"Vol. 69.] SERIES OF THE SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE COALFIELD. 451 



very considerably. The average rising gradient towards Fatherless 

 Barn is 1 in b\. 



The last-named locality is half a mile west of Witley, and the 

 coal here is only 17 feet below sea-level, while at the Beeches 

 Colliery, half a mile farther west, it is 65 feet above that datum. 

 The district in question is traversed by the Oldenhall Fault, with a 

 southward downthrow, and this probably intersects the shaft of 

 the Witley Colliery, as stated on p. 449. The amount of^throw, 

 and of the consequent interruption in the workings, has not been 

 ascertained. 



Thus, west of Witley, the productive measures are found to rise 

 sharply westwards, the amount of rise being 434 feet in half a mile. 

 In the next half-mile they rise but 82 feet, and in a quarter of a 

 mile farther west, 31 feet only. We may, therefore, consider that 

 " these measures are folded into an anticlinal form, the axis of 

 which ranges north and south, but the western portion of which is 

 cut off by the dislocation known as the Hayes Fault. On the 

 western side of the fault, however, the Netherton anticline is 

 exposed, and the southern portion of this terminates in a curious 

 and abnormal manner. 1 The probability of an original connexion 

 between the folded measures above described and the Netherton 

 anticline may, therefore, be inferred. 



The productive Coal Measures in the neighbourhood of the three 

 mines above named are overlain by sandstoue-rocks which do not 

 participate in the folding. The beds of the Witley Group in the 

 Lutley Valley are almost horizontal, as also are the beds of the 

 Hasbury Group on Hodge Hill. The beds of the Witley Group in 

 the Colman-Hill area dip uniformly east-south-eastwards at a 

 moderate angle, even where the coal below rises westwards at 1 in 3. 

 The relations between the two series are clearly unconformable, 

 while the Old-Hill Marls which should intervene are greatly 

 attenuated or wholly absent. 



To account for this purely local unconformity, I would pos- 

 tulate the formation of a continuous anticline, extending from 

 Wassel Grove to Netherton, in early Upper Carboniferous times. 

 This may well have occurred in the period represented by the 

 Blackband Series of North Staffordshire, which series is not found 

 locally. The attenuation of the Old-Hill Marls, of the Passage- 

 Beds, and of the Witley Group (at Wassel Grove and Ham Dingle) 

 may thus have been produced by overlap. 



The second unconformity occurs at the summit of the Halesowen 

 Series. A reference to the accompanying map (PI. XLIV) will 

 show that the Keele Series rests upon the various members of the 

 Hasbury Group (see p. 447) from Ham Dingle to Hayley Green, 

 and upon the Illey Group from Hagley Wood eastwards. The 

 outcrop of the Illey Group is wholly confined to the area bounded 

 on the west by the buried anticline at Wassel Grove, and on the 



1 ' The S. Staffs. Coalfield' Mem. Geol. Surv. 2nd ed. (1859) p. 154. 



