A.D. 1831-1841.
Riots--Sessions of the Dean Forest Commissioners relative to St.
Briavel's Court--Free miners' claims--Foreigners' petition--State of the
woods--Perambulation--Rights of Commonage--Relief of the poor--Free
miners' petition--Parochial divisions--Fourth and Fifth Reports of the
Dean Forest Commissioners--Acts of 1838 and 1842--Award of the coal and
iron mines--Enclosures thrown open, and new ones formed--Provision for
the poor--Mr. Machen's memoranda.
The year 1831 is chiefly remarkable for the riotous destruction committed
on the fences and banks of the enclosures, recorded by Mr. Machen as
follows:--"In May, 1831, several of the single trees planted near
Parkend, and on Breem's Eaves, were wilfully cut off in the night, and no
discovery was made of the offenders. In the end of May a part of the
wall of Oaken Hill Enclosure was thrown down in the night. When the
workmen were rebuilding it, some of the colliers passing by threw out
hints that it would not stand long, and in one or two instances horses
and cattle were turned into the enclosures, and the woodmen were told
that they had been shut up long enough, and they ought to be thrown open.
The gates of several plantations had been broken in the night. On Sunday
the 5th of June I saw Henry and Richard Dobbes pull away the bushes out
of a gateway, and turn their cow into Cockshoots Enclosure, and when I
went and expostulated with them they said they had been deprived of their
rights long enough. Warren James had for some time been urging others to
join him in the recovery of their rights, which they considered to be
usurped by foreigners, in whose hands the principal coal-works of the
Forest are, by purchase or lease from free miners; and on the 3rd June he
had a hand-bill printed, calling upon all persons to meet and clear the
Forest on Wednesday June 8th. I spoke to him on the 5th, and told him in
the presence of numbers the folly and danger of his proceedings; but he
paid no attention, and said the Forest was given up to them in Parliament
the year before; that he had a charter, which he would bring and show me.
I published a notice, warning all persons not to join an unlawful
assembly, and on Tuesday the 7th Mr. Ducarel and I issued a warrant to
apprehend him; but it could not be executed. We swore in a number of
special constables, and with the woodmen mustered about forty at the
scene of action where they were to begin; but the rioters mustered nearly
200, with axes, &c., and began their work of destruction about 7 o'clock,
and we found it useless to attempt to stop them. They were soon joined
by others, and supplied with cider, and continued their work Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, in which time they destroyed nearly
one-third of the fences in the Forest, the reparation of which cost about
1,500 pounds. On Sunday military arrived, and they all dispersed.
Warren James was apprehended and sentenced to transportation for life,
and seven or eight others to different periods of imprisonment from one
month to two years. {111} Those who escaped suffered by lying in the
woods and concealed where they could, and I believe all now repent and
see the folly of their conduct. I suppose altogether nearly 2,000,
including children, were employed in the work of devastation. None of
the trees in the enclosures were injured, and where the cattle and sheep
that were let in had eaten the grass in the drives and open places, they
went back into the unenclosed Forest, and would not remain amongst the
trees. In 1838 a pardon was sent out to Warren James, but he is not yet
come home (June, 1839), and he has not written to any one. (1848:
nothing heard of or from Warren James.")
The above disturbance shows that an unsettled state of feeling existed in
the minds of the foresters with regard to certain supposed rights of
free-common, and which prevailed also on other points, such as the nature
and extent of the coal-gales, and the fact that the various works were
fast passing from the hands of the native free miners into those of the
foreigners; all which grievances a mischievous periodical called 'The
Forester,' published at Newnham, set forth in an exaggerated and exciting
manner. Under such circumstances the Act of 1831 (1 and 2 Gul. IV., c.
12), authorizing the appointment of Commissioners to investigate such
complaints, was well timed. The Commissioners were instructed to
ascertain the boundaries of the Forest and the encroachments thereon; to
inquire into the rights and privileges claimed by free miners of the
hundred of St. Briavel's, the constitution, powers, jurisdiction, and
practice of the court held there, as well as respecting a court called
"the Mine Law Court," and to report on the expediency of parochializing
the Forest.
