THE LIAS MARLSTONE OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 
01 
THE LIAS MARLSTONE OF LEICESTERSHIRE AS 
A SOURCE OF IRON. 
BY E. WILSON, F.G.S., CURATOR OF BRISTOL MUSEUM. 
The Marlstone Rock or Rock Red is a hard, ferruginous, 
earthy, and highly fossiliferous limestone, passing into an 
ironstone, which lies in the midst of the softer shales of the 
Lias formation. It constitutes the upper member of the 
Middle Lias series, the lower member comprising a series of 
sandy shales, which graduate into the underlying clays of the 
Lower Lias. 
From the large amount of iron it contains, the Marlstone 
Rock has during the past ten or twelve years acquired a con¬ 
siderable commercial importance, and the mining industry to 
which it has given rise in the Leicestershire district is, 
without a doubt, destined in the future to attain far greater 
dimensions than it has at present reached. In times long 
passed, and of which we have no historical record, the rock 
bed was worked for iron both in Leicester and Rutland, as is 
evidenced by the ancient slags which arc occasionally met 
with. Having fallen into disuse, however, its value as a 
source of iron has been, until quite recently, either entirely 
overlooked or altogether underestimated. For many years 
past it has been quarried for building, road metalling, and 
lime burning, and for all of these purposes it is still to a 
certain extent used. During the construction of the new 
local lines of the Great Northern Railway Company, the 
Marlstone met with in the cuttings proved of considerable 
service both for the building of bridges and the ballasting 
of the line. 
The rediscovery of the Leicestershire ironstone in modern 
times appears to have been made by Mr. 1. A. Ivnipe, who 
also constructed a geological map of the Belvoir district 
where the ore occurs, and brought it to the notice of the 
Duke of Rutland. This was prior to 1855, in which year a 
trial of the marlstone from Croxton was made at the furnaces 
of the Clay Cross Company. At that period, however, there 
were no means of getting the stone away, and it was mainly 
on that account, I believe, that no further steps were then 
taken in the matter. To Mr. R. Dalgliesh, manager of the 
Ilolwell Iron Company, and Mr. H. A. Allport belongs the 
credit of having been the first to actually commence the 
working of the Leicestershire Marlstone for iron, and 
thus to give the ore a commercial value. Mr. Dalgliesh, 
