THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

AND

JOURNAL OF THE COAL AND IRON TRADES.

Vol. CX.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1915.

No. 2863.

Problems of the South Lancashire Coal Field.

MANCHESTER GEOLOGICAL AND MINING SOCIETY.

There was a large attendance at the meeting of the
Manchester Geological and Mining Society on Tuesday
evening last, in the Geological Lecture Theatre, Beyer
Buildings, Manchester University, to hear an address by
Dr. George Hickling, the Lecturer on Palseontology at
the University, on “ The Coal Measures of the Croxteth
Park Inlier ” and “ Problems of the South Lancashire
Coal Field.” Mr. Leonard R. Fletcher presided.

In introducing Dr. Hickling, Sir Thomas H. Holland
said the name was well known to the members of the
society, and anything the doctor said, he (Sir Thomas)
could guarantee the truth of. The question of the
survey of the Lancashire coal field had been under their
consideration for some time, and possibly it would be
remembered that when he attended the Mining Exhibi-
tion in 1911, he urged on the mining community of
Lancashire the advisability of clubbing together for the
purpose of arranging, on their own account, for a
geological survey of the area affecting their particular
mining operations. He was sure, from what he had
been told, that in the mining districts they were spend-
ing a great deal of money in boring operations and in
sinking operations that might have been saved if a
correct knowledge of the geological structure of the
ground they were working in had been in their posses-
sion. Some mine managers were conducting in their
own mines operations dependent almost entirely on
information which might be got in adjoining mines; it
was only a question of getting in touch with their neigh-
bours, finding out the result of their experience, and
joining up the sections, in order to work more econo-
mically, and in every way more satisfactorily. It was
difficult to move in a matter of that kind, because no
mine manager regarded it as his business to make a
start; it was nobody’s business to organise a system.
The subject, however, had recently been raised in
another way. Whilst a member of the Advisory Com-
mittee of the Geological Survey in London, he intro-
duced the question of the revision of the Lancashire coal
field map, and was told that the survey operations at
present in progress were sufficiently heavy to require the
services of the whole of the surveying staff for some
years to come. There was, therefore, no hope of
getting a revision in that direction. There was not the
slightest doubt that the existing map was incorrect; it
was incorrect when it was finished 50 years ago, but
even if it were correct then, it would want revising now,
because a great deal of information had been acquired
since its preparation, and no geological survey could be
absolutely correct without such information being
included. There was a good deal of information that
should be on the map, but was not there, and there was
a good deal on the map that should not be there. It
was clear, in every way, that a revision was necessary,
and if it could not be done by the Geological Survey,
there was no reason why the mining community should
not do something on their own account. As most of
them were probably aware, the Privy Council had formed
a committee which appointed an advisory council to
undertake scientific and industrial research with a view
to’ being prepared to do something better, when the war
is over, in the way of dealing with much more serious
competition than the competition in guns. The council
asked him, as president of the Institution of Mining
Engineers, to send in a programme of the subjects the
consideration of which, in the opinion of the council,
would be of direct industrial value to the country.
Among the subjects which had been submitted was the
revision of the Lancashire coal field. That suggestion
had already been met with one objection, that other coal
fields wanted attention as much as Lancashire; but that
was no argument why Lancashire should not get atten-
tion if it was needed. If the mining community of the
county could openly show that they were prepared to
do something for themselves, not only by providing men

to do the work, but also by providing a portion of the
money which would be required, there was not the
slightest doubt they would receive the support of the
Privy Council and get the additional money necessary
to complete the investigations. He wished those
members who were representatives of the Lancashire
and Cheshire Coal Owners’ Association to break it gently
to their friends that the association might be asked to
render a certain amount of financial help in the carrying
out of the scheme. That amount might reach the figure
of £250—a sum which might easily be spent in having a
test boring put down which would give information in
regard to two square yards only. The scheme he was
laying before them would, on the other hand, give them
a great deal of information about the problem Dr.
Hickling was going to address them upon, especially in
regard to the great fault. But a much more important
matter was the possibility, as Dr. Hickling’s results had
already shown, of extending the coal field to a consider-
able extent by revealing a serious amount of coal within
accessible distance of the surface. If they took the
value of the Lancashire coal field at roughly £5,000,000
per square mile, every square mile added to the existing
field meant an addition of £5,000,000 to the capital
value of the country. (Hear, hear.) If they spent £250
on correcting the geological survey, and added one square
mile, it would be a profitable outlay; but if they did not
get 30 or 40 squares miles he would be disappointed.
Whatever the amount was, it would pay many thousands
per cent, return on the money actually invested. He
was anxious that the managers, and the technical
people generally, should take an interest in the problem,
and explain to the owners what their share should be.
Before the work could be taken up properly, or, at any
rate, before the field work could be undertaken with
profit, those gentlemen who had boring and sinking
records might be required to hand over some of their
results in particular areas to the geologists who were
called upon to undertake the research. That was a
point he would like every mine manager and owner to
consider charitably. It was a little difficult, he knew;
a good many people objected to handing over their
boring and sinking records, because they were not quite
sure how much they were giving away for nothing. In
that particular instance, however, they would seldom be
giving away anything they could make use of themselves,
and even if they were he hoped managers and owners
would not be jealous if their neighbours and the public
did happen to get some benefit, and they themselves did
not. In any case information of that kind would be
treated confidentially. Whoever was appointed to do
the work would receive such records in absolute con-
fidence ; they would not be communicated to any neigh-
bour or competitor. They would only be used for the
purpose of getting sufficient information to connect the
results obtained in one area with those obtained in
another, in order to secure a correct and continuous
survey of the geological structure of the ground. The
records would not be published in any form the
managers and owners did not approve of, but it was to
be remembered that the success of the scheme would
depend upon whether the information would be provided
or not. One had to remember that a mineral was a
thing that could be worked once, and only once, in the
history of a country, and if they wasted a mineral, such
as coal, they were wasting the capital of the country,
and thereby reducing its life. If a field was ruined or
damaged by bad agriculture it could be improved the
next year, but once a coal field was damaged, it was
damaged for ever. Every ounce of coal destroyed was
a loss to the country, and could not be recovered. It
was just as bad to have coal lying idle, because that
meant the capital of the country was lying idle. To
have five million sterling per square mile lying idle was
a serious matter, and he hoped the subject would receive

