484 LOWER OOLITIC ROCKS OF ENGLAND: 
" The land at Colly western, is generally held by slaters by copyhold, the 
slaters paying 6s. Sd. per ' pit ' to the lord of the manor (a ' pit ' is 16 
square yards) with an extra charge of Is. 6d. per pit to the measurer. A 
few workings are rented of the lord of the manor, the slaters paying 
80s. per pit with an additional Is. 6d. for the measurer. These payments 
are made every year at the annual ' slaters' feast ' held in January." 
" The manner in which the slates are placed on the roof is as follows : 
The largest are laid on nearest the wall plate, and the size of the slates is 
made gradually to diminish in approaching the ridge. The ridge itself is 
covered by tiles of a yellowish white tint, made at Whittlesea, and har- 
monising well in colour with the slates themselves. The larger slates 
are, in the ordinary way, fixed to the rafters of the roof by means of 
wooden pegs driven through a hole in the upper part of each slate. But 
roofs are often covered with small slates which are fixed by mortar." 
" On the ground floor of the Museum of Practical Geology at Jermyn 
Street, London, specimens of the ' slates ' made at Collyweston, and of 
the various tools employed by the workmen are exhibited."* 
The slates of Collyweston are worked with more or less vigour at the 
present time (1889), although in many new houses built in the neigh- 
bourhood of the quarries, and at Stamford, brick and Welsh suites or red 
clay -tiles are employed, in place of the freestone and Collywestjn slate. 
In colour the rock is a buff and blue-hearted stone, so that some of the 
slates are blue, others yellow, and many are parti-coloured. The pale 
coloured slates when put up, are said to darken on exposure. The slates. 
are usually cemented as well as pegged on to the roofs, hence they do not 
fall away if cracked. The blocks that are raised from the open quarries 
and galleries are of irregular shape. 
The slate-pits at Kirby are now almost entirely abandoned, and they 
are only occasionally worked near Dene Lodge. 
The slabs known as Whittering Pendle, were obtained from beds of the 
age of the Collyweston Slate ; but the material was used mainly for 
paving. (See p. 195.) 
Inferior Oolite. 
Thick and heavy " slates " have been obtained from the Inferior Oolite 
in the northern portion of the Cotteswold Hills near Snowshill, Condicote, 
and Lower Swell.f The principal workings were at a spot known as 
Hyatt's Pits (see p. 140). 
Stonesjield Slates. 
At the base of the Great Oolite there are thin bands of sandy and oolitic- 
limestone that have been long worked for " slates." The principal 
quarries and mines are at Stonesfield, near Woodstock, in Oxfordshire ; 
but beds on, or about, the same horizon have been worked in many 
parts of Gloucestershire at Througham near Bisley, Nettlecomb near 
Birdlip, Miserden, Rendcomb, Chedworth, Pewsdown west of Hasleton, 
Sevenhampton, Kyneton, Eyeford, Naunton, Hampton Field, Ablington 
near Bibury, &c. Occasionally in Somersetshire, as on Lansdown, north 
of Bath, fissile limestones at the base of the Great Oolite have been 
employed for roofiug-purposes. 
At Stonesfield the slate js now mostly obtained by means of shafts, 
there being one mine worked on the level. The shafts are from 20 to 70- 
feet deep. 
The beds worked, are from 2 ft. 6 in. to 3 feet thick, and they yield 
brown sandy slates, hard grey and slightly oolitic slates, and blue and 
grey or brown oolitic slates. In size they are obtained 1 ft. 6 in. square 
and less. The blocks of fissile oolite, fine-grained calcareous sandstone 
with courses of oolite, and calcareous sandstone, when dug out, must be 
kept damp, and then exposed to a winter's frost. After that they can be 
split up evenly at any subsequent time. If they have been allowed to- 
* Geol. Rutland, 1875, pp. 182, 183. 
f Hull, Geol. Cheltenham, p. 39. 
