NEWSLETTER No. 44 - April, 1984 : Editorial : Over the years, pen poised over blank paper, I have sometimes had a wicked urge to write an ed- itorial on the problems of writing an editorial. For this issue I was asked to consider something on the low attendances at a few recent meetings and this would have been a sad topic. In the lic1^ meantime we have had two meetings with large at- tvndances, further renewed subscriptions, and various other problems solved. This leaves your Country editor much happier, and quite willing to ask you to keep it up = Geological This issue has been devoted mainly to the two long articles on the local limestone and its n !''} Q problems, so for this time the feature "From the Papers" is omitted. Next Meeting : Sunday April 15th : Field trip led by Tristram Besterman to Warwick and Nuneaton. Meet 10.00 a.m. at the Museum, Market Place, Warwick, The Museum will be open, allowing us to see the geological displays, some of the reserve collections, and the Geological Locality Record Centre. This will be followed by a visit to a quarry exposing the Bromsgrove Sandstone (Middle Triassic). In the afternoon it is proposed to visit the Nuneaton dis- trict to examine the Precambrian-Cambrian geology, and to see examples of site conservation. Meetings are held in the Allied Centre, Green Ilan Entry, Tower Street, Dudley, behind the Malt Shovel pub. Indoor meetings commence at 8 p.m. with coffee and biscuits (no charge) from 7.15 p.m. Field meetings will commence from outside the Allied Centre unlegs otherwise arranged. Those who would like lifts, please contact Nigel.Bradley. ( iwurrrr,un The Society does not provide personal accident cover A. Coffer h, Sc„ M.C'AM., Dip M. M. lire, M. for members or visitors on field trips. You are Vice C hu,r9eun strongly advised to take out your own personal in- I' G. Oliver B, Se,, Ph.D., surance to the level which you feel appropriate. V Schools and other bodies should arrange their own llwr, I're•u.eurer . M. J weeds B.Se., M.Sc„ insurance as a matter of course. ^%( Lc;eul., F.G.S. flare. Sre•rewry P 0. SJrilsrun MA., C.Eng., h / I I:., M. I. Mech. E. Field Secretary N.G. Bradley -2- Programme for 1984: January 23rd 1964 : Black Country Limestone Mines." Lecture by Adrian May 14th : Lecture by Dr. R. Ixer Collings. of Aston University. "The Origin of some British Mineral Deposits; The limestone mines are a relic of the Recent Thoughts." industrial revolution, and still cause problems due to subsidence. Following Monday June 4th : Evening field a particularly large event in trip to the Eastern Boundary Wednesbury in 1978, a major study was Fault, Walsall. Leader Peter carried out to establish the extent of Whitehead. feet 7 p.m. at Three the problem and offer some solutions. Crowns pub, Sutton Rd., Walsall. Some of the geological and historical information gathered in this study wer e Monday 25th June : Evening field presented in the talk. trip to the Lickey Hills. Leader The geological extent of the limestone Paul Shilston. Meet in car park, strata were first considered. In the Lickey Hills Municipal Golf southern part of the South Stafford- Course, old Birmingham Road. 7 p.m. shire Coalfield, Productive Coal Grid Ref. 996759. Measures unconformably overlie Silurian strata within which limestone horizons Sunday July 1st : Field trip to occur. The limestone strata, in Charnwood Forest. Leader John descending stratigraphic order, are:- Armitage. a thin impure limestone towards the top of the Ludlow age strata, Monday 23rd July : Informal meet- equivalent to the Aymestry Limestone ing to classify rocks and fossils. of the Welsh Borderland; a thick limestone at the top of the Monday September 17th : Informal Wenlock age strata, equivalent to the meeting. Wenlock Limestone of Wenlock Edge; and a thin limestone towards the base Sunday September 23rd : Joint of Wenlock age strata, possibly field trip to Ludlow and Leint- equivalent to Woolhope Limestone and wardine, with the Shropshire known locally as Barr Limestone. Geological Society. Leader The Wenlock Limestone is by far the Professot W. Dean, most important economically, and is divided into Upper and Lower Beds of Monday October 15th : Lecture by pure workable limestone separated by Dr. Ian Fairchild of Birmingham impure nodular limestone. A map i1- University. "The Balmy Shores and lustrating the sub-Carboniferous Icy Wastes of the Late Pre- floor of the coalfield was shown cambrian." illustrating the gentle dip westward of the Silurian, and the subcrop of Monday November 12th : 'Informal the Wenlock Limestone. A major NNW meeting and talk on borehole trending fault to the SW of Dudley drilling by Maitland Woods. was considered to be a Precambrian lineament which has moved repeatedly Saturday November 17th: (Note since then. The structures of the CHANGE OF DATE). T he BOGS bore- Dudley anticlines were then shown. hole