very serious consideration. He wanted the members to
realise that the lecture by Dr. Hickling was not merely
to amuse them from a geological point of view, but to
bring home to the mining community the fact that they
had in their own hands the means of expanding the
wealth of the district, and thereby of the country. He
was sure the action of the Privy Council would be
modified according to the attitude taken up by the local
coal owners. Those in the locality who would get an
immediate benefit ought to bear a portion of the expense
of the research work, and that was the spirit in which
the committee of the Privy Council would approach the
subject. They were much keener on dealing with
problems that were taken up locally, and were partly
financed locally, than with general problems, because
they felt that if the local people had a real interest in
the research work, they would see that it was carried
through with energy and satisfactory results. It was
estimated that the cost of a- new survey would be
approximately .£500, and he would like to see half of
that raised locally.

The Coal Measures of the Croxteth Park Inlier.

Dr. Hickling said it was with quite a considerable amount
of diffidence that he ventured to talk about the Lancashire
coal field to the members of the Manchester Geological
Society, because there was probably no one in the room
who had a smaller direct acquaintance with the coal
measures of Lancashire than he had himself. But he was
not sure, on the other hand, that that was actually a dis-
qualification in dealing with this particular case. While it
was probably true that every one present had more accurate
knowledge of some particular pit of the coal field than he had
himself, nevertheless the fact that he was not specially
interested in any one pit gave him the opportunity of viewing
the coal field as a whole better than would be the case if
one’s attention was centred essentially on some particular
plot. He did not wish to talk about details, except to a
very small extent, but wanted to take the broadest possible
view of the structure of the Lancashire coal field, and to
see how far that structure, as they knew it, might enable
them to predict the manner in which the coal bearing strata
must continue under the great area of triassic rocks which
covered them to the south and west. In the notice con-
vening the meeting he was announced as reading two papers,
but essentially the second paper on the structure of the coal
field was the only one with which he proposed to deal in
any detail. The Croxteth Park inlier was a little patch of
coal measures indicated as an island on the Geological Survey
map. Some unfortunate person seemed to have suggested
at one time that that patch probably consisted of upper
coal measures, and therefore the whole of the productive
series might be expected underneath. As the result of that,
one of the colliery companies in the district determined to
test the patch with a couple of borings. They put down
the first borehole at the end of the patch, and the second
in the triassic rocks just to the north of it. Each of the
borings was put down to a depth of nearly 2,000 ft., and
no coal of any value was found. It was at that stage he
was asked to look into the boring sections and to explain
what had gone wrong. He examined the two sections, and
it became perfectly clear that the real state of affairs was
this. Both of the borings actually started in red rocks, the
more southerly one passing through some 30 ft. of drift, and
then through about 222 ft. of what was obviously permian
rocks. The more northerly boring had -also about 30 ft. of
drift, and then 247 ft. of trias, and under that some 313 ft.
of permian. Each of the bore holes, after passing through
the red rocks, passed into the coal measures, and through
what were obviously coal measure strata for a distance of
about 1,200 ft. In all that thickness no coal of any value
was found in either bore hole, the only respectable seam
being one of 2 ft. 3 in. in No. 2. All the other seams met
with were under 1 ft. in thickness, only one or two being
over 6 in. The 2 ft. 3 in. seam found in the northerly bore
hole was represented by a 9 in. seam in the southerly
bore hole. It was quite obvious, therefore, there was no
coal whatever in that neighbourhood worth working. It was
inconceivable that any section of such a thickness of the
middle coal measures of Lancashire could possibly be so
completely devoid of coals. That general evidence, together
with the evidence of marine fossils found at different
horizons, was quite sufficient to show that those borings had
passed straight through from the red rocks into the lower