Condition of the Forest described, and management examined—Depredations—Ninth and tenth orders of the Miners’ Court—Timber injured by the colliers—The Forest in its best state, 1712—Eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth orders of the Miners’ Court—Fourteenth order of the Miners’ Court—Swainmote Court discontinued—Extension of coal-works and injury of trees—Forest neglected—Fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth orders of the Miners’ Court—Grant of 9200 feet of timber to the Gloucester Infirmary.

Reverting to the general condition and management of the Forest, an important commission was issued this year, 1692, to the Crown officers and some of the neighbouring gentry, directing them to examine and inquire into the six following particulars:—I.  The quantity of coppicewood fit for being cut from year to year for twenty-one years to come—II.  The annual charge for the next twenty-one years of maintaining the enclosures—III.  What the cost would be of disenclosing certain coal-pits, with which some of the plantations were encumbered—IV.  What the salaries of the Crown officers of the Forest amounted to, and the cost of making such repairs as the buildings they occupied required—V.  As to the way in which the timber fellings of 1688 had been disposed of, with the state of the enclosures, if those who had charge of them had duly protected them from injury—and VI.  How far trespass and pounding had been enforced, or unlawful building permitted.

The ninth Mine Law Court was held on the 25th of April, 1694, at Clearwell, before John Higford and George Bond, Esqrs.

It confirmed the punishment already awarded against “the abominable sin of perjury,” to prevent which it directs that “no person shall be permitted to sweare in his own cause unless it be for a matter transacted underground, or where it was difficult to have any witnesses;” nor shall any bargain be binding unless it be proved by two witnesses.

All causes of debt or damage amounting to 40s. were to be heard on both sides as in other courts, the verdict being given by a jury of twelve miners; but in lesser causes by the Constable of the Court.  Provision was also made that “every defendant have twenty-four hours’ notice to provide for his defence,” every witness being allowed 12p. a-day, the fees of the Court remaining the same as before, all which, as well as the defendant’s time, the plaintiff losing the cause, or being non-suited, had to pay.  This “Order” also reduces the price of ore for Ireland from 8s. to 5s. a dozen bushels, pitched at Brockwere, or if at Wye’s Green for 4s. ditto; fire-cole at 8s. a dozen bushels; smith’s-cole, 6s., and charking at 8s., “without handing, thrusting, kicking, or knocking the same,” under the usual penalty.  Eighteen miners out of the jury of forty-eight signed their names themselves “to this Order,” the remaining thirty only making their marks.

Its proceedings were as follows:—Certain temporary orders, dated the 12th March, 1699, and 11th November, 1700, regulating the loading of horses and carts, forbidding any coal to be sent off by the river Wye below Welch-Bicknor, authorizing the raising of money for paying the costs of the miners’ debts in law, securing the Records of their Court, and making the present deputy constable of St. Briavel’s Castle a free miner, were confirmed and made perpetual.  Mention is also made for the first time of “the utmost seventy” being the greatest number ever comprised in the miners’ jury.  The order further directs that the Records of Mine-law, used at the hearing of the suit in the Exchequer, be recorded, and put into a chest, to be left in the custody of Francis Wyndham, Esq., whom the court had made a free miner, and that in paying any of the costs incurred in that cause a legal discharge be taken.  Now the ton of 21 cwt. was fixed as a weight of coal, to be sold for 5s. to an inhabitant of the hundred, or for 6s. to foreigners; and every pit was to be provided with scales.  Upwards of twenty of the forty-eight miners who formed the jury at this court put their names to the above verdict, the remainder being marksmen.

Another event of this year was the holding a Court of Mine Law, on the 1st of July, at Mitcheldean, but afterwards by adjournment at Coleford, before George Bond and Roynon Jones, Esqrs., deputies.

It confirmed the directions of a former court of forty-eight, that the law-papers produced at the late suit in the Court of Exchequer, with all the other records of the Mine Law Court, be collected forthwith, and consigned to the care of Francis Wyndham, Esq.; and that the law debts then incurred be at length paid, out of a 1s. rate upon every miner and mine-horse.  The 20s. penalty for leaving pits unfenced was also reimposed.  This “Order” bears the genuine signatures of nineteen out of the forty-eight jurymen, the rest merely making their marks.

In the next year, a.d. 1708, Mr. Wilcox, the Surveyor-General, represented to Lord Godolphin that the inhabitants of the neighbourhood had been stripping some of the trees of their bark, whereupon those trees, with any others not likely to be of any use to the navy, were ordered to be cut down and used for gates, stiles, and fences, or sold for the benefit of the Crown.  Three years later a similar charge was preferred against certain colliers for cutting trees and wood, but we do not find that it came to anything.

Only two years intervened between the holding of the Court just mentioned, and the one which followed it, held at the Speech House, on 10th November, 1719, before Richard Machen and William James, Esqrs., Deputies.

On this occasion certain previous orders were cancelled, and in their stead it was determined that no one living out of the Hundred of St. Briavel’s should convey any coal out of the Forest unless he belonged to the Forest division of the county, and carried for his own private use.  A penalty of £5 was imposed upon any person under twenty-one years of age carrying ore or coal.  All traffic in coal, either up or down the Wye, was to stop at Welch Bicknor, between which and Monmouth Bridge no coal was to be pitched.  At Monmouth, fire-coal was to be sold at 9s. the dozen bushels; smith’s-coal at 8s.; and lime-coal at 5s. 6d.  Above Lydbrook, on the Wye, fire-coal was to be sold at 8s. a ton, or the dozen barrels; smith’s-coal at 6s.; and lime-coal at 3s.  One free miner was not to sell any fire-coal to another under 5s. per ton of 21 cwt.  Roynon Jones and Edmund Probyn, Esqrs., were made free miners.  Lastly, any former orders in private hands, together with all writings relating to the Free-miners’ Court, were to be delivered to William James, Esq., to be kept in the said miners’ chest, at the Speech-house.  Perhaps this direction was, with few exceptions, complied with, not, it would seem, in every case, as several of those alluded to in the existing orders of the forty-eight cannot be found.  Nineteen signatures made by the parties themselves occur at the end of this Order; the rest are only marks.

