Page:The South Staffordshire Coalfield - Joseph Beete Jukes - 1859.djvu/74

56 At Bentley the beds next below the Heathen coal are as follows:—

The ironstone called Brownstone resembles the Black band of Scotland, and is the only ironstone of that quality known in the South Staffordshire coal-field. The Lambstone and Brownstone are not known south of the Great Bentley fault, neither do they range very far to the north of it.

20. (I. 7.) New mine ironstone, or White ironstone.—This is perhaps the most widely-diffused bed of ironstone in the whole district, as it occurs and is worked from Bentley near Walsall on the north to Hawne near Halesowen on the south. The measures consist almost invariably of clunch, though sometimes they are called clod, or binds; they are always, therefore, of some form of clay; they contain from two to four bands or courses of ironstone, each of which varies from an inch to a foot in thickness. The whole measure is generally 4 feet or 5 feet in thickness, sometimes as little as 2 feet, sometimes, but very rarely, as much as 10 feet.

The following are some details of this measure from different parts of the field:—