It appears from the annual Report of the Commissioners of Woods, &c.,
dated the 8th August, 1831, and signed by Lord Duncannon, Wm. Dacres
Adams, and Henry Dawkins, that no new works were commenced this year,
except the erection of a water-mill for grinding ochre, near Sowdley,
arising probably from the unsettled condition of the district. It
states, however, that the Crown had created an endowment of 30 pounds per
annum towards keeping the three existing churches of the Forest in
repair, the congregations using them being considered too poor to do so.
On the 21st January, 1832, the following gentlemen were appointed to act
as Commissioners of Inquiry under the late Act:--
Robert Gordon, Esq., M.P., Kemble.
Ebenezer Ludlow, Esq., Serjeant at Law.
Charles Bathurst, Esq., Lydney Park.
Edward Machen, Esq., Whitemead Park.
Henry Clifford, Esq., Over Ross, Herefordshire.
_Clerk_, Thomas Graham, Esq., Mitre Court, Temple.
_Surveyor_, Mr. John Hosmer.
They held most of their sittings at the Bear Inn, in Newnham, although
they also sat occasionally at Coleford, the Speech House, St. Briavel's,
and Westbury. They were thus occupied most of the days in the months of
February, March, April, and September, in hearing evidence "as to St.
Briavel's Court and Prison," or "as to making the Forest parochial," or
"as to the rights and privileges claimed by free miners," and "as to the
rights to open or work quarries."
Of all these sections of inquiry, the only one which the Commissioners
found they could at this time bring to a close was that having reference
to St. Briavel's Court, respecting which it appeared in evidence that out
of the 402 suits brought into it during the last twelve months, all but
five were for debts mostly under 5 pounds, to recover which a charge of 6
or 7 pounds might be incurred.
The prison attached to the Court is thus described:--"There is only one
window, which is 1 foot wide, and in a recess. It does not open. The
size of the room is 16.5 feet by 17.5 feet; 13 feet high; three corners
cut off. In one corner is the doorway, 2.5 feet broad, but no door,
leading into the passage about 6 feet long, out of which the privy opens.
There is a door at the outer end of the passage, and in it a hole which
is considered necessary for air. The floor and ceiling are of wood, and
in the former are several crevices and holes. There is a space between
the ceiling of the parlour beneath and the floor of the prison-room
above, which is so filled with fleas and dust that in summer time it
cannot be got rid of by any cleanliness. The privy is a dark winding
recess, about 6 feet from front to back, taken out of the solid castle
walls. It leads to a hole going down to the bottom of the building,
which is always inaccessible for cleaning, but which till six years ago
had a drain from it into the moat; the air draws up through it into the
passage and room. There is no water within the prisoners' liberty, and
they are therefore obliged to get some person to fetch it for them. The
Courtroom is in a bad state."
[Picture: Interior of the Debtors' Prison in St. Briavel's Castle]
In consideration of these facts, the Commissioners in their Report upon
it, which was published 7th July, very properly declared that the said
Court was an evil, and required remodelling altogether, and they
suggested its conversion into a Court of Requests, in which the strict
forms of law might be dispensed with, parties appearing and being
examined in person, without the intervention of professional agents. Its
Commissioners might comprise the Constable of the Castle of St.
Briavel's, the verderers of the Forest, the magistrates of the
neighbourhood, and about thirty other persons, any two of whom, under the
presidency of one of the former, should form a Court, and decide cases of
debt from 10s. to 10 pounds, with power to direct payment of the debt by
instalments, or levies upon goods on failure of payment, there being no
imprisonment of the person except for fraud, which should then take place
in the county gaol at Little Dean, where, or at Coleford, the Court
should meet the first Monday in every month. Such was the purport of the
Report the Commissioners made to Parliament on the 7th July in this year.
