Page:The South Staffordshire Coalfield - Joseph Beete Jukes - 1859.djvu/55

Rh We thus get the top beds of the Thick coal separated from the rest by 84 feet in one case, and 204 ft. 3 in, in the other; the interposed materials consisting of clay and sandstone. North of Highfield there is no mention at all of the Flying reed, it having either cropped out altogether, or been thrown out by the great Lanesfield fault.

Between Bilston and Wolverhampton, the "White coal" is always looked on as the top of the Thick coal. Here, however, we get still another change in the central part of the Thick coal, as a considerable mass of shale, sometimes containing ironstone, is interposed between the "Foot coal" and the "Slips coal." This mass of shale, which goes by the euphonious appellation of "Hob and Jack," is 7 feet thick at Bradley Lodge just south of Bilston, and 10 feet at the Walling pits near Stow Heath, and at Ettingshall Lodge Colliery. There is exhibited in these facts that tendency in the Thick coal to split up towards the north, which has been already commented on in the general description of the Coal-measures.

If now we proceed from the neighbourhood of Dudley towards the west, we meet with very similar facts.

In going from Dudley to Kingswinford we find the Thick coal preserving a great uniformity of character for nearly three miles, varying but little from the following section:—

A little north of Corbyns Hall, namely, at Shut End Colliery, and thence towards Kingswintord on the west, and Oak-farm on the north, we find a recurrence of the phenomenon of the "Flying reed" similar to that just noticed towards Bilston and Wolverhampton.

At the Dairy-pit in Shut End Colliery we have the Flying reed coal 4 feet thick, resting directly on the White coal 3 feet thick, with the remainder of the Thick coal beneath it, forming a total thickness of solid coal 29 feet 4 inches, with only one 3-inch parting above the