If now we go north of the district already described towards Cannock Chase, we meet, first of all, with the old outcrop of coal north of Norton church which has been already spoken of as probably either the Bentley Hey or the Wyrley Eight-foot coal. This coal strikes north-east and south-west, with a dip to the north-west.
Farther north still, is the old outcrop running from near Heathy Hays to Cooper's Lodge, the old pits at Cannock Mill, and the old and present sinkings at Hednesford. At all these places the dip is said to be towards the north-west.
In the old workings on the north-west side of Hednesford Pool a number of step-like faults were said to have been met with, throwing the beds up and down in various directions, but principally down to the west to the amount of a few yards at a time.
From Norton and Hednesford the beds appear to strike regularly north-east towards Beaudesert and Brereton.
The outcrop of a coal may be seen in the valley of the brook south of Castle Hill, while another outcrop may be seen in a little gulley on the north side of it in Beaudesert Old Park. Old coal-pits are scattered all over this old park, all of which were said to go down to the same coal, and none to have been more than about 30 yards deep.
This coal must accordingly lie as nearly as possible in a horizontal position. Beyond it the beds seem to have changed their dip to the south-east.
At the Brereton collieries the general dip of the beds is south-east, at an angle of about 3° to 5°. There are 15 coals, some of which are very thin, in a total section of about 620 feet (see Vertical Section, Sheet 16, No. 1).
On the eastern side of the workings they drove out from the Fifteenth coal, which is there about 460 feet deep, towards the eastward, and came into a hard gravel rock. This was, doubtless, one of the conglomerates of the New red sandstone,[1] and the fault bringing it down to this position was part of the eastern boundary fault of the coal-field. This fault runs just under Mr. Poole's office. South and south-west of this point several shafts have been sunk through some of the beds of the New red sandstone down to the coals. These New red sandstone beds consist of red and white sandstone, and gravels, with some red marls; they appear to be quite horizontal. In the lower grounds they are about 70 or 80 feet thick, but measuring from the top of the inclined plane of the Hayes colliery, belonging to the Marquis of Anglesey, they are nearly 200 feet thick. The coals rise regularly from Brereton Hayes wood, where the Coal-measures are at the surface, at an angle of 3°, so that under the New red sandstone they crop up into the base of that formation. In the pit below the foot of that inclined plane, for instance, they had—
| FT. | IN. | ||||
| 1. | Gravel | 80 | 0 | New red sandstone. | |
| 2. | Red and yellow marl | 6 | 0 | ||
| 3. | Rock | 5 | 0 | ||
| 4. | Clod and batt | 5 | 6 | ||
| 5. | First coal | 4 | 6 | ||
| 6. | Intermediate, with Three coals | 125 | 0 | ||
| 7. | Fifth coal | 4 | 0 | ||
| 230 | 0 | ||||
- ↑ Mr. Vernon Poole. Lord Talbot's agent, gave me this and all other information as to the mines under his charge.
