"I mentioned finding copper in minute quantities in the calcrete limestones of Cusop Hill. It has been noted in passing by other geologists that copper turns up in places in the Lower Old Red Sandstone. There was an attempted copper mine in the Clee Hills in the same age rocks.

There is also a mystery in a paper that is called The Perambulations of a Parish and oddly it is Llanigon again. Part of the Parish runs the ridge of the Black Mountains west of the Twmpa (Lord Hereford's Knob) See the oil painting in the entrance of the County Hospital Hereford.

The turning point of the parish boundary is above a deep eroded gully and states 'above the copper works'. This has always remained a mystery but a while ago a friend and I noted at the base of the gully is a cornstone- conglomerate which lies below a sandstone which has fossil plant material in it.

In the conglomerate are small patches of green copper carbonate. This isn't a vein material at all and it has been noted that copper seems to have at times an interrelationship with these plant beds. I don't know if any academic work has been carried out on this at all. Did the early plant life encounter copper rich waters and as the plants died the copper was released?

Whatever happened, there must be a reason. It could be the area of the Gospel Pass and the Twmpa has some serious metallic ores waiting to be discovered and there are copper veins as well as lead in the area."

Article by Roderick Williams