First thanks to everyone. I will try to address other emails using the
text from Peter.

Yes, if these are bell pits, the surface signature is not typical. But
it doesn't look like anything else .

The area is glacial till, and I have searched these mounds for any sign
of mined stone or coal and except for one very small bit of coal the
only hard material is glacial rounded stones.

The only way I can imagine they were produced from bell pit mining is
that for some reason a lot of the material was left at the surface when
the mineshaft was filled in . However, some are 1-2m tall but others
are barely discernible and except for the fact that the surface is peat
from a bog, and so very level and very easy to spot the different soil,
I doubt anyone would pay them any attention. And given the shallowness
of the square depressions, the "shafts" would have to be very shallow.

On 30/08/2013 10:37, Peter King wrote:
> I think Mike needs to make clear what area we are talking about. Are we
> dealing with coal and argillaceous ironstone that occur in horizontal seams,
> or with ores that occur in veins?
The area is about 3-5m of peat (measured) on top of perhaps 12foot of
glacial till (nearby bores), under which there are layers of sandstone,
shale, blase, "foul" coal, mudstone, fireclay, limestone all in nice
layers .... except for a wapping massive great vertical
Lenzie-torphichen igneous dike which I can't locate on the surface so I
am not able to say whether the line of mounds is on, next to or perhaps
100m from it.

I was about to ask: "is there any reason anyone would mine metamorphic
material at a igneous dike" ... but isn't graphite metamorphic coal?

There is a suggestion that a layer of coal was found close by. There is
no indication of its quality or whether it was dug. I CANNOT FIND THIS
SEAM IN LOCAL BOREHOLE DATA. Based no geological maps, the nearest coal
is poor quality and thin and I estimate reaches the surface about 300m
away and dips away so it should not be in this area. The geological map
does show a limestone band at this location.

> On wastes (such as commons),
> levelling would be less important.
This area is heathland bog and its only value would be for peat cutting
which did not occur in the area of the mounds.
> The object would be to fill up the pit
> completely to ground level. However, in practice voids would be left and
> these would migrate to the surface as the fill settled, leaving a hole above
> the shaft, the typical field evidence of bellpit mining.
This would match the square depressions.
> The alternative is to have some time of pumping apparatus, or a sough.
Water would be a huge problem in this area, but I've carefully gone
through all other possible explanations and despite the problem with
water it is at present my best hypothesis.
> However, if they are in a grid pattern, it may be that this
> was an efficient way of extracting the maximum possible amount of the
> mineral from the ground.
It is possible there is a grid pattern, but I need to wait till the the
vegetation dies in the winter to survey the remaining area to determine
whether the features in that area have the same pattern/form as the less
"disturbed" line of mounds.
> Peter King
> 49, Stourbridge Road,
> Hagley
> Stourbridge
> West Midlands
> DY9 0QS
> [log in to unmask]
> 01562-720368
>
>
>

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