[Picture: Court Room in St. Briavel's Castle]
The Fourth Annual Report of the Commissioners of Woods, &c., dated the
28th of August, 1832, states that Messrs. Hill had obtained the
permission of the Crown, under a lease for thirty-one years, and a rental
of 25 pounds, to remove all that they could find of the slag, cinders,
and refuse of the ancient ironworks; thus resuming an occupation which
had been discontinued for many years. The new Fancy Pits were now
furnished with two engines and we also find that for a time timber ceased
to be supplied from this Forest to the Royal Dockyards.
The Dean Forest Commissioners resumed their sittings the next year (1833)
on the 12th of April at Newnham, and proceeded to hear further evidence
"as to the rights and privileges claimed by free miners;" but the only
important occurrence which ensued was the presentation of a "Memorial,"
by Mr. Mushet, on behalf of parties not free miners, specifying the
claims which such proprietors and occupiers of coal and iron mines in the
Forest had to the support of Government in maintaining their position in
the district. The Memorial states that "foreigners" had possessed coal
and iron mines time out of mind, as appeared by the case of several
gentlemen and freeholders of the parish of Newland, who, as long since as
the year 1675, claimed the right to open certain works without any
objection being made by the free miners, a liberty which, whenever it was
acted upon, seems always to have benefited the public; that none of the
documents of the Mine Law Court appear to exclude foreigners from working
the mines; on the contrary, the Resolutions of that Court, passed 1775,
establish such a right, allowing the free miner to sell or bequeath his
property in the mines to any persons he may think proper; that the old
gale-books contain the names of many persons not free miners, which, with
similar testimony from Messrs. Tovey, James, &c., showed such to have
been the uniform practice for sixty years; that the foreigners have
always carried on their works with the full knowledge and authority of
the Crown; that the free miners do not possess the necessary capital for
carrying on the works, in which the foreigners have invested 700,000
pounds; and, lastly, that the Crown has gained several thousand pounds
per annum in consequence. Twenty-one persons signed this Memorial, as
also the representatives of the Forest of Dean and the Cinderford Iron
Companies.
Another Memorial was likewise presented by a dozen of the inhabitants of
the Forest, showing that, instead of their cottages and gardens tending
to throw a burden on the adjoining parishes, the very contrary was the
case, as many were therefore enabled to support themselves without
applying to those parishes. The petitioners also prayed that no further
part of the Forest might be enclosed for the supposed benefit of the
adjacent parishes, as thereby many persons would be deprived of
grazing-land for their cattle, and in consequence be necessitated to
apply to the next parishes for assistance.
Alluding to the state of the woods at this time (1833), Mr. Machen's
Notes, under the date of the 29th of May, state:--"This is now the fourth
year in which the blight has been so prevailing upon the oak and in the
Forest. I think this year it is worse than ever, and now the young
plantations suffer most, the large timber being comparatively free. Park
Hill, Oaken Hill, Nag's Head, Barn Hill, Stapledge, &c., and especially
all the higher parts of them, are leafless, except where a beech or a
chesnut shows its green foliage amidst the brown oaks. I saw a few rooks
in Russell's to-day, and last year I noticed great numbers. They seem to
be drawn to the Forest to feed on the grubs, for they are not generally
here, and I only hope they will increase. The woodmen complain that in
some situations the running of the bark has been checked; but considering
it has now been four years, it seems wonderful that more injury is not
done to the trees: they put out new leaves at the midsummer shoot, and
appear to recover. June 4th: found the grubs changed into a chrysalis,
enclosed in a leaf, with a kind of web round it. June 18th: the moths
appeared in vast numbers. The rooks are still about in Park Hill."
The usual Report to Government, being the fifth annual one, was issued on
the 28th August, 1833, signed "Duncannon, W. D. Adams, B. C. Stephenson."
Licence was granted to construct 600 yards of tramway from the Severn and
Wye line up to the Church Hill Colliery at Park End, and the Dean Forest
Commissioners appointed under the Act of Parliament (1 & 2 Gul. IV. c.
12) had their commission extended.
In the autumn of 1833 the Dean Forest Commissioners directed their
attention to the important object of settling the limits of the Forest,
in doing which they wisely determined to be governed by the Messrs.
