FOREST OF DEAN. 25t> 



distinctly laid down that all the male persons born 

 and abiding in the Hundred of St. Briavel, and of 

 the age of twenty-one j r ears and upwards, who should 

 have worked a year and a day in coal or iron mines 

 within the Hundred, should be entitled to be registered 

 as Free Miners ; and that only Free Miners should 

 have the exclusive right of having gales or works 

 granted to them by the officer, called the gaveller, 

 to open mines within the Hundred. Such gales or 

 grants confer an interest in the nature of real estate, and 

 are perpetual, subject to conditions for the payment 

 of certain rents and royalties to the Crown. These 

 royalties are fixed on the assumption that, after the coal 

 or iron has been reached, the Crown is entitled to one- 

 fifth of the net profit of working the mine. In case of 

 dispute the royalty is settled by arbitration, and then 

 remains fixed for twenty-one years. The Free Miner 

 can sell his gale, and a large part of the mines in the 

 district are not now held by Free Miners, but by persons 

 who have purchased up the interests in .their gales. 

 Nearly the whole of the coal field in the Forest is now 

 included in existing gales. 



Under this system the mining industry has grown 

 up. The output of the coal mines now averages about 

 900,000 tons a year, and that of the iron mines about 

 100,000 tons. The royalties to the Crown produce 

 annually about 12,000 for coal and 5,000 for iron. 

 The existing gales of coal and iron are 2G0, of which 

 not more than 80 are worked. 



It would seem that the growth of population 

 r 2 