will be sunk. At lunchtime These periclinal structures bring there will be a social with buffet the Wenlock Limestone to the surface, at the Park Inn, Woodsetton. and are largely responsible for the extensive limestone exploitation in Monday December 3rd : Lecture by the Dudley area. These structures are Professor A. Hallam of Birmingham considered to be the result of lateral University. "Mass Extinctions in movement on the major NNW fault during the Fossil Record." late Carboniferous -.Hercynian earth -3- movements, causing local folding Comments on:- of the Carboniferous and "Policy Considerations arising From Silurian strata in the Dudley a Recent Study of Limestone Workings arena, north east of the fault. in the West Midlands." The ttlk then moved to the A 2B-page A4 sized study by the historical development of the Steering Group of the Black Country limestone industry, pointing out Limestone Study. many uses of lime before and The degradation of old limestone during the industrial revolution. workings - note that they are not Much historical information was caves or caverns - is nothing new. brought together by the study of Indeed it is many years ago that the old mine plans, newspapers, maps limestone workings under Dudley and other documents. A graphic Freightliner Depot were supported. account of a collapse in Walsall It is over 20 yoars since the former in 1828 was read out. The ex- County Borough of Dudley accepted istence of this mine was the first tender for the infilling unsuspected since no plan had of workings under Birmingham Road, survived, and there was no the Midland Red Garage and some 26 legal responsibility on mine council houses adjacent. At that owners to deposit plans of time there was no Government grant abandoned mines before the Mines available, so the Midland Red, the Act of 1873. A series of maps Statutory Undertakers, the various were shown of the development of Committees of the Council and the the limestone industry at Daw Dept. of Transport bore the cost. End, Walsall, and at Dudley Consequently the problem of where canal transport was so persuading these organisations that important. the work was necessary was that much Finally the features of Wenlock harder. Indeed I believe that the Limestone as revealed by bore- contribution of 75% of the cost of hole investigations were infilling three of the tunnels considered, and the changes in under Birmingham Road by the Dept. lithology discussed. The pure of Transport was a 'first'. Upper and Lower Limestone beds The cost of infilling Wrens Nest contain little ferruginous was borne mainly by the Housing material, but the nodular beds Committee who had to spread it over between contain an appreciable the 28,000 tenants. Councillors amount. Thin clay partings due and tenants living some miles away to volcanic ash occur. The were not amused, and seemed quite Wenlock Limestone varies little illogically to blame me! in thickness from Dudley to It was not until the Local Walsall, but shows significant Government, Planning and Land Act changes in lithology. Evidence 1980, that the Dept. of the was given for shallowilg of the Environment was empowered, under sea at the top of the Wenlock Section 117, to make grants to Limestone unit, leading to local prevent land from becoming derelict emergence and erosion of coral following the working of minerals reefs in the Dudley area. other than coal. This act and the The talk concluded with slides Derelict Land Act 1982 make it much illustrating the dramatic more likely that local authorities character of the remaining ac- will now take action in such areas. cessible limestone caverns under The attitude of Courts to building Dudley. regulations is now changing, so that local authorities have to accept Adrian Collings : some liability for buildings which contravene the regulations to the degree that the building is damaged or persons are injured. -4- In my opinion four courses of sum could usefully be spent to action are required by the monitor the condition of workings, Government:- both to establish the priority of infilling works and to indicate (a ,) revision of the Planning Acts to make it clear that old those for which infilling could be mine workings are a planning delayed or omitted. consideration requiring the If one considers that the evils of applicant to satisfy the local continuous urban sprawl such as planning authority as to site Manchester and Glasgow are to be stability. avoided, then it is necessary to (b) revision of the Building consider limestone workings in re- Regulation 03 similarly, with lation to the conurbation as a regard to safety of buildings, whole. In our part of the country (c) Provision of an Act the main planning problems are to authorising local authorities avoid building on every piece of to render safe workings under vacant land, and to secure the land in multiple ownership.