Driver's maps of 1787, according to which the Forest boundaries had for a
length of time been regarded as practically settled, comprising the soil,
timber, and herbage actually belonging to the Crown. Its boundaries as
thus defined were perambulated in due ancient form, commencing on the
10th of September. {118} The cavalcade included Commissioners Robert
Gordon, Esq.; Mr. Serjeant Ludlow; Charles Bathurst, Esq.; and Edward
Machen, Esq., the Deputy-Surveyor; with Mr. Graham, their Clerk; and Mr.
Hosmer, their Surveyor; followed by the keepers and woodmen. "We began"
(writes Mr. Machen) "on Tuesday at Little Dean, and ended at Breem;
Wednesday we ended at Hoarthorns, Thursday at Drybrook, Friday at the
Stenders, and Saturday at Little Dean. We were occupied eight or nine
hours each day, accomplishing about nine miles daily by the map, but the
actual distance must have been nearly double."
The year 1834 is marked by the Dean Forest Commissioners issuing their
second Report, dated 1st of May, in which, after briefly explaining the
data on which the late perambulation had been conducted, they proceed to
state that, as respects the various encroachments, 1,510 acres 2 roods 32
poles were taken in before 1787. Since that date, and up to the year
1812, further encroachments to the extent of 573 acres 10.5 poles had
been made, and again from 1812 to the present time 24 acres 2 roods 9.5
poles had been taken in. In consideration of the Crown never having
reclaimed the old encroachments, the Commissioners recommended that all
such lands "should be declared to be freehold of inheritance," provided
no additional dwelling-houses were erected on them without the licence of
the Crown. They advised that the next oldest encroachments "should be
granted to their present possessors for three lives, not renewable except
at the pleasure of the Crown, and paying rents varying from one shilling
to two shillings per acre." As to the latest encroachments, they gave
their opinion that "their possessors should have terms varying from
fourteen to twenty-one years, paying rents varying from four to eight
shillings per acre; the condition as to building dwelling-houses to apply
to these classes also." The following table, showing the acreage of the
encroachments, classed as stated above, with the number of houses situate
in the six "Walks" of the Forest, serves to exhibit the localities of the
population of the district for the last hundred years.
Name of Houses. Previous Between Since
"Walk." to 1787. 1787 and 1812.
1812.
A. R. P. A. R. P. A. R. P.
Worcester 404 324 1 38 160 2 3 0 1 19
Park End 304 473 0 18 43 3 34 14 2 6
Blakeney 249 180 2 25 62 0 35.5 2 0 9.5
Little 196 174 1 6 104 0 33 4 3 26
Dean
Speech 0 2 7
House
Ruerdean 290 353 0 26 199 3 36 2 1 11
Hillier's 17 5 3 39 1 2 22
Lane
Yorkley 2 1 0 0 0 1 18
Lane
--- ----- ----- --- ---- ---- --- ---- ---- ----
1462 1510 2 32 573 0 10.5 24 2 9.5
During the greater part of September this year the Dean Forest
Commissioners were engaged either at Newnham, Westbury, or the
Speech-house hearing evidence "as to forming the Forest into a Parish,"
and respecting "Rights of Common." With the design of eliciting the
opinions of the neighbourhood on the first head, for civil purposes only,
"a circular was drawn up on the subject of enclosing lands on the outward
boundaries of the Forest, with a view of relieving the conterminous
parishes from the support of the Forest poor." It was sent to the
parishes bordering on the Forest, requesting the attendance of the
clergymen, overseers, and landowners, for the purpose of discussing such
a plan. This courteous invitation was responded to by the parish
authorities of Westbury, Flaxley, Little Dean, Mitcheldean, Awre,
Staunton, Ruerdean, the Lea hamlet, Bicknor, and St. Briavel's, the Rev.
H. Berkin attending on the part of the Forest clergy, when the scheme of
the Commissioners was unanimously approved. By the evidence taken under
the second head, it appears that the parishes or tithings of Westbury,
Little Dean, Awre, Ruerdean, Bicknor, Lea hamlet, Breem, Clearwell,
Newland, Lydney, St. Briavel's, Newnham, Woolaston, and Purton, claimed
the right of Common of Pasture.
