Chapter 7

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.