Page:The South Staffordshire Coalfield - Joseph Beete Jukes - 1859.djvu/80

62 It is remarkable that in these and in most other cases of which I have the details, the two coals, though so widely separated, preserve the aggregate thickness of 6 or 7 feet, sometimes increasing to 8 or 9.

If we proceed from Bilston towards the south, we find that between Bilston and Tipton the New mine coal is either divided and increased, or other small coals come in just below it, and are naturally classed with it; for instance, we have the following sections:—

Still further south, however, at Tipton Moat colliery, the New mine coal is only 5 ft. 6 in.; at Tipton Green, 6 ft. 6 in., with a parting; and at Coneygree, near Dudley, 6 ft.

Going thence north-west to the Fox-yards, this coal thins to 4 ft.; and at Upper Gornal clay-works it is only 2 ft, thick.

Similarly to the east, it is only 1 ft. 6 in, at Messrs. Houghton's Whimeey colliery, near Oldbury.

In a cutting of the South Staffordshire Railway, near the Dudley "Castle foot pottery," the New mine and lower coals were distinctly seen cropping out to the surface, with a thickness of several feet, as also in the cutting on the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway, on the south-west side of Dudley.

Proceeding farther towards the south-west, they appear rapidly to thin out, and finally disappear. A few deep sinkings have been made in this south-western district, in some of which, coals answering, perhaps, to the New mine and those below it, have been passed through, but in so debased a form that it is doubtful whether they are really the same beds, or other little coals occurring here and there near their place.

At the "Graveyard" trial pits, for instance, south of Lower Gornal, below the Sulphur coal, measures were found 22 feet 6 inches thick, consisting partly of clunch and fire-clay, but containing 15 feet of rock; and below them was a coal 1 foot 10 inches thick, believed to be the New mine.

At Upper Gornal clay-works there are 19 feet of measures, containing 7 feet of rock between the Sulphur coal, and the 2 feet of coal which represents the New mine.

Near Corbyns Hall, in three shafts, there was a coal 1 or 2 feet thick, which was from 45 to 60 feet below the Sulphur coal; the intermediate measures having several beds of rock, amounting altogether to upwards of 20 feet.