50 
following the dip of the strata in a south easternly direction, 
it would be possible to estimate the depth the coal measures 
lie under the Magnesian Limestone formation at Owston and 
Car croft. Now this dip below the horizon cannot exceed 
three degrees, and if the new shaft near Pontefract Park 
should strike this coal at about 361 yards it would still 
further prove the truth of the theory of Mr. Woodhouse and 
other mining engineers, that the Haigh Moor and lower beds 
of coal attain their maximum depths near this town, or 
probably extend further East on the S.E. side of the 
Lancashire and Yorkshire railway, dipping conformably 
under the Magnesian Limestone and New Ped Sandstone. 
There is one topic of absorbing interest to Pontefract, in 
the efforts lately made to obtain by Act of Parliament the 
coal under the Park. In the twentieth year of the reign of 
his Majesty King George the Third, an Act of Parliament 
was obtained for dividing and enclosing round Pontefract 
what from time immemorial had been an open pasture of 
about 1,300 acres of land. Over this pasture the burgesses 
of Pontefract and Tanshelf had the right of stray free of cost. 
This Act of Parliament narrowed the Park to its present 
dimensions of about 325 acres of land. On this enclosed 
portion the King’s Majesty was dispossessed of all titles, rent 
charges, coals, and other minerals, in short of the freehold. 
But by a clause in the Act, the governing body, called the 
Park Trustees, were debarred from any power of getting coal 
or other minerals, or in any way breaking up the surface of the 
soil. The near approach of collieries to this Park suggested 
the desirability of repealing the mineral clause of the Act of 
1780, "and this year another Act of Parliament has been 
obtained which repeals the debarring clause of 1780 — and by 
its 27th clause confers additional powers on the Park Trus- 
tees and Street Commissioners, and authorises those governing 
bodies to dispose of the coal. This coal has now been let, 
