CHAPTER X 



CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM {continued). 



Coal-field and Trap Rocks of the Forest of Wyre. 



Coal-field of Wyre or Bewdley Forest. — A. LARGE tract of country occupied by car- 

 boniferous strata, extends from a narrow zone south-west of Bridgenorth to the western 

 flanks of the Abberley Hills in Worcestershire, a distance from north to south of about 

 twenty miles. The greatest width of this tract is in the Forest of Wyre or Bewdley, 

 where it is expanded to five or six miles ; but its outline is more irregular than that of 

 any field hitherto described, for in many points it runs out in promontories almost en- 

 tirely cut off from the chief mass. The tract is bounded on the west by the Old Red 

 Sandstone on which the measures repose, without the intervention of any portion of 

 carboniferous limestone ; and to the east, or along the banks of the Severn, by the 

 lower members of the New Red Sandstone, which overlie the coal strata. Some 

 of the detached patches south of Abberley rest upon Silurian rocks. A reference to 

 the map and the general section PI. 30. fig. 1. which traverses this tract will enable the 

 reader to understand these general relations. 



Notwithstanding the large surface which it occupies, this coal tract is of very slight 

 value, owing to the thinness of the beds, and the inferior quality of the coal. Let us 

 now examine the district from north to south. The most northern portion is not more 

 than two and a half miles distant from the little stripe of coal at Tasley, near Bridg- 

 north, described in the seventh chapter, the intervening space being occupied by both 

 the Old Red and Lower New Red Sandstone. 



Poor and pyritous coal occurs occasionally in sandstone and shale from Lower Holycott to near 

 Deuxhill; and coal was also formerly worked at Little Scotland, Ewdon George, and Tedstill. 

 The deposit is thin, the shafts not exceeding thirty yards in depth, and only one bed of poor sul- 

 phureous coal was extracted ; nor is it possible that more profitable works may be conducted, as 

 the Old Red Sandstone underlies and flanks the coal on all sides. (See Map.) From Glazelyto the 

 east of Billingsley, a narrow zone of coal measures occupies both banks of the Borle Brook, on the 

 eastern side of which they are worked in one or two spots, (Chelmarsh Common, &c). This band 

 contains at least three seams of sulphurous coal, but only one is now extracted. The measures dip 

 slightly to the south-east, passing like those of Tasley, conformably beneath the Lower NewRedSand- 

 stone. Here indeed there can be no ambiguity, for the red sandstone with calcareous conglomerate or 



