STONESFIELD SLATE. 311 
by means of a hook and a curved iron rod. The workmen usually 
descend into the pit by sliding down the rope, pick in hand. 1 
found it impossible to study the characters of the strata in 
descending the shaft by means of the stage, for one hand must 
be employed in holding the rope, and the other in holding a candle. 
The rocks passed through were beds of limestone with here and 
there layers of marl. At least two layers of marl, each about 
3 feet thick, were penetrated ; and at one time after much rain, 
such copious streams were thrown out by these marl-beds, that it 
was impossible to make use of the shaft. The water was even- 
tually shut out by cutting away the limestones for some distance 
above the springs, and filling up the spaces around the shaft with 
clay.* From the bottom of the shaft the stone is worked in levels, 
3 to 5 feet in height, driven in for some distance, and widened as 
the stone is taken away : then the roof is supported by walls built 
up of the waste stone. 
The roof of the mine is formed of hard and somewhat false- 
bedded oolite, known as Rag, and the following is the sequence 
of beds : 
FT. IN. 
"BAG. 
TopSori: marly bed about - - ^ 5 
. POT LID and OVER HEAD : blue-hearted 
sandy limestone with few oolitic 
a i j -r, j i grains - - - - -09. 
StonesBeld Beds -< R * C . Calcare0us sandy bed with some 
pot-lids - 7 to 8 
LOWER HEAD : blue-hearted sandy lime- 
stone with oolitic seams - 9 
[ BIOCK : soft sandy bed, "no good." 
The Pot-Lid bed is a concretionary and impersistent formation, being 
mainly a flaggy calcareous sandstone, that comes out in rounded and oval 
or irregular shaped masses of different dimensions. Its place is taken by 
the Over Head bed, which is not so concretionary in nature, and consists 
of grey calcareous sandstone with seams of oolite. 
The Race contains some " pot-lids," and these may be found at the 
base adhering to the Lower Head. 
The Lower Head is a fairly regular bed, but not so good a stone for 
" slate " as the Pot-Lid bed. 
The general characters of the Great Oolite at Stonesfield, may 
best be learnt from the old section given by Fitton. The Upper 
and Lower Divisions shade into one another, as they do at Swin- 
brook, near Burford, and at Milton ; but we no longer find any 
important bed of freestone, like that of Taynton and Milton. 
Freestone has been obtained at Pudlecote, near Charlburv, but 
nowhere in the region north and north-east of Stonesfield, do we 
find any freestone in the Great Oolite that has attained the 
repute of the Bath stone, the Minchinhampton stone, or the 
Taynton stone. The Stonesfield Beds appear to be overlapped 
in a north-easterly direction, and locally the lower beds of the 
Great Oolite consist largely of marls. The higher beds of the 
Great Oolite near Stonesfield, consist of white limestones and 
* A well at Mr. Barrett's house, adjoining the pit, is said to be 30 feet deep, and 
is rarely short of water. 