Nine years passed away before another full Mine Law Court is recorded.  This was on the 12th November, 1728, by adjournment, at the Speech House, before Maynard Colchester, Esq., and William James, Gent.

The extension of the Forest coal-works, in depth and underground operations, as indicated by the enlargement of the protective distance, effected a corresponding change in the kind of timber required for propping the mine.  That is, as the pressure from above increased, owing to the workings being carried deeper, stronger stays and supports were necessary than cordwood or saplings supplied.  Nothing less than the stems and main limbs of timber trees would suffice.  How the colliers obtained these requisites, the particulars given in the following complaint, made in 1735 by the Surveyor-General, show:—“A practice has prevailed among the colliers of boring large holes in trees that they may become dotard and decayed, and, as such, may be delivered to them gratis for the use of their collieries.”  The only notice, it cannot be called a remedy, which this evil obtained, was that, for the future, directions were given that “such bored trees as appeared to be dead and spoiled shall be felled, taking care that none be cut down that may be of use to the navy.”

About this time the fifteenth of the series of “Orders” enacted by the Mine Law Court of forty-eight, informs us that it met by adjournment at the Speech House on the 6th of December, 1737, before William Jones, Esq., Deputy Constable of St. Briavel’s Castle.

Owing to the injury which it was considered foreigners had done to the free miners by carrying coal out of the Forest for merchandise, it was decided that for the future no such carrying should be allowed except to certain persons named, under a penalty of £5, or property to that amount, or imprisonment in St. Briavel’s Castle for a year, to the perpetrator or any cognizant thereof.  From this it seems perfectly plain that the free miner regarded the carrying of coal as much a part of his profession as getting it, and therefore equally requiring protection.  The “Order” proceeds to direct that in every suit before the Mine-Law Court the plaintiff and defendant were to pay 6d. to the Clerk for entering the same, which was to form his salary.  The rights of free-minership were conferred upon the Honourable Thomas Gage, Christopher Bond the younger, Esq., Thomas Crawley, Esq., James Rooke, Esq., Thomas James, Gent., Thomas Barron the younger, Gent., Thomas Marshall, Yeoman.  John Wade was to be made “free” on his working a year and a day in the mine; and making it a rule that a foreigner’s son, being born in the Hundred, and seeking to become a free miner, was to serve by indenture an apprenticeship of seven years.  The above “Order” has only twenty-three marks attached to it, more than half the jury signing their own names.

It is worthy of remark, that the same boundary line, with only a trifling difference, defines the two townships of East and West Dean, into which the Forest is now divided for the purposes of the Poor Law Amendment Act.  The connexion of this division with the Court of Mine Law consisted simply in this, that the attendance of a free miner on the jury was regulated by the position of his works and habitation in one or other of them.

A £5 penalty was laid upon all miners who should send or carry any coals to Hereford or Monmouth by the Wye, except lime-coal at “the New Wears,” at 4s. a dozen bushels.  A similar fine was inflicted on any inhabitant of the Forest division of the county who should “presume” to carry coal otherwise than for their own use; so also no miner was to work more than two pits at one time; nor to carry coal for any person not a free miner; neither to sell fire-coal or stone-coal charks under 7s. a dozen bushels, or 5s. if smith’s coal, at Redbrook, which, if refused there, a “forbid” shall be declared until the former coal should be accepted.  This “Order” further enacted that if coal was found in any bargeman’s boat, and he refuse to say from whom he had it, a general “forbid” shall be declared that no miner serve him with any more.  A free miner is briefly defined to be “such as have lawfully worked at coal a year and a day.”  A foreigner selling coal at Hereford for less than 13s. per ton was to be summoned, or abide the consequences of a general “forbid.”  Should there be at any time more than a sufficiency of coal for the trade on the Wye, the barge-owners were to employ the services of the miners, or be fined according to their wages.  A horse-load to the Wye was fixed at 2 cwt. and a quarter for 6d., ten such making a ton, to be weighed, if required, under a forfeit of 2s. 6d.  Miners beneath the wood were bound to sell not less than a cwt. of coal for 4d.; 3 bushels of smith’s coal for 5d.; and 1 bushel of lime coal for 1d. at the pit.  No team was to be served with less than 2 cwt. nor more than 21 cwt., to be weighed, if desired, or forfeit £5.  This Order constituted Richard Clarke and Edward Tomkins Machen, Esqrs., free miners, and exhibits at the end the penmanship of only 18 of the jury, all the rest merely making their marks.

It records the election to free-minerships of the Right Honble. George Augustus Lord Dursley, Charles Wyndham of Clearwell, Esq., Rev. Roynon Jones of Monmouth, John Probyn of Newland, Esq., his son Edmund, Maynard Colchester the younger, Esq., Roynon Jones the younger, of Nass, Esq., Kedgwin Webley of London, Gentleman, Kedgwin Hoskins the elder, of Clearwell, Gent., William Probyn the younger, of Newland, Gent., Mr. Kedgwin Hoskins the younger, of Clearwell, Mr. Edmund Probyn