Flying reed with respect to the Thick coal, that the Brooch remains nearly parallel to the latter, so that we have the three principal coals, the Heathen, the Thick, and the Brooch, retaining their parallelism, while the Flying reed or top part of the Thick lies obliquely between them, separating from each other two similar groups of sandstone beds, one above it and the other below it, these sandstones being nearly on the same horizon, but clearly not contemporaneous with each other.
To the south of the Shut End and Kingswinford district, the measures rapidly resume their normal condition, as represented in the Corbyns Hall section given above. That section may be taken as a sufficiently close description of the Thick coal over all the district between Kingswinford. Dudley, and Halesowen, allowance being made for frequent slight variations in the thicknesses of the different beds of coal and of the partings between them.
As we go down to the Lye Waste, however, near Stourbridge, and approach the south-western boundary of the coal-field, we find a very remarkable change takes place in the character of the Thick coal in that direction, as it loses all its generally distinctive features and assumes those of the following section taken at Tintam Abbey fire-clay works:[1]—
| FT. | IN. | FT. | IN. | ||
| 1. | Top coal | 7 | 0 | ||
| Spoil (shale, &c.) | 5 | 0 | |||
| 2. | Middle coal | 6 | 0 | ||
| Spoil (shale, &c.) | 5 | 0 | |||
| 3. | Bottom coal | 6 | 0 | ||
| 10 | 0 | 19 | 0 | ||
| Total, with partings | 29 | 0 | |||
Here, then, as before, we find a tendency in the Thick coal to split up into several groups of beds, although here that tendency is produced by a thinning and diminution in the coal itself, and its replacement by earthy beds, and not as before by a mere separation of the beds by additional beds of shale or sandstone.
About a mile to the eastward of Tintam Abbey, at the Hayes colliery, the Thick coal was found to have the following section, communicated by Mr. T. King Harrison, who also informed me, that farther south the coal became so bad and rubbishy as not to be worth working.
Section of the Thick coal at the Hayes colliery, near Lye Waste:—
| FT. | IN. | FT. | IN. | ||
| 1. | Six inch coal | 0 | 5 | ||
| 2. | Roofs coal | 2 | 0 | ||
| 3. | Spires coal | 3 | 0 | ||
| 4. | White coal | 3 | 6 | ||
| Dirt | 2 | 0 | |||
| 5. | Heath coal | 4 | 0 | ||
| Dirt | 5 | 0 | |||
| 6. | Brassils | 4 | 0 | ||
| Dirt | 4 | 0 | |||
| 7. | Fine coal | 3 | 0 | ||
| 8. | Stone coal | 1 | 0 | ||
| 9. | Foot coal | 1 | 6 | ||
| Dirt | 1 | 0 | |||
- ↑ Supplied by Mr. Skidmore, of Amblecote.