In the same month "the Free Miners of the Forest" presented to the
Commissioners an able memorial of their rights, in reply to that
preferred the year before by persons not free miners, but who were
proprietors and occupiers of coal and iron mines in the Forest; its
object being to prove that "foreigners possessing and working mines
therein was in direct violation of the rights and privileges of the free
miners, contrary to their customs and franchises, and are acts of
injustice and usurpation." They affirmed that the present usage of
foreigners possessing mines was not of long standing,--that it dated from
the discontinuance of the Mine Law Court in 1777, by which all such
intrusions were strictly checked and prevented; that this Court had been
in full operation upwards of 500 years, as they verily believed, and so
continued until the last 60 years, meeting periodically under the
presidency of the Constable appointed by the King, and attended by his
deputies and by the King's Gaveller; and that, if this Court were
re-established, and their rights and privileges restored to them, there
would be no difficulty in finding capital for the proper working of the
mines. The memorial was signed by 1,036 persons, professedly free
miners. But, as to this being the fact, a further memorial was presented
to the Commissioners on the 23rd of December, urging "that no person
should be considered a free miner whose birth from parents free miners
cannot be proved, in addition to their having been born in the Forest,
and worked in the mines a year and a day." According to such rule, the
original number of 1,036 would be reduced to 798. On the 24th of
December this year (1834) another memorial, coming from free miners in
the occupation of stone-quarries within the Forest, was laid before the
Commissioners, pleading in few words for similar rights and customs in
respect of stone-quarries as were claimed in regard of mines. The names
of thirteen quarrymen were attached thereto.
Upon the 9th and three following days of June in the ensuing year (1835)
the Dean Forest Commissioners, at meetings held in London, received
letters from the Bishop of the diocese, from the clergymen of the Forest,
and of the Lea and Flaxley parishes, recommending the parochializing the
Forest for ecclesiastical purposes, either by means of curates with small
chapels, or by dividing the whole into a certain number of distinct
districts severally provided with a church and an incumbent. The
Commissioners reported unanimously in favour of making the Forest
parochial; and for all spiritual purposes they recommended an assignment
of districts to each of the churches already built, as also the erection
of a church and parsonage at Cinderford, with a stipend of 150 pounds
annexed, to which amount the salaries of the three existing ministers
should also be raised. They further recommended the enlargement of the
Lydbrook school-room into a chapel, with 80 pounds stipend to the
clergyman serving it; and they likewise advised forming Viney Hill,
having a population of nearly 800, into a district, or annexing it to
Blakeney, the church there, and minister's salary, being enlarged
accordingly. They also suggested that the 150 persons residing on Pope's
Hill should be united to Flaxley, with 20 pounds added to the clergyman's
stipend; and that the Lea Bailey, with its 100 inhabitants, should be
annexed in the same manner, and under the same conditions, to the Lea
parish.
In the second place, as to the relief of the poor inhabitants of the
Forest, the Commissioners were of opinion that it would be impossible to
raise a fund for this purpose by means of rates on property, as so much
was in the actual occupation of the Crown, or connected with mining, or
the holders being too poor to bear the burthen. They advised, therefore,
that about 1,600 acres of the Forest land should be enclosed and let out
for the purpose of furnishing such a provision, to be dispensed at the
discretion of a Board composed of the constable of St. Briavel's Castle,
the verderers, clergymen, and deputy-surveyor, and the magistrates acting
for the Forest division, and six inhabitants as coadjutors. {122}
On the 25th of August the Dean Forest Commissioners presented their
fourth and fifth Reports. In the former, which gives a minute summary of
the rights and privileges claimed by the free miners (derived chiefly
from the evidence taken in 1832), the origin of them is stated to be
involved in obscurity, although no doubt iron was manufactured in the
neighbourhood as early as the time of the Romans, and coal was obtained
in the reign of Edward III. Probably before, and certainly soon after,
the Norman Conquest, the soil was vested in the Crown, and all the rights
of a royal forest were in force. The persons by whom the mines were then
worked could not have been, in the first instance, free tenants of the
Crown. It is more likely that they were in a state of servitude, and
subject, in that character, to perform the labour required of them. The
name of "Free Miners," by which they are and have been for centuries
known, seems to refer to some right or privilege distinct from their
original condition; and it does not appear unreasonable to suppose that
certain persons at some distant period, either by having worked for a
year and a day, or by reason of some now unknown circumstance connected
with the origin of the privilege, were considered as emancipated, and
thereupon became entitled or were allowed to work the mines upon their
own adventure, concurrently with or subject to the right of the Crown to
a certain portion of the product.
