Page:The South Staffordshire Coalfield - Joseph Beete Jukes - 1859.djvu/106

88 ought to have, north of the Bentley fault, the Thick coal itself come 80 or 90 feet at least below the surface. What is really found there is the following:—

Of this set of beds. No. 11 is the same as the Little Gubbin, already described, farther south. It has, however, here two small coals below it, and the thickness between it and the Heathen coal is 4 or 5 feet greater than the thickness about Bilston. There is above the Little Gubbin, moreover, another small coal and ironstone (here called the Binds coal and ironstone), of which we have little or no trace to the southward; and we must look upwards of 19 feet above the Little Gubbin (instead of only 5 or 6, as near Bilston,) before we meet with any considerable bed of coal. We then get two beds of coal, (Nos. 4, 5, and 6,) 7½ feet thick together, including 8 inches of fire-clay between them, over which are 54 feet of alternations of fire-clay, clunch, binds, and rock, and then another bed of coal 9 or 10 feet in thickness. It is clear, nevertheless, from their position above the Heathen coal, that these latter coals, namely, No. 6, the "Bentley Hey," and No. 2, the "Old man's" coal, notwithstanding their being 54 feet apart, must be the representatives of the lower beds of the Thick coal.

Now, the Bentley Hey coal, and the Heathen coal below it, are found at intervals, and worked, north of Bentley, up to the New Invention and Bloxwich. They have never been worked quite continuously, as they are said to be frequently thrown in and out of the ground, not only by a succession of small faults and one large one, but also by several undulations of the beds.

The Bentley Hey four-foot coal has also been worked north of the New Invention, with a general dip to the west or W.N.W., that is in the direction of Essington.

In the cutting of the canal, just south of Sneyd Reservoir, the crop of a coal was seen which Mr. George, of Bentley, now informs me he