believe to be this same Bentley Hey coal, and that its crop runs off towards Moseley Field; the dip being very gentle towards Essington. Wow supposing that it dips at an angle of 3° from the canal, just by Sneyd Pool, to Mr. R. Mills's Essington colliery, and that the ground 'was quite level, which it is nearly, and allowing the distance in a straight line to be 14⁄10 mile, or nearly 7,400 feet, the depth of this coal would be 392 feet from the surface at the Essington colliery. It would, however, have to cross the Old Mitre fault, which is a downthrow to the west of 65 yards (or 195 feet) thereabouts, so that the total depth of the coal would be (392 + 195 = 587 say) about 600 feet. Moreover, this Bentley Hey four foot-coal has in the Great Bentley trough another coal, called the Old Man's coal, 8 or 9 foot thick, at the height of 54 feet above it.
Now at the Essington colliery a Four-foot coal was found at a depth of 593 feet, and 38 feet above it was found a compound seam of coal, 8 feet 7 inches thick.
The probability is considerable that these are the very same coals which are known at Bentley as the Old man's 9 foot coal, and the Bentley Hey or Top four-foot coal.
Now, over this coal at Essington come all the Wyrley coals, presently to be described, and known as the Broach, Cannel. Charies, Yard, and Robins, all in their proper places, which proves this coal to be that which at Wyrley is called the Bottom coal or Eight-foot coal.
This coal which at Wyrley is called the Eight-foot or Bottom coal (because it is the lowest coal that has ever been worked in that district) is known all over the Essington and Wyrley district, and it is known to crop out finally[1] about Jacob's Hall, and along a north and south line running parallel to and a little east of the turnpike road between Bloxwich and Clunch Bridge.
The late Mr. Gilpin had a boring made below the so-called Bottom coal, of which his agent, the late Philip Baker, of Landywood, gave me the following account:-—
| FT. | IN. | |
| Coal (called Bottom coal) | 7 | 0 |
| Clunch with occasional ironstone | 40 | 7 |
| Coal | 3 | 0 |
| Fire-clay with alternations of clunch and rock | 113 | 6 |
| Coal | 2 | 3 |
| Clunch with small ironstones and some beds of rock | 68 | 8 |
| Coal | 1 | 5 |
| Clunch with little ironstones and some rock | 38 | 3 |
| Coal | 2 | 0 |
| Fire-clay, rock, and clunch | 30 | 2 |
| Coal | 0 | 4 |
| Fire-clay and clunch | 10 | 2 |
| Coal | 1 | 6 |
| Fire-clay and clunch | 4 | 2 |
| 323 | 2 |
- ↑ I say finally, because the whole district is broken up by a multitude of faults, so that all the coals crop and are thrown in again several times. The lines, therefore, drawn on the map about Wyrley and Essington must be taken rather as marking the general limits than the actual outcrop of the coals, while it has hitherto been found impracticable to delineate the numerous faults on the small scale of the Ordnance map.