Noticing in succession many of the historical incidents attaching to the
free miners of the Forest, the Report states that the franchise of the
mine was unquestionably perpetuated by birth from a free father in the
hundred of St. Briavel's, and afterwards working a year and a day in one
of the mines and abiding within the hundred. Doubt is, however, thrown
upon the necessity of birth from a free miner, the more so as the son of
a foreigner could obtain his freedom after working out an apprenticeship
of seven years with a free miner; and it would be difficult, if not
impossible, at the present time, to confine the title to anything beyond
birth and service, to which particular class of individuals the Court of
Mine Law confined all mining operations.
Entering in the next place into a consideration of the actual claims of
the free miners, the Commissioners declare their opinion as to how their
claims are to be settled, suggesting at once the question "whether they
can be now maintained with advantage to the miners themselves, or to the
community," connected as they are with a most defective system of
working, productive of incessant disputes and expensive litigation, and
occasioning constant disputes and never-ending jealousy; and they thus
conclude--"Taking all the circumstances of the case into consideration,
we are of opinion that the monopoly and customary workings are
practically at an end, and that, if individual claims were bought up, the
whole coal-field might then be let by the Crown as between landlord and
tenant, defining the limits and regulating the working."
The fifth and final Report of the Dean Forest Commissioners bore the same
date as the preceding. It contains the evidence produced before them as
to "certain claims of common of pasture" made by the inhabitants of the
following parishes bounding the Forest, and paying a small sum annually,
called "herbage money," to the lessee of the Crown of the manor and
hundred of St. Briavel's, and the manor of Newland, as annexed:--
_s._ _d._
Little Dean 3 4
parish
Newnham ,, 3 4
Staunton ,, 2 0
Longhope ,, 3 4
Abbenhall ,, 3 4
Mitcheldean ,, 7 0
Hope Mansel ,, 1 0
Ruerdean ,, 3 4
Bicknor ,, 1 0
Alvington ,, 5 0 will not pay.
Newland ,, 10 0
Huntisham 7 8 will not pay.
tithing
Bledisloe 3 4
Etloe Dutchy 5 0 }
Etloe tithing 3 0 } In Awre.
Box ,, 3 4 }
Hagloe and 5 5 }
Purton
Blaisdon 6 8
Blakeney 4 0
tithing
Awre parish 8 0
It is highly probable that the above claims, and the payments for the
ancient agistments, originated when the limits of the Forest comprehended
the parishes by which they are made. The earliest authentic trace of
them occurs in the agreement made by Charles I. with Sir John Winter in
1640, according to which about 4,000 acres of Crown land was to be taken
in and attached to the bordering parishes in lieu of their rights of
commonage; and in conformity with the principle of this agreement, the
Commissioners recommended "that these commonable rights should be
comprised in some general arrangement for the purpose of a commutation."
The last subject the Commissioners notice is the stone-quarries, which
persons born within the hundred of St. Briavel's claimed the right of
opening in the waste lands of the Forest, on payment of a fee of three
shillings to the gaveller, and an annual rent of three shillings and
fourpence, according to the custom of at least the last hundred years, a
period too long to justify the withdrawal of any existing gale, unless by
compensation. Hence all that the Commissioners found themselves
justified in recommending to the Crown, with the view of putting the
working of the stone-quarries on a better footing, was to re-issue gales
on liberal leases to all parties born within the hundred who applied for
the same within a specified time.
