190 
LUPTON : MIDLAND COALFIELD. 
the Blackshale to the Top Hard Coal. This is the most 
valuable seam of coal. It is the same as the Barnsley bed, 
and near Nottingham it is a splendid seam of coal, being 
divided into hard and soft bands, as at Barnsley. It is 
also a fiery coal in Nottinghamshire, as it is at Barnsley, but 
being worked in a more scientific manner in the south, no 
serious explosion has occurred in the Top Hard Coal during 
the time the writer has known the coalfield. 
Between the Top Hard Coal and the Blackshale Coal, and 
about 120 yards above the latter, is a seam called the Deep 
Hard Coal. In this coal is a wash fault; it was first 
found at its south-western outcrop at Denby. There is a 
broad channel in the coal, about 500 or 600 yards wide, 
where there is no coal, but where the floor and roof remain. 
These, however, are uneven, and occupy the place of the 
coal. Northward, the fault has been traced past Ripley, 
Brands, Coates Park, Carnfield, and Blackwell, with the same 
width and characteristics. Beyond the last-named place 
this seam of coal has not been worked, and, therefore, the 
length of the wash fault has not been ascertained ; it has, 
however, been traced for eight or nine miles. Wash faults 
are common in other districts and coalfields, but the writer 
is not acquainted with any other wash fault at all compar- 
able to this in length and breadth, the coal on each side of 
the wash fault being precisely the same. 
In working the Top Hard seam of coal near Nottingham, 
frob fires have occurred. The writer attributes them to 
spontaneous combustion, caused by leaving slack in the 
mine. These gob fires are also common in working the 
thick coals in Leicestershire, Warwickshire, South Stafford- 
shire, and have occurred in Lancashire and North Wales. 
They are not (the writer believes) common in Yorkshire, and 
he would be glad to know why. Perhaps it is that there is 
a better market for slack in Yorkshire than in Nottingham- 
shire, and that, therefore, so much slack is not left in the pit. 
