Page:The South Staffordshire Coalfield - Joseph Beete Jukes - 1859.djvu/202

184 west of the road, however, near the windmill in Stafford-street, good brick red sandstone, certainly part of the New red, is well shown in a quarry, and appears to be quite horizontal. The new shaft for the waterworks at Goldthorn Hill is sunk entirely in mottled calcareous sandstones and marls of the Permian series. These were said to dip westerly across the shaft at an angle sometimes of 30° (Vertical Sections, Sheet 26, No. 50). On the crest of the hill to the westward are some gravel pits opened in the pebble beds of the New red sandstone, which likewise appear to have a slight westerly dip.

Indications of Permian beds on one side of the boundary and a gravel ridge (pebble beds of the New red) on the other are found from Goldthorn Hill to Penn Common. Permian marls and sandstones may be seen in the lower part of the brook south-east of the Lloyd House, and typical New red sandstone at the mill by the Wood-houses. Near Gospel End, the Permian beds, consisting of alternations of reddish and pale brown sandstones with red marls, and a band of slightly calcareous conglomerate, may be seen in some road cuttings. These Permian beds have everywhere hereabouts a dip of 5° or 10° to the west-north-west. A large mass of calcareous conglomerate, similar to that of Barnford Hill on the east of the coal-field, was found and mapped by Mr. Hull in Baggeridge Wood. At Hawkeswell Rough, north of Himley Park, good New red sandstone is seen apparently horizontal, while on higher ground to the eastward are two quarries of pale Permian sandstone, one of which dips north-east and the other south-east at 10°. A fault, therefore, must here separate the two formations. This is believed to extend northwards into the New red sandstone and southwards across Himley Park to the boundary fault. Just behind Himley Hall the conglomerates of the New red sandstone are well shown in a large cliff dipping north at 10°. Pale slightly calcareous sandstones may be seen about the Streights dipping north-west at 5°.

A narrow belt of Permian rocks just peeps out between the New red sandstone and the boundary fault between Kingswinford and Oldswinford. They consist principally of pale red calcareous sandstone and red marls. At Audenham Bank a concretionary mass of compact pale grey limestone, with a smooth conchoidal fracture, was exposed in the bank of the road lying in some red marl. It did not seem to extend far, however. Professor Ramsay informs me, that in a new road cutting near Dennis. Permian sandstones and marls containing slight traces of the trappean breccia may now be seen dipping west at 10° or 15°.

The Permian district round the south end of the coal-field is the largest and most important one of the neighbourhood, and worthy of a little more detailed description. When the country was first surveyed, no doubt was entertained that the Clent Hills consisted of trap rock, and that the angular fragments seen at the surface and in the small quarries were the local débris of the solid rock below. Professor Ramsay, who spent a day with me there in 1849, concurred in these views, which are those published by