Warwickshire Coalfield

The Warwickshire Coalfield extends between Warwick and Tamworth in the English Midlands.[1] It is about 40 km / 25 miles from north to south and its width is around half that distance. Its western margin is defined by the 'Western Boundary Fault'. In the northeast it abuts against steeply dipping shales of Cambrian age. The larger part of the outcrop at the surface consists of the Warwickshire Group of largely coal-barren red beds.[2] Until 2013, the Daw Mill mine near Arley within the coalfield was Britain's biggest coal-producer.

The principal coal seams within the productive Lower and Middle Coal Measures include (in stratigraphic order i.e. youngest/uppermost first):[3][4]

Middle Coal Measures

  • Half Yard
  • Four Feet
  • Thin Rider
  • Two Yard
  • Bare
  • Ryder
  • Ell
  • Nine Feet
  • High Main
  • Smithy (Low Main)

Lower Coal Measures

  • Thin
  • Seven Feet
  • Trencher
  • Yard
  • Deep Rider
  • Double
  • Upper Bench (or Top Bench)
  • Bench Thin
  • Lower Bench
  • Stumpy
  • Stanhope

The Two Yard, Thin Rider, Ryder, Ell, Nine Feet, and High Main merge as one massive bed of coal known as the Thick Coal in parts of the coalfield.

Collieries

Collieries mining in the Warwickshire Coalfield were (from south to north):

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  • Binley Colliery
  • Craven Colliery
  • Wyken Colliery
  • Alexandra Colliery
  • Exhall Colliery
  • Coventry Colliery
  • Newdigate Colliery
  • Griff No 4 Colliery
  • Griff Clara Colliery
  • Stockingford Colliery
  • Haunchwood Colliery
  • Ansley Hall Colliery
  • Arley Colliery
  • Daw Mill Colliery
  • Dexter Colliery
  • Baddesley Colliery
  • Kingsbury Colliery
  • Birch Coppice Colliery
  • North Warwickshire Colliery formerly Pooley
  • Amington colliery
  • Alvecote colliery

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/geodiversity/englands/counties/area_ID37.aspx
  2. ↑ British Geological Survey 1:625,000 scale geological map; Bedrock geology: UK South (5th edn)
  3. ↑ Hains, B.A. & Horton, A. 1969 British Regional Geology: Central England (3rd edn) British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Notts
  4. ↑ British Geological Survey 1:50,000 scale geological map sheets 155 & 169 (England & Wales series) Coalville & Coventry, BGS, Keyworth, Notts


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