Peat and its Products. 
755 
Whilst my thanks are due to my friend Mr. Topley, F.R.S., 
of the Geological Survey, for his kindness in placing the drift 
maps of England and Wales at my disposal, the fact that these 
maps are still incomplete deterred me from attempting what 
would have been at best only a partial account of the geo- 
graphical distribution of our peat bogs. Resort has therefore 
been made to Mr. Woodward’s familiar volume , 1 from which 
most of the following localities are derived : — 
At Glazebrook Moss, Lancashire, a deposit of peaty heds about 
eighteen feet in thickness, resting on boulder clay. The drainage of this 
area caused the Moss to sink about eight feet. 
Peat beds occur also at Halsall, Sefton, Pilling, and Chat Mosses, in 
South-West Lancashire. 2 
In Cheshire there are peat beds in Blake Mere and other mere basins in 
the Drift Sand, and there is the inferior or lower peat and forest bed on the 
coast near Iioylake. The Danes’ Moss is a large peat bog near Maccles- 
field. 
In Derbyshire peat occurs at Kinder Scout and other localities in the 
Peak district. 
Peat deposits, with tree stumps in situ , are seen on both sides of the 
river Tees, at Redcar, Kildale, and West Hartlepool, and these in places 
become submerged forests. On the high grounds of Yorkshire there is much 
peat, twenty feet thick on Egton High Moor and other moors in East 
Yorkshire. It occurs also in Wensleydale, and near Ingleborough in West 
Yorkshire. 3 
Peat bogs or curraghs occur in some parts of the Isle of Man. 
Sections of peat, alternating with estuarine clay, were cut through at 
the Swansea Docks. Turf pits have been worked at Newcastle-in-Emlyn, 
Caermartlien, and peat beds occur in many other parts of Wales. 
Peat is very largely dug in the moorlands of Somerset, near Edington 
and Shapwick, between Glastonbury and Highbridge. Some of these beds 
have been worked for fuel from the time of the Romans, and probably 
earlier. The peat moors or “ turbary lands ” have an irregular distribution ; 
and the peat, which in places is fourteen or fifteen feet thick, is due largely 
to the growth of the common sedge {Care. v), whence Sedgemoor derives its 
name. Mr. Alfred Gillett states that the following plants have aided in the 
formation of the peat in this district: — Cotton grass ( Eriophorum ), Club 
rush (Scirpus lacustris), Willow herh ( Epilobium angustifolium ) , Sedge 
( Care.v ), Bog moss {Sphagnum palustre), Ileath {Erica), Bog myrtle 
{Myrica gale), Grass wrack {Zostera marina), and, amongst the ferns, 
Osmunda regalis, Lastrea thelypteris, and Eteris aquilina. At Shapwick, 
where the pits are opened to a depth of about five feet, the peat is light 
on top, and darker, denser, and better below. Beneath this there are about 
three feet of soft peaty earth, with stools of trees, and below is a pale 
grey buttery clay. Peat has also been observed on Blackdown (Mendip 
Hills), and near East Harptree. Evidences of a submerged forest exist at 
Stolford, near the mouth of the Parret, and this may be connected with the 
peat beds of the Somerset Levels. 
1 The Geology of England and Wales. By Horace B. Woodward, F.G.S. 
Second edition. 1887. 
2 De Ranee, Superficial Geology of South-West Lancashire, p. 69. 
3 Phillips, Rivers, <)'c., of Yorkshire, p. 38. 
S n 2 
