INDUSTRIES 



the basin, with the result that water has accumu- 

 lated in the hollows which have been left. 

 Consequently extensive pumping installations 

 are required in the deeper mines to deal with the 

 water which pours in from the old shallow 

 workings. In this connexion it may be men- 

 tioned to the credit of the Forest of Dean coalfield 

 that the first application of electricity to pumping 

 operations ' in mines, at least in England, was 

 made at the Trafalgar Colliery, where the new 

 plant was installed by Mr. F. Brain, and com- 

 menced working as far back as December, 1882. 

 Such success attended this innovation, that three 

 more plants were erected in May, 1887, which 

 still do a large part of the underground pumping 

 work ; while in a still later installation the 

 pump, at a maximum speed of 25 strokes, lifts 

 1 20 gallons per minute 300 ft. high. 



The Gales of the Deep Series, amalgamated 

 under recent legislation, can only be profitably 

 worked by a syndicate of capitalists, but His 

 Majesty's Inspector in his last Report * expressed 

 the opinion that ' unless the matter is started 

 under favourable auspices of management and 

 capital (in cash, and not in shares), it would be 

 likely to prove detrimental rather than advan- 

 tageous,' and that in fact, 'it would be better 

 for the responsible authorities to disallow any 

 transfer of the Gales to fresh owners unless they 

 were guaranteed efficient management and ample 

 available capital to provide for the difficulties and 

 eventualities to be expected.' * 



For the sake of completeness, mention may 

 be made here of what has been called the 

 Newent coal-basin to the north of the present 

 limits of the Forest, where the Coal Measures 

 rest directly on the Old Red Sandstone. This 

 tract lies about two miles west of Newent, and 

 extends from May Hill northward towards 

 the Malverns. Coal was formerly worked at 

 Boulsdon to the south-west of Newent, where 

 a seam from four to five feet thick was found at 

 a depth of 123 ft., and also at Oxenhall on an 

 estate then belonging to R. F. Onslow, esq., 

 where a seam is said to have been discovered 

 over 8 ft. in thickness. The easily accessible 

 coal in this district, however, seems now for the 

 most part to be exhausted. The iron furnace at 

 Oxenhall, which Rudder 4 mentions as pro- 

 ducing 2O tons of metal weekly in 1730, was 

 perhaps supported with ore from outside the 

 county, mixed with 'cinders' from the Forest 

 of Dean. 



As in the case of the Forest of Dean, so on 

 the eastern bank of the Severn, iron and coal 

 have formed the staple product of the mines of 



1 Hughes' Textbook of Coal Mining ($th ed.), 414 

 et seq.) ; Journ. Brit. Sac. Mining StuJents, xi, 48. 



* For 1905, published 1906. 



1 We are indebted to Sir Charles Dilke, bait, for 

 information that two shafts are now being tunk to 

 the Deep. 



4 Op. cit. 589. 



the district which lies between Bristol and 

 Tortworth. This area, if regarded apart from 

 the great Somersetshire coalfield, of which it is 

 a parcel, may be described as a pear-shaped 

 basin, 1 bounded on the western, northern, and 

 eastern sides by the Millstone Grit and the 

 Carboniferous Limestone. The Coal Measures 

 have been divided into an Upper Division 

 (i,iooft.) of sandstones, red clays, and shales, 

 with six seams of coal at Parkfield and Coal Pit 

 Heath, the Pennant Grit (2,000 ft.) with occa- 

 sional seams of coal at Iron Acton, Winter- 

 bourne, Mangotsfield, and Kingswood, and the 

 Lower Division (2,700 ft.) of sandstones and 

 shales, with seams of coal varying from some 

 thirty in the south to eight in the north, iron- 

 stones and fireclays at Kingswood, Bitton, 

 Bristol, Yate, and Cromhall. To the south the 

 faulted anticline 6 ranging east and west, which 

 crosses the Frome two miles north of Bristol, is 

 an important feature, as well as the overthrust 

 fault first pointed out by Mr. Handel Cossham. 

 There is considerable evidence of a third coal- 

 field connecting that of the Forest of Dean with 

 the Bristol area, and in a geological sense the 

 entire mineral district of Gloucestershire may 

 be regarded as a whole, since Coal Measures 

 revealed by the railway cuttings at Almondsbury 

 have also been proved in the Severn Tunnel and 

 opened up beneath the adjacent alluvial low 

 lands. But their working at a commercial 

 profit seems at present unlikely. 



Iron was probably worked to the east of the 

 Severn at a much earlier period than coal, and it 

 has even been suggested that the brown haematite 

 of the Pennant Grit was mined near Iron Acton, 

 Frampton Cotterell, and Rangeworthy during 

 the period of Roman occupation. 7 The render 

 of ninety blooms (massas) of iron mentioned in the 

 Domesday" notice of Pucklechurch * suggests 

 a considerable mining industry at that time 

 within the manor, and there is some reason for 

 supposing that it was from this source that the 

 monks of Glastonbury obtained the ore for the 

 forges which they had at work even before the 

 Conquest. This documentary evidence is borne 

 out by the traces of old workings which have 

 been found within the hundred of Pucklechurch 

 as at Cold Ashton and elsewhere, 10 while the heaps 

 of 'cinders' discovered at Iron Acton point to 

 the early existence of iron forges in the district. 

 It is impossible to state exactly when iron ceased 



' For a detailed account of the Geology, see P.C.H. 

 Glotu. i ; Hull, CoalfeUi o/Gt. Britain ($th ed.) ; and 

 Journ. Brit. So(. of Mining StuJents, xii, 161. 



' As Mr. Hull has pointed out, op. cit. 69, 'The 

 occurrence of the Pennant to the north of the fault 

 has greatly retarded the development of the lower 

 seams, which have been largely worked on the southern 

 side of the anticlinal.' 



' Proc. CottenooU Club, iv, 28. 



1 Dom. Bk. 165*. ' Which included Wick. 



10 Rudder, op. cit. 239. 



235 



