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I.—On a Boring for Coal at Presteign, Radnorshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

T. C. Cantrill B.Sc. Lond., F.G.S.
T. C. Cantrill B.Sc. Lond., F.G.S.
Affiliation:
of the Geological Survey of England and Wales.
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Extract

In March, 1912, a short paragraph in one of the London daily papers made the astonishing announcement that several beds of coal had been discovered on the Folly Farm, Presteign, and that boring would be started immediately. The astonishment was due to the fact that on the Geological Survey maps Presteign is represented as surrounded by Silurian and Old Red Sandstone formations, with no rocks of Carboniferous age nearer than the Clee Hills, 20 miles away in Shropshire. Unless, therefore, the Survey maps were wrong, and some unsuspected outlier of Coal-measures had been discovered, the name of the scene of operations was likely to prove prophetic.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 4 , Issue 11 , November 1917 , pp. 481 - 492
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1917

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References

1 There is at least one simple precaution that can be taken by anyone before yielding to the temptation to invest in local coal-mining ventures in districts remote from the coalfields. Let an inquiry be addressed to the Geological Survey Office, Jermyn Street, London. A brief, civil, and possibly useful reply will be obtained at the cost of a penny stamp.

2 The district is contained in the 1 in. Old Series Ordnance and Geological Map, Sheets 56 N.E. and S.E.; in the 1 in. New Series Sheet 180; and in the 6 in. Map of Radnorshire, Sheet 25 (Herefordshire 10) N.E.

1 Silurian System, pp. 313, 314, 321, 322.

2 This outcrop has been variously referred to as the limestone at the Folly (Murchison), at Folly Bank (J. E. Davis), at Corton (Murchison and W. S. Symonds), and at the Sandbanks (J. E. Davis). It will facilitate description if we call it the Presteign Limestone, or the Presteign outcrop of the Woolhope Limestone. The other outcrop, on the southern side of the ridge, is known as the Nash or Nash Scar Limestone.

1 “On the Age and Position of the Limestone of Nash, near Presteign, South Wales”: Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. vi, pp. 432–9, with a section, 1850.Google Scholar

2 Siluria, 8vo, 1st ed., 1854, pp. 89, 90, 102, 103.Google Scholar

3 e.g. in 3rd ed., 1859, pp. 101, 117, 118Google Scholar.

1 Old Stones, 8vo, 1855, pp. 59, 60Google Scholar.

2 Records of the Rocks, 8vo, 1872, pp. 139, 140, 160.Google Scholar

3 On the Ordnance Map, which was published October 1, 1833, this name is placed at the northern foot of the ridge, where the lane from the town begins its diagonal ascent. It may have referred to a cottage shown above the old limestone quarries. The cottage is still remembered by old inhabitants, but the name now applies to the farm on the crest of the ridge.

1 These numbers refer to the registered rock-slides in the collection at the Geological Survey Office, Jermyn Street, London.

1 Cox, A. H., “The Pedwardine Inlier”: Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. lxviii, 1912, p. 364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Callaway, C., Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. lvi, p. 511, 1900.CrossRefGoogle Scholar