66

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

July 9, 1915.

cut that they can be arranged or mounted in the order cut
from the floor upwards in special frames 5 ft. 6 in. long,
which can be erected on a false bottom, which revolves on a
base board, three of them forming a triangular box-like
arrangement. In the inside is fixed an electric “ tubolite.”
This arrangement can be seen in the accompanying photo-
graph (fig. 2). When lit up, the various bands, laminae,
etc., can be seen quite plainly, especially with the aid of a
magnifying lens. Besides the above, a whole series of photo-
micrographs have been made, having a magnification of about
eight diameters, to show some of the chief constituents found
in the vertical and parallel slices. These are mounted and
framed, each photograph being numbered with the corre-
sponding number to that on the slice or section from which
it is taken. The height from the floor is also given on the
side of the section and photograph, so that the relative
distances apart can be seen. The two series are shown in
figs. 3 and 4, fig. 3 being from Brereton, and fig. 4 from

HOUSING AND TOWN PLANNING IN
THE DONCASTER COALFIELDS.

Mr. Percy Morris, in a paper read before the Institu-
tion of Municipal and County Engineers, gives some
account of the town planning schemes now under
consideration by the Doncaster Rural District Council,
and of the difficulties met with in their preparation.

The land in the area of the South Yorkshire coalfield
is very low, and at times large tracts of land are under
water and swampy. In the Askern area, 2,436 acres out
of the 5,170 acres comprising the total area of the town
planning scheme are only of a height varying from 15 ft.
to 20 ft. above Ordnance Datum. The surface water is
collected in ditches and dykes discharging into the
principal drains, then into the river, and thence to the
sea. There are seven main drains out of this Askern
area, and the average water level at the outlet of these
main drains is 13-50, and, assuming the average depth

course, the surface on either side will subside and form
swamps. In that case, shallow sumps or pits would be
sunk, and by means of a motor pump the water could
be lifted into the dykes, and as the lift would only be a
few feet, the expense would be small. But there
still remains the fact that this land could be utilised for
building purposes, and it will be seen that it would be
well-nigh impossible, except at very great expense, to
satisfactorily drain away the surface water from these
building sites. In the Askern scheme, part of the land
was scheduled as being unfit for the erection of domestic
dwellings.

This subsidence, due to colliery workings, may cause
damage to present and proposed highways. There is a
presumption that where subsidence or alteration of the
level of a highway involves expense to the highway
authority, such expense may be recovered by action.
Where the roads are vested in the authority as main and
urban roads, an action to recover damages can be taken
by the county council or urban council against the

Fig. 3.—Photo-micrographs of the Shallow Seam, Walsall Wood
Colliery.

Vertical sections on .left, horizontal sections on right.





Fig. 4.—Photo-micrographs of the Shallow Seam, Brereton Colliery,
Rugbley.

Vertical sections on left, horizontal sections on right.

Walsall. Even when the photographs have been reduced to
less than one-tenth the actual size, the majority show the
various structures they represent quite well.

(To be continued.)

Association of Private Owners of Railway Rolling Stock.—
The 24th annual general meeting of this association was held
at the Midland Grand Hotel, London, on Tuesday of last
week, under the presidency of Mr. G. C. Locket, the new
chairman. The resignation of the chairmanship by Mr. F.
Parker Rhodes, owing to pressure of other work, was both
reported by Mr. Locket and received by the meeting with
great regret, very high appreciation being expressed by the
new chairman and by several of the members present, of the
great abilities and wide experience of Mr. Parker Rhodes, and
the very valuable services he had rendered to the association
during the past 10 years, including the recent giving of
evidence before the Royal Commission on Railways. Mr.
Locket then submitted and commented on the committee's
report and balance-sheet for the past year, the latter showing
the strong financial position of the association, and stated
that the committee had decided to take up £2,500 of the new
War Loan, and also to convert the association’s present
holding of Consols, and this course was warmly approved
by the meeting. He also reported a conference at the
Railway Clearing House on the draft of a proposed new
specification for private owners’ wagons, and acknowledged
the courtesy and fairness with which suggestions made at
the conference had been met by the railway companies. The
retiring members of the committee were re-elected, and the
meeting closed with a vote of thanks to Mr. Locket for
presiding, and an expression of satisfaction at his accept-
ance of the chairmanship of the association.

of the ditch to be 3 ft., it will be seen that there is only
a very sluggish fall at present, even if there is a fall at
all. In addition, the ground in the immediate vicinity
of a colliery is liable to subsidence, which is agreed upon
by experts to vary from one-third to two-thirds the depth
of the seam of coal taken out; in this case it averages
6 ft., and taking two-thirds of this depth, a likely subsi-
dence is 4 ft. It will be seen, therefore, that where
subsidence occurs before the outlet of the drains are
reached, a ledge will be formed, and there will be little
or no fall, and, in a great extent, there will be a back
fall, with a result that what at present appears to be
eligible land for building purposes, will become swampy
and water-logged ground. It will require strong moral
courage on the part of the authorities in this district to
resist the pressure of circumstances, as, strange to say,
the greater part of the development in the Askern area,
before the preparation of the town planning scheme, was
on this low-lying land. Yet, undoubtedly, on the full
acceptance of responsibility and the rejection of poten-
tial unsuitable areas, depends the future welfare and
health of the prospective population. The provision of
an adequate supply of good sound houses, with proper
sanitary equipment, is essential to the moral, as well as
the physical, well-being of the occupants, the provision
of this accommodation on unimpeachable sites is of
equal importance.

There have been many suggestions for the solution of
this problem; one suggestion of dealing with the ques-
tion is -to heighten the banks of the dykes and drains in
advance of the coal faces to an equivalent height of the
expected subsidence, say, 4 ft. to 5 ft. By this means
the water will be kept in the dykes and drains, but, of

colliery company, but it is doubtful whether this course
would be open to a rural district council. Their remedy
would apparently be an indictment for a nuisance to the
highway. To get over this difficulty, the writer has
suggested that the following clause be inserted in a town
planning scheme for which he is responsible :—

“ The council shall have power under this scheme to
take action to recover damages against any person or
company of persons who by mining, quarrying, or other
operations shall cause subsidence or alteration to the
level of any highway or part of such highway which
shall involve expense to the council as highway
authority,- also any street or any part thereof repairable
by the inhabitants at large which shall be damaged by
the aforementioned causes.”

Another difficulty that arises in a fast developing rural
area is the necessity for making up private streets.
Powers, under section 150-152, Public Health Act, 1875,
can be obtained for parts of the district by special appli-
cation to the Local Government Board, but this Act, so
far as it relates to these sections, is not altogether satis-
factory. The 1892 Private Street Works Act -is better,
but is only open for adoption by urban authorities, and
may only be extended to rural authorities by consent of
the Local Government Board for special parts of the dis-
trict. In portions of this district, where the separate
colliery villages are urban in character, it seems that this
Act should be applied to the whole of that area, and
could be covered by a clause in the town planning
scheme similar to the following :—

“ If the council shall at any time resolve with respect
to any street or part of a street laid out, to do any
private street works, pursuant to section 6 of the Private