LEICESTER IN ITS REGIONAL SETTING II 
Below the surface the coal lies in a geological basin, the upturned edge 
of which is faulted against the Charnian mass on which we are standing. 
It was probably formed at a period when the Charnian mass was an island 
or series of islands in the Carboniferous swamps. ‘The coal basin is 
divided into two parts or zones running from north-west to south-east 
parallel to the axis of the Charnwood, by an anticline running approxi- 
mately through Ashby-de-la-Zouch. This central area is largely 
unproductive. The chief mining areas therefore lie in a western zone 
round Swadlincote, Moira and Donisthorpe, and in an eastern zone 
around Coalville and Coleorton. This latter zone is mostly concealed 
under a thick sheet of Triassic marls and boulder clay. Much of the 
western zone is heavily faulted. This adds to the difficulty and expense 
of working. ‘The pithead gears, the miners’ rows, the numerous small 
towns and overgrown villages, the absence of large scale manufacturing 
industry, the numerous mineral spur lines of railway, and the relatively 
dense population, are all forms of the cultural landscape which here reflect 
a definite relationship or series of relationships to the underlying geological 
structure and surface topography. ‘They are the concrete expressions of 
man’s relationship to nature in the Leicestershire coalfield. 
A wholly different district is that of Charnwood Forest. Here we find 
some of the very few parts of the Leicester Region in which some of the 
natural landscape remains, though even here much of the natural forest 
cover has been removed and that which remains has been largely replanted. 
Elsewhere in the Leicester region the landscape which we see is either 
man-made or is nature modified by man. In the Charnwood Forest 
district, bare, rocky peaks, steep slopes, narrow gorges, wooded hills, 
patches of woodland, bracken, heather, gorse and moorland, and small 
streams are the chief natural features of the landscape. Of the cultural 
forms, grass fields and cultivation in the valley bottoms and middle slopes, 
scattered farmsteads with a few small villages, quarries in the hillsides, 
five reservoirs on the edges of the district, a few bungalows and small 
houses for vacationists and weekenders, one good main road and numerous 
improved side roads, are the more obvious. 
The district consists of a mass of ancient rocks partly buried in the 
younger Triassic marls. The general trend of the relief is from north- 
west to south-east. ‘There are four main belts of upland which break out 
here and there into ragged, rocky eminences—the projecting ribs of the 
underlying structure. These belts of upland are separated by three 
longitudinal depressions. ‘They contrast sharply in their smooth outlines, 
their arable and pasture land, with the barren, rocky, and often tree- or 
bracken-covered ridges on either hand. In this contrast lies one of the 
great charms of the Forest area, and in it is to be found one of the reasons 
why the district performs the useful function of being a playground for 
the people of Leicestershire. The fine air available on the ridges and 
slopes and in some of the more elevated villages such as Woodhouse 
Eaves is a further reason. 
Near the centre of each longitudinal depression there is a water parting. 
From it streams flow north-west and south-east, sometimes turning 
sharply ata right angle to cut their way through a bar of ancient rock—thus 
