STAFFORDSHIRE, a midland county of England, bounded N.E. by Derbyshire, E. for a very short distance by Leicestershire, S.E. by Warwickshire, S. by Worcestershire, S.W. and W. by Shropshire, and N.W. by Cheshire. It lies between 52° 23' and 53° 14' N. lat., 1° 36' and 2° 27' W. long. The form of the county is irregular : its greatest length is from north to south, from Ax.edge Common, at the junction of Cheshire, Derbyshire, and Staffordshire, to the neighbourhood of Bewdley (Worcestershire), 60 miles ; the greatest breadth, at right I angles, to the length, is from the junction of the Dove with the Trent, below Burton, to the neighbourhood of Market-Drayton (Shropshire), 3S miles. The area of the county is 1133 square miles, or 723,463 statute acres. The population in 1841 was 510,206; in 1851 it was 603,599.
Surface, Geology, and Mineralogy.—The northern is the highest part of the county. It consists chiefly of wild moorlands, formed by long ridges, extending from north-west to south-east, separated from each other by deep dells, or by valleys watered by the tributaries of the Treut, and gradually subsiding towards the banks of that river. The principal summit, are—Cloud-end, Biddulph Moor, Mow Cop (1091 feet above the level of the sea), Punster Hill, High Roches, Moredge, Ecton Hill, Waver Hill (1154 feet), and Swinecote, or Swin acoe iu the northern part of the county. On the eastern side, between Abbots Bromley and Barton-upon-Trent, are the high grounds of Needwood Forest; and south of the Trent, toward the centre of the county, between Stafford and Lichfield, are the high grounds of Cannock Chase, one part of which (Castle Ring) is 715 feet high. The western side of the county is occupied by a tract of high ground, which separates the waters that flow westward by the Severn into the Atlantic, from those which flow eastward by the Trent and the Humber into the North Sea.
Nearly the whole of the county is included in the new red-sand atone district of central England. The northern part is indeed beyond the limit of this formation ; and there are some insulated districts occupied by the coal-measures or other subjacent formation., which rise through the red-sandstone. Gypsum is quarried in Needwood Forest and in the adjacent part of the valley of the Dove. The pure white gypsum, or that slightly streaked with red, yields plaster of Paris, which is much used in the potteries for moulds; selected blocks are turned, or otherwise converted into ornamental articles.
Limestone is quarried near Newcastle, iu the pottery district. Brine springs abound near the Trent, particularly at Weston, near Stafford, where salt-works have been established.
The Dudley, or South Staffordshire, coal-field extend', from Crannoek Chase to the Worcestershire border near Stonrbridge, about 20 miles in length from north by east to south by west ; and from King's Swinford to Soho, near Birmingham, 10 miles in breadth from west to east. The hills south-east of Dudley consist of one mass of basalt and amygdaloid, round which the coal-measuree do not crop out, as round the limestone, but preserve their usual level in approaching it. The basalt is very pure, and is locally termed Rowley Rag. It is quarried for mending the roads and paving the streets of Birmingham.
Trap rock (greenstone) is found in that part of the coal-field which is near Walsall; it is apparently part of a thick vertical greenstone dyke, with a wedge-shaped prolongation penetrating the adjacent carbonifer ous strata. The coal of the southern part of the Dudley field is distinguished by the occurrence of an extensive bed called tho Main coal, 30 feet thick, but this dips to the south, and crops out at Bilston. On the east side of the coalfield, near Walsall, the transi tion limestone again rises, and the carboniferous beds crop out against it. At Beaudesert, at the northern extremity of the field, cannel coal is obtained.
In the northern part of the county another coal-field (the Pottery coal-field) occurs, of triangular form, extending from Lane-End in the Potteries to Corgleton in Cheshire. Its greatest breadth, which is in the southern part, forming the base of the triangle, is 8 or 10 miles. There are 32 beds of coal in this field, generally from 3 to 10 feet thick. The coal-works of the county are very numerous and import ant; in the south they supply the irou and other hardware manu factures of Birmingham, Dudley, Wolverhampton, 3:c.; and furnish fuel to the neighbouring counties to a considerable distance, and in the north they supply the fuel to the Pottery district. Ironstone is abundant in the Dudley coal-field.