are at work at Hathern, 
Loughborough, Sileby, Belgrave, Thurmaston, Knighton, Blaby, 
Glenfield, Bagworth, Ashby, Waterloo Hill, Burton, Quorn, Hoton, 
Walton, and elsewhere. 
The Tea-green Marls have been utilized for brick-making at Glen 
Parva and Gipsy Lane, and formerly at Spinney Hills, and in the 
Rhetic beds of that place and at Glen Parva, but the last-named 
pit is now filled with water. 
Road-metal was obtained from the Orton Hill Sandstone at 
Diseworth, and the flinty limestones of the Upper Rhetics have 
been used in South Notts. The Rhetic limestones and nodular 
limestones of the Tea-green Marls figure as tessere in the local 
Roman pavements. 
Gypsum locally is not of such importance as at Newark and 
elsewhere in Notts. In this area it is worked at Gotham, Thrumpton, 
Kingston, and West Leake, where it is ground for plaster. Near 
Leicester the only use to which it is put is for grotto work, and it can 
be obtained for 5s. a cartload. Some ornamental work was formerly 
executed in the district, however, as the alabaster font at Old Humber- 
stone Church was made from the Gipsy Lane mineral. Plaster is only 
made to a limited extent at Leicester. It was formerly mined at an 
old pit on the Regent Road. ‘Toa slight extent it is used as a top 
dressing for soils,” but since the introduction of artificial manures the 
practice has been largely discontinued. The fibrous gypsum or satin’ 
spar from which ornaments are made is of as good quality and some- 
times nearly as thick as in Notts, where it sold for £6 to £7 a ton 
at one time and was sent to Derby, where it was made into brooches, 
bracelets, etc., and shipped abroad. Formerly the alabaster industry 
must have been carried on locally, as many ecclesiastical monuments 
1 The stone was used for threshing-floors at Orton, Austrey, Copt Oak, 
Charley, where bricks were also made. 
2 Fetching at one time 10s. a ton. 
