504 



BARROW HILL FAULTS — POSTERIOR TO TRAP IRRUPTIONS. 



succession of the principal faults which traverse one of the richest portions of the field, 

 passing the Dudley Port trough, and crossing from Christchurch on the east hy Dudley 

 to King's Swinford on the west. 



The faults to the west and south-west of Barrow Hill have been already alluded to. 

 They there traverse a rich tract, which in former times was supposed to be entirely void 

 of coal, because it was bounded by one of these great dislocations, called the Brock- 

 moor fault, which, proceeding from the southern end of Barrow Hill in a curvilinear 

 course, strikes to the south-west. 



One of the most interesting faults of this tract proceeds from the north-western 

 flank of Barrow Hill, trending to the Stand Hills near King's Swinford on the western 

 edge of the coal-field, in a direction nearly north-east and south-west. This fault is 

 about 140 yards wide and is an upcast to the south-east of about 90 yards, the sides 

 being inclined from 80° to 90°, as represented in this wood-cut 1 . 



106. 



The manner in which the lower edges of the main coal are twisted up against the rise 

 side was ascertained by actual work, and it is important to remark that the stratum (h) 

 beneath the productive measures, was a mass of red ground with conglomerate, in which 

 a horizontal road was driven for 55 yards. The chief point of interest in this dislocation 

 is, that it ranges precisely in the direction of the chief spur of trap rock which pro- 

 ceeds from Barrow Hill, while three other minor faults (to which I have alluded as 

 dislocating a wedge of trap in common with the coal strata), are also parallel to it. 



Another fault, contiguous to the great one of Barrow Hill, seems to unite with it near 

 the Stand Hills, and trending by Shutend furnaces, forms an acute angle with the 

 Barrow Hill fault. (See Map.) 



But although the north-east and south-west direction is the prevalent line of fissure 

 through a large portion of Staffordshire, extending its influence northwards from Wol- 

 verhampton and Wallsall to Penkridge and Cannock Chace, and southwards into the 

 Dudley field, not only as far as Dudley Port, but even into the south-western angle of 

 the field between King's Swinford and Stourbridge, it is met, as we have seen, by an- 

 other great line of disturbance in the environs of Dudley, which in the first instance 

 proceeding from 10° and 15° west of north, to 10° and 15° east of south, (Sedgeley and 



1 I owe this section to my friend Mr. W. Matthews of Green Hill, one of the best-informed iron masters of 

 the district. 



