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Coal has been mined by the free Miners of The Forest Of Dean for
seven hundred years. Like miners in the rest of Britain, their days
too seem numbered, if for somewhat different reasons.The Forest
Of Dean is located opposite Bristol, on the other side of the river
Severn in Gloucestershire, astride the Welsh border. It is exclusively
within this eight by ten mile forest that the Free Miners
exist.
The current free miners owe their rights to their fore fathers of
the 14th century, who won a battle for King Edward 1st by tunnelling
under castle fortifications at Berwick Upon Tweed. ( It must have
been well
remembered as the Northumbrian miners did the same to Newcastle
City Walls in the Civil War). By way of reward King Edward passed
a new law, giving the Dean miners the right to own their own workings.
Broadly, any man who was born within The Forest Of dean was 21 or
over and had
worked down a local coal mine for one year and a day was entitled
to mine for coal anywhere in that location "without tax or
hindrance".
During the Industrial revolution the massive demand for coal created
a boom time for the steam coal produced by the Dean
Free Miners . Its heyday arrived around 1849 when there were more
free miners working beneath the Forest floor than men of any other
professions on the surface.
Despite inevitable decay, seventeen free mines were still working
full time in 1980, employing 52 miners. Even by this time, the mines
were almost unchanged from their Victorian origins. The men still
used picks
and shovels to win the coal and work laying on their stomachs. The
coal was worked using short Longwall faces, and taken to the surface
by specially designed tubs. The Forest mines still retained their
own strange ways and traditions, such as the unique roadways with
sloping roofs. A seam was known as a delf and the most important
of these the Coleford Hi Delf which reached seven foot in places.
Inclined roadways were known as dipples and the actual mines themselves
gales.
1994 was the year of the privatisation elsewhere in the British
coal industry and those that were not sold off went down like nine
pins. The Coal Authority put to place to regulate the mining of
coal as a national
asset had promised that an exception to all new mining laws being
introduced for the newly privatised industry would be made for the
Free Miners. However no such exception was in fact made, and the
Dean men too looked like being wiped out under pain of taxes, licences,
and insurance premiums. Eventually concessions were made. It was
agreed that the Dean miners would not pay tax and only pay £50
per year to cover the costs of licensing and the Authorities insurance
policies. However though these laws probably saved The Free Mines
from total extinction, the changes were on an inclining scale. Another
problem was that the men had now to meet safety standards to qualify
for the licences. Some carried on regardless and refused to pay
any extra money, most notably John Hine.
Two years later (1996) the industry was plodding into very uncertain
futures. The two previous years had seen both the Moses Level and
the Cannop pits become mothballed, and Lydbrook Gale was reverted
back to the crown. Lydbrook had been working full time but closed
when the last two miners took retirement. Of the full time mines
Gerald Haynes a much respected local legend was working his Heyners
Bailey Gale on his own.
Robin Morgan and his son Neil were at work in the Phoenix Colliery.
The arithmetic was plain to see; the mines were running out of time.
Mr Haynes was about 62 and Robin Morgan 60. While few doubted that
Neil Morgan would tryto continue the Phoenix pit on his own there
seemed to be few prospects for either mine continuing full time
beyond Mr Haynes and Mr Morgans retirements. Hamblins Yorkley previous
worked by Robin Morgan was bought by John Hine and was worked around
twenty days per year.
The situation was little changed at the end of the 90s. Gerald
Haynes by now 65 was in his final year of working Haynes Bailey
and as Mr Haynes retirement came nearer it seemed inevitable that
the pit would
soon be closed, and the rights reverted to the crown, with the drift
filled in and sealed, the pit top demolished and landscaped, or
otherwise mothballed. The situation looked dire at the only other
full
time pits with one of the two miners also in his final year before
retirement. Robin Morgan 64 along with his son Neil 44 was working
Phoenix Mine. Hamblings Yorkley mine was worked as a hobby on an
occasional basis by John Hine, and his three friends, who had previouslyworked
at Morses Level. In addition Morses Level and Cannop Mines remained
on a care and maintenance basis, although Reddings levels mine was
reverted back to the crown in 1998 having not been worked since
1991.
The year 2000 saw more troubled times for the Free Mining industry.
First Phoenix was closed due to difficulties under ground, and then
Gerald Haynes retired in the Autumn. Hayners Bailey was then taken
over by three miners who remained the pit The Monument, and it continued
to work full time all year round. In Feb. 2003 Robin Morgan announced
his intentions to once again work the Phoenix mine with his son
Neil, during the winter months of Oct. to March. The industry was
finally beginning to pick up, and a couple of miners still in their
thirties and forties and another working his year and a day at Hamblins
Yorkley were at work.
The closure of the last maternity hospital within the Hundred Of
St Briavels means that new-born boys are no longer born within the
Forest and for this reason only inheritants of the rights can in
future carry on the tradition. It will also be a problem bringing
new miners to work down the Dean Free Mines with their antiquated
working practices and narrow 2 ½ - 3 ft coal faces.
The last three pits are featured Hamblins Yorkley , Monument and
Phoenix.
Information Alex.
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