In bringing their labours to a close, the Commissioners urge the
necessity of passing an Act for definitively settling the several
particulars to which their inquiries had been directed, adding that it
would be well to incorporate the offices of Constable of St. Briavel's
Castle, and Warden of the Forest, with the office of Woods, lest they
should be found to interfere with its future administration, at that time
under the charge of Lord Duncannon, B. C. Stephenson, Esq., and A. Milne,
Esq.; and this was accordingly done in the following year.
We gather from Mr. Machen's memoranda that the nurseries in the Forest at
this time (1835) contained:--
Oak. Chesnut. Larch. Scotch. Spruce. Ash. Quick.
310,000 1,300 66,500 74,700 5,300 120,000 124,000 total.
200,000 1,300 40,000 40,000 5,300 10,000 30,000 fit to
plant out.
and, moreover, that 276,054 trees of various kinds had been planted out
during the previous winter.
On the 27th of July, 1838, the Royal Assent was given to "an Act for
regulating the opening and working of mines and quarries in the Forest of
Dean, and Hundred of St. Briavel's, by the agency of a Board of
Commissioners." Thomas Sopwith, Esq., of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was
appointed by the Board of Woods and Forests a Commissioner for the
purpose on behalf of the Crown; and John Probyn, Esq., of Longhope
Manor-house, Gloucestershire, was selected by the body of free miners to
act on their behalf; and the office of arbitrator between them was filled
by John Buddle, Esq., of Wallsend, in the county of Northumberland;
Thomas Graham, Esq., acting as their solicitor, and Mr. Henry Ebsworth as
his clerk. {126}
Some idea may be formed of the necessity for such a mining Commission,
and of the difficulties it had to overcome, from the following
particulars, as Mr. Sopwith stated them in his valuable Paper on "Mining
Plans and Records," read before the British Association at Newcastle in
1838:--"Great distrust of any interference" (he says) "existed, and some
of the mine-owners refused to allow of underground surveys being made.
Numerous and conflicting parties were then working mines under customs
which were totally inapplicable to the present state of mining;
destructive at once to the interests of the free miners of the Forest;
ruinous, as sad experience had shown, to the enterprising capitalist; and
subversive of the rights of the Crown. So great was the perplexity, and
so numerous and conflicting were the claims of contending parties, that
the law advisers of the Board of Woods deemed it almost impossible to
arrive at any satisfactory adjustment of them within the period of three
years, as named in the Dean Forest Mining Act. The ruinous and
unsatisfactory state of the mines must appear obvious on a slight
consideration. As no plans existed, it was impossible to tell to what
extent or in what direction the underground works were being carried.
The crossing of mattocks, that is to say, the actual meeting of the
workmen underground, was often the abrupt signal for contention; the
driving of narrow headings was a means by which one coal-owner might gain
possession of coal which of right belonged to another; and a pit, though
sunk at a cost of several thousand pounds, had no secured possession of
coal beyond 12 yards round it, that is, a tract of coal 24 yards in
diameter. At 40 or 50 yards from such a work another adventurer might
commence a pit, and have an equal right, if right it could be called, to
the coal. If a long and expensive adit was driven, another one might be
commenced only a few yards deeper; and, from such a state of things, it
is quite clear that great uncertainty and frequent losses inevitably
ensued." Moreover, the receipts from mines and minerals, by the Crown,
upon the average of the six preceding years, were only 826 pounds 2s.
10.5d.
The important Act by which these difficulties were to be removed, under
the auspices of the three Commissioners above named, was framed in
accordance with the suggestion thrown out in the fourth Report of the
Dean Forest Commissioners, viz., that all subsisting mine-works should be
released by compensation to the Crown, and the whole relet on a
well-defined plan to such free miners as might make application for the
same. The Act (1 and 2 Vict. cap. 43) provides that all male persons
born and abiding within the hundred of St. Briavel's, being upwards of
twenty-one years of age and having worked a year and a day in a coal or
iron mine or stone-quarry within the said hundred, should alone have the
right to hold or dispose of such works, a register of all such persons
being kept as "free miners." It suppressed all claims to pit timber,
with all "customs," and assigned to the Commissioners under the Act the
duty of fixing rents and royalties for twenty-one years, and to the
gaveller power to limit and regulate as well as to enter and survey all
works which might be re-awarded or galed. No engines were to be erected
nearer than sixty yards to any enclosure, within which only air-shafts
might be opened, and all unnecessary buildings were to be removed.
