Throughout most of the Early Carboniferous shelf sedimentation extended across the Tamworth Belt for a present distance of 35 km to near the eastern margin of the Belt. These sediments are dominated by muds and silts, with minor near shore sands, deposited by traction currents, along the western margin of the Belt. Much of the coarser sediment is inferred to have bypassed the shelf via channels, now comglomerate‐filled, to be deposited in base‐of‐slope environments east of the Tamworth Belt. The Texas and Sandon beds possibly represent these base‐of‐slope deposits. The New England Arch has not affected sedimentation in the Tamwortb Belt until post‐Visean (Late Carboniferous) times.