INDUSTRIES 



on the west of the forest about 1 860-6 yielded 

 on an average 1,000 tons of haematite per month. 

 This mine was opened in 1838 on the Clear- 

 well Mean below ancient workings where picks 

 and wooden shovels tipped with iron were dis- 

 covered. Other important mines at this time 

 were the Easter and the Dean's Meend. 



The nineteenth century has seen considerable 

 fluctuations in the output of the iron-mines of 

 the forest. In 1828 only 9,800 tons of ore 

 were produced, but in 1839 this had risen to 

 72,800 tons, and in 1871 there was a high 

 water mark of 170,611. Since then we per- 

 ceive a sorry falling off indeed, and in the present 

 year (1906) the returns for Gloucestershire show 

 only eleven iron mines 1 at work employing ninety- 

 one persons, while the output for 1905 is estimated 

 at 7,245 tons of iron ore, 2,662 tons of ochre, and 

 a small quantity of red oxide of iron and umber. 

 The various forms of iron ore are known locally 

 as the 'brush,' the ' grey burler,' the ' brown bur- 

 ler,' the ' smith ore,' and the low grade ' grey ore,' 

 and for the distinctions between them the reader 

 must be referred to the technical handbooks. 1 



While the iron output of the forest has 

 seriously diminished since the middle of the last 

 century, the production of coal has increased 

 nearly threefold. In 1856 the number of coal- 

 works in the forest was estimated at 221, and the 

 output 460,432 tons, of which the two largest 

 and most highly organized, the Parkend Colliery 

 and the Lightmoor Colliery, furnished 86,973 

 and 86,508 tons respectively. In 1898 the 

 amount of coal raised in the Forest of Dean 

 reached 1,176,712 tons, while the output for 

 the whole of Gloucestershire in 1905 was 

 1,388,476 tons, a figure which probably indi- 

 cates some decrease in the Forest of Dean on the 

 figures of 1 898, since at least one quarter of this 

 must be deducted for the collieries in the Bristol 

 and Kingswood coalfield across the Severn. 



No attempt can be made here* to deal ex- 

 haustively with the Forest of Dean Coalfield from 

 the technical standpoint, but a few remarks may 

 be permitted on features of interest. Of the 

 three series of seams the Woorgreens or upper- 

 most are in the centre of the field, covering about 

 1,500 acres. Two seams, the Upper Woorgreens 

 averaging I ft. 2 in. and the Lower Woorgreens 

 I ft. 8 in. in thickness, have been worked, but 

 only slightly. Between them and the Dog- 

 delf lie two coal bands 6 in. thick. The 

 Dogdelf, which may be regarded as the first of 



1 But owing to the high price of iron now ruling 

 others may soon be reopened. 



' A good account is given in Kendall, op. cit. 1 34. 



For further details see an exhaustive paper by J. J. 

 Joynes, Description of Seams, &c.,' in Journ. Brit. 

 Sat. Mining Students, si, 136 et seq. Also Hughes, 

 Textbook of Coal Mining ; Hull, Coal FieUi of Gt. 

 Britain, etc. We are also indebted to valuable notes 

 furnished by Mr. W. R. Champness and other 

 courteous informants. 



the Middle Series, has only been mined to a small 

 extent ; its average thickness is I ft. 3 in. The 

 Smith Coal, or Twenty-Inch seam, which lies 

 from 5 to 12 yds. beneath the Dogdelf, is generally 

 regarded as very unreliable, and probably a greater 

 area of it has been left untouched than in any 

 other of the upper seams, although it has been 

 worked to some extent all over the forest. The 

 Little Delf seam lies from half a foot to as 

 much as 30 ft. below the last-mentioned seam, 

 the average being about 18 ft. The specific 

 gravity of its coal is said to be the highest of any 

 seam in this field. The next seam, the Lowrey 

 or Parkend High Delf, lies fairly regularly at a 

 distance of from 1 5 to 1 8 yds. below the Smith 

 Coal, with a general average thickness of from 

 I ft. 4 in. to 2 ft. 6 in., the ' thick Lowrey ' how- 

 ever showing an average section of 3 ft. 7 in. The 

 coal procured here is of excellent quality, suited 

 both for household use and the manufacture of 

 gas. The next workable seam the Starkey, like 

 the Smith Coal is of variable section, usually 

 from about i ft. 5 in. to 2 ft. 6 in. The coal in 

 the Rockey Delf, which lies about 15 yds. below 

 the Starkey, has as fine an appearance as any in 

 the forest. But to quote Mr. Joynes' account : 

 ' as the name implies it is very hard itself and fairly 

 hard to get.' Its average section may be taken as 

 nearly 2 ft. Twenty-five yards below the Rockey 

 is the Churchway High Delf, a good seam nearly 

 worked out in the northern and north-eastern 

 half of the coalfield ; to this seam nearly all the 

 pits working the Middle Series are sunk. In 

 section it varies from i ft. 6 in. to 4 ft. In the 

 northern part the Breadless, Upper Churchway, 

 and Lower Churchway unite to form a fine work- 

 ing section, to the south they are separated by 

 bands of ' dirt.' The No Coal seam, the last of 

 the Middle Series, is from 15 to 19 yds. be- 

 low the Churchway High Delf, but the coal 

 is faulty and generally split up by bands of 

 dirt. In consequence it has been mined little or 

 not at all. 



The next seam, the Brazilly, should more 

 correctly have been classed in the Middle Series, 

 as it is only 1 7 yds. beneath the No Coal, but 

 between 80 and 90 yds. above the Yorkley. 

 It is very variable in section. The Yorkley or 

 Nag's Head, though to the north it runs thin, 

 furnishes towards the south a hard house coal ; 

 in thickness it averages over 2 ft. The Whit- 

 tington seam, 50 yds. and sometimes considerably 

 more beneath the Yorkley, has been worked near 

 the outcrop to the south and south-west of the 

 coalfield ; its average thickness may be accepted 

 as about I ft. 9 in. The strata intervening 

 between the Whittington and the famous 

 Coleford High Delf are mainly grey sandstone. 

 A fair average section of this seam, the finest in 

 the district, may be reckoned at from 4 to 6 ft., 

 though occasionally a thickness of 14 ft. has been 

 found. The coal here is an excellent steam 

 coal, but as a house coal is not so good as that 



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