T C. Cantrill — Spi'rorbis- Limestones. 447 



III. — Spirosbis -Lth-esioses ly the 'Peemiax' op the South 

 Staffordshire axd Warwickshire Coal-ftelds.^ 



Bv T. C. Caxtrill, B.Sc. Lond., F.G.S. 



Sottih Staffordshire. 



APEKIOD of nearly forty years has now elapsed since several 

 bands of iS/?//-o/-i?«-limestone were met with in the so-called 

 Lower Permian rocks of the South Staffordshire Coal-field during 

 the sinking of the Sandwell Park and Hamstead pits in the neighbour- 

 hood of "West Bromwich. From the published accounts of those 

 sinkings, in the first case by Mr. Henry Johnson, and in the second 

 by Messrs. Meachem and Insley and Dr. Robert Kidston, Spirorhis- 

 limestones appear to have been found at 206 feet above the base of 

 the 'Permian' at Sandwell. and at 329 and 795 feet respectively at 

 Hamstead. 



But although the group of red marls and sandstones sunk through 

 in the pits occupies a considerable area in the Clent Hills district, 

 a few miles to the south-west, no surface outcrops of any such lime- 

 stones had been discovered. It was particularly desirable, therefore, 

 that an examination should be made of the sections of these red rocks 

 afforded by the pipe-trench of the Birmingham "Waterworks (Elan 

 Supply), with a view to finding the surface positions of the bands of 

 limestone met with in the pits, and of any others that might be 

 present. 



During the month of August, 1901, I was commissioned by the 

 Director of the Geological Survey to examine the sections along the 

 pipe-trench between the gathering ground at Rhayader, in Radnorshire, 

 and the terminal reservoir at Frankley, near Birmingham. Several 

 new facts were brought to light, and the more important of the results 

 were recorded in brief in the Summary of Progress of the Geological 

 Survey for 1901.- The following additional particulars of the 

 discovery then made of outcrops of Spirorhis -\im.e?Xone in the 

 ' Permian ' ground bordering the southern end of the South Stafford- 

 shire Coal-field may prove not uninteresting to those who have been 

 watching the effect of recent investigations on the systematic status of 

 the ' Permian ' of Salopian type. 



The pipe-track enters the ' Permian ' at the village of Hagley, 

 3 miles south of Stourbridge, and continues wholly in those rocks as 

 far as the terminal reservoii* at Frankley, 5 miles farther east (see 

 sketch-map. Fig. 1). These "Permian ' beds overlie the Coal-measures 

 conformably, so far as is known, and are themselves covered 

 unconformably by the Bunter Pebble Beds. They are well displayed 

 in numerous brook-sections, and the highest member, the well-known 

 ' trappoid ' breccia, rises on the Clent and Walton Hills to a height of 

 over 1000 feet above sea-level. 



Mr. "W. "Wickham King ^ gives the Clent Hills sequence substantially 

 as follows : — 



' Commuiiicated bv permission of the Director of the Geological Survev. 



= Mem. Geol. Surf.. 1902, pp. 60-4. 



3 Quart. Journ. GeoL Soc, vol. Iv, 1899, p. 97. See p. 111. 



