LOWER NEW RED, SHROPSHIRE. 



63 



these red sandstones enter deeply into the recesses of the bays or denudations which have been 

 formed at the north-eastern extremities of the Cambrian rocks, in many situations resting directly 

 upon their vertical or highly inclined strata; while in others, as in various hollows near Cound 

 and Pitchford, they are separated from the old rocks by thin patches and broken zones of coal. 

 In all such positions, even at the north-western end of the Lawley and Caradoc ridge, these sand- 

 stones, where not obscured by coarse drifted gravel, are soft, thick-bedded building- stones, usually 

 lying in slightly inclined strata. In a quarry at Condover about thirty feet of these beds, dipping 

 very slightly to the north-north-east, are arranged in the following descending order : 



1. Gravel; 2. Thin- bedded sandstone ; 3. Red, argillaceous marl; 4. Sandstone ; 5. Argillaceous 

 marl as above; 6. Sandstone; 7« Marls as above; 8. Thick-bedded sandstone. 



There are distinct evidences of the existence of the inferior beds of this formation, at various 

 points west of the Wellbatch Collieries, near Shrewsbury, particularly on the left bank of the Meole 

 Brook, where several pits and trial shafts, sunk by Mr. Hughes, have passed through, — 1st, Purple, 

 red and green sandstones, marked by blotches of marl ; 2ndly, Greenish and bluish shale ; Srdly, 

 Whitish sandstone with green grains ; 4thly, Coal-bearing measures. Of the last-mentioned rocks 

 we shall have occasion to speak in a subsequent chapter, it being now sufficient to attend to the 

 fact, that frequent impressions and fragments of coal plants have been discovered in these overlying 

 red and green beds, which here form the cover of the coal-bearing strata. Most of these plants, 

 like those of the Hales Owen and Hagley tract, are in an imperfect condition; but Professor Lindley 

 had no hesitation in considering them as belonging to the carboniferous epoch. 



There are but few other spots around the southern edge of the Pontesbury or Shrewsbury coal 

 tract, where the Lower New Red Sandstone is visible, owing to a great mass of superficial detritus; 

 but the rock is laid open at Fairley, where it is a dark red, soft, thin-bedded sandstone, made up 

 of black and white grains in a red paste, with a few harder concretions and some blotches of red 

 marl. The same rock is also partially quarried at Newton near Boycot, where it is harder, more 

 siliceous, and intractable, and it is again seen in the bed of the brook at Stretton, dipping to the 

 north-east and north, &c, or away from the adjacent coal-field. 



In the escarpment at Cardeston, the same red sandstone underlies the dolomitic conglomerate, 

 and dips away from the adjoining coal measures. In some of the quarries, this stone is of a 

 light brown colour and consists of fine grains of quartz, much rounded, the matrix composed of 

 earthy matter being freckled with dark stains, probably caused by the decomposition of small 

 nests of iron pyrites. Following this escarpment to Pecknall, west of Alberbury, this sandstone 

 is seen to rise from beneath the calcareous conglomerate, and to form a separate ridge between 

 that rock and the coal measures of Coed Way. It is here a thick-bedded, deep red sandstone, with- 

 out mica, speckled with whitish grains of decomposed felspar 1 . Like the lower beds in other 

 places, it is also based upon argillaceous bands which decompose to a stiff, red clay, forming the 

 immediate lip of the coal-field, and passing down into those beds of variegated shale which imme- 

 diately overlie the coal. 



It may here be mentioned, that the transverse section at Alberbury and Pecknall 

 proves, that the dolomitic conglomerate, the red sandstone, and the coal beneath it, 

 are all arranged in conformable order of superposition, dipping to the east and east- 



1 The sandstone of Pecknall is quarried to the depth of thirty feet and is an excellent building-stone 

 brought into use by Sir B. Leighton, Bart., of Loton Park. 



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