INDUSTRIES 



the forest. The order of the Court of Exchequer 

 on an information filed soon after the earl of 

 Pembroke attempted to carry out the terms of 

 his lease was practically a compromise between 

 the parties, since it laid down, in spite of the 

 enunciation of some strong doctrine as to crown 

 rights, that no new diggers were to be allowed, 

 * but only such poor men as were inhabitants 

 of the said forest.' 



The iron-works in the forest were in this 

 reign leased to Sir Basil Brook, who was suc- 

 ceeded by several other lessees or sub-lessees, the 

 lease of the earl of Pembroke remaining in force. 

 In the forest were cast the 610 guns ordered by 

 the Crown in 1629 for the States General of 

 Holland, which were possibly shipped at Hullo 

 Pill on the Severn. Mr. Wyrrall, the indefatigable 

 antiquary, transcribed a most valuable inventory 

 dated 1635 of the iron-works in the forest used 

 by the successive lessees. There were then 

 furnaces at Cannop, Parkend, Soudley, and 

 Lydbrook, and forges, including chaffcries and 

 fineries, at Parkend, Whitecroft, Soudley, and 

 Lydbrook. From this survey it is quite clear 

 that the stone body of the furnace was as a rule 

 about 22 ft. square, while the water-wheel for 

 the blast was not less than 22 ft. in diameter, 

 and the two pairs of bellows measured 1 8 ft. by 

 4 ft. The inventory is astonishingly minute, 

 and the list of tools extremely valuable to any 

 investigators of the history of smelting, but we 

 can only give a reference to them here. 1 



As this article is mainly concerned with 

 mining we are unable to do more than allude to 

 the attempts made to use mineral coal in the 

 Dean iron-works, among which may be men- 

 tioned that by Captain Birch, Major Wildman, 

 and others who erected in the Forest of Dean 



large air furnaces, into which they introduced large 

 clay pots, resembling those used at glass-houses, filled 

 with various proportions of the necessary mixture 

 of ores and charcoal. The furnaces were heated by 

 the flame of pit-coal, and it was expected that, by 

 tapping the pots below, the separated material* would 

 flow out. This rude process was found entirely im- 

 practicable ; the heat was inadequate to perfect 

 separation, the pots cracked, and in a short time the 

 process was abandoned altogether.' 



The famous Dud Dudley maintained for some 

 time a furnace in the forest, at which he partially 

 solved the problem of fuel,* but he met with so 

 many reverses, owing to the hostility of other 



1 Printed Nicholls, Iron-making in the Forest of 

 Dean, 33-40. Cf. with this the Inventory of the 

 Commonwealth Govt. Works, S. P. Dom. 1656, 

 cxxx, 1 02. The seventeenth-century methods are 

 vividly described by Parsons, whose account is cited 

 by Nicholls, Forest of Dean, App. v. 



' Galloway, Annalt of Coal Mining and tht Coal 

 trade, 253. 



' For his experiments see Dud Dudley, Metallum 

 Martis, 2-24 ; Percy, Metallurgy of Iron and Steel, 

 883 ; cf. Malynes, Lex Mercatoria, 269-70. 



iron-masters and the dishonesty of his partners, 4 

 that he gave up the struggle. 



After twenty-four years of leases,* during 

 which frequent assaults upon the privileges of 

 miners by royal patentees led to violent uprisings 

 and riots among the former,* in 1637 a grant 

 was made to Edward Terringham of 



all mines of coal and quarries of grindstone within the 

 Forest of Dean and in all places within the limits and 

 perambulations thereof, as well those within his 

 Majesty's demesne lands and the waste and soil there, 

 as also all such as lay within the lands of any of his 

 Majesty's subjects within the perambulation of the 

 said Forest to His Majesty reserved or lawfully belong- 

 ing, to hold for 3 I years at the yearly rent of .30. ' 



Two years later, in 1 640, the crown sold to 

 Sir John Winter" all the mines, minerals, and 

 stone quarries within the limits of the forest, to 

 work and use the same together with all timber, 

 trees, woods, and underwood growing in any 

 part thereof, in consideration of 10,000 and 

 the yearly sum of 16,000 for six years, and of 

 a fee-farm rent of 1,950 12*. bd. for ever. 

 This bargain was equivalent to selling the forest 

 altogether, and the inhabitants of the district, 

 being greatly dissatisfied, took advantage of the 

 approaching civil distractions to throw down the 

 fences which Winter had already begun to make.* 

 Winter's active part in the Civil War in behalf 

 of the king led to the confiscation of his iron- 

 works and the alienation of his claims to the 

 forest. 10 What were the fortunes of the miners 

 during this period it is difficult to say, other, 

 perhaps, than that they were inclined towards 

 the side of Parliament, and were plundered and 

 pillaged by the troops of both armies. 



Under the Commonwealth, owing to the 

 difficulty experienced in meeting the demand 

 for material consequent on the Dutch War, 

 iron-works were erected in the forest for the 

 service of the Navy. After the Restoration it 

 was stated that the war-material thus procured 

 from Dean was found ' inserviceable and layd 

 by in the Tower as uselesse.' u This verdict is 

 either much exaggerated or can only apply to 



' Metallum Martis, 12-3, 16-20, 22-3. For 

 subsequent efforts to smelt iron with pit-coal see Plot, 

 Hist, of Staff. 128; Galloway, Annals of Coal Mining 

 and the Coal Trade, i, 189 ; Percy, Metallurgy of Iron 

 and Steel, 885. 



* Cf. Narrative of Forest of Dean. 



' Rudder, Hist. ofGlouc. 30 ; Hut. MSS. Com. Rcj>. 

 xii, App. pt. i, p. 430. 



* Nicholls, Forest of Dean, 27 ; Galloway, Annals of 

 Coal Mining and the Coal Trade, i, 207 ; cf. S.P. Dom. 

 Chas. I, ccciii, 6 1 ; Chas. II, xvii, 61. 



* For further details as to the history of the Forest 

 of Dean during the seventeenth century see article 

 ' Forestry ' in this volume. 



* Nicholls, Forest of Dean, 28 ; Narrative tf Forest 

 of Dean, 34. 



10 Nicholls, Forest of Dean, 28-34. 



11 Add. MSS. (B.M.), 33058, fol. 85. 



225 



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