On the Fossil Plants of the Waldershare and Fredville Series of the Kent Coalfield

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Abstract
At the present time, important series of coal-seams have been proved by means of borings in three localities in South-Eastern Kent. As apparently the lithological sequence, including the coal-seams, is quite distinct in each case, we may, as a temporary expedient until the structure of this concealed coalfield can be demonstrated, distinguish them as the Dover, Waldershare, and Fredville Series. The Dover Series was the first discovered. In 1886, a boring was made at the site of the proposed Channel Tunnel on the foreshore at Shakespeare Cliff, rather more than a mile to the west of the Admiralty pier at Dover. The Coal-Measures were reached in 1890, at a depth of 1100 feet, and the boring subsequently penetrated to a depth of about 2270 feet, passing through thirteen seams of coal, varying from 1 to 4 feet in thickness. The Dover Series is essentially a thin-coal series, and sandstone-beds are comparatively numerous. For many years past attempts have been made to sink shafts, and to work the coals, on or near the site of the original borings, by the Kent Collieries, Limited, but hitherto with small success owing to difficulties in connexion with the inflowing water derived from the Mesozoic rocks. The fossil plants obtained from the original boring through the Dover Series were described by Prof. Zeiller in 1892, and will be further discussed here. in 1904, a new company, the Kent Coal Concessions, Limited, with which several daughter companies and syndicates have more recently been associated, was formed