On the 16th of August, 1838, the annual Report of the Commissioners of
Woods was issued, signed by Lord Duncannon, B. C. Stephenson and A.
Milne, Esqrs. It mentions that a piece of land in the parish of English
Bicknor had been granted for school purposes, and that the Severn and Wye
Tramway Company obtained the licence of the Crown to lay down a branch
from Brook Hall Ditches to Foxes Bridge.
The only circumstance requiring notice in the following year is the
decease of the second Commissioner of Woods, Sir B. C. Stephenson, who
had long held the office, and he was succeeded by the Honourable Charles
Gore.
The next annual Report bears date 29th July, 1840, and contains nothing
calling for special notice.
The year 1841 is particularly important in the history of the Forest from
its being the date of the present coal and iron mine awards, under the
authority of the Mining Commissioners, the former being signed on the 8th
of March, and the latter on the 20th of July. By these awards no less
than 104 collieries were defined and assigned, together with twenty
iron-mines, and certain rules and regulations were laid down for working
them.
The duties of the Mining Commissioners having now closed, it must have
been highly gratifying to those gentlemen to receive from the Government
the following expressions of commendation, communicated by Mr. A.
Milne:--"I am to convey to you our entire approbation of the zeal,
ability, and sound discretion which appear to have marked all your
proceedings in the performance of the very important, difficult, and
laborious duties which devolved upon you, and their belief that, while
the result will be very beneficial to the interests of the Crown, it will
be attended with equal advantage to the great body of mining adventurers
in securing their titles to the property on very reasonable and moderate
terms, and subject to the regulations and conditions which seem to be
well calculated to protect them from that constant and expensive
litigation which had so long existed."
The total cost of adjusting the working of the coal and iron mines was
10,459 pounds 1s. 3d. The valuable services of the Mining Commissioners
were again noticed in the annual Report of the Board of Woods, published
on the 9th August in the following year, when 408 acres 2 roods were
thrown open in Blakeney Hill (south) and the South Lea Bailey Copse, a
similar extent of open Forest being enclosed at St. Low and Great
Kenseley. It also adverts to an Act passed on 30th of July previous,
dividing the Forest into ecclesiastical districts, constituting them
"Perpetual Curacies," and attaching the churches of Christ Church, Holy
Trinity, and St. Paul's to them, the stipends of each being raised to 150
pounds. The patronage of the two former was vested in the Crown, and the
latter in the Bishop of the Diocese. The Act likewise authorizes the
formation of a fourth district at Cinderford, and the erection and
endowment of a church there: thus each district comprised the following
number of acres:--
St. John's 5934
St. Paul's 7741
Holy Trinity 5859
Christ Church 3149
------
Total 22,683
The same Report also notices the provisions now made for the relief of
the poor, and for the abolition of the court and prison of the hundred of
St. Briavel's. The Act for the relief of the poor is dated the 9th of
July, and authorizes the introduction of the new Poor Law, dividing the
Forest into the two townships of East and West Dean, by a line drawn in a
diagonal direction from Lydbrook to Ayleford, being in fact almost the
same boundary which separated the ancient divisions of "above and beneath
the wood." The Act attached East Dean to the Westbury-upon-Severn Union,
and West Dean to that of Monmouth. It also united the Hudnalls, the
Bearse, the Fence, and Mawkins Hazells to the parishes of St. Briavel's
and Hewelsfield, Mailscot and an adjoining tract to English Bicknor, and
Walmore and Northwood's Green to the parish of Westbury-upon-Severn, for
the support of their own poor, by means of rates levied as their
respective overseers for the relief of the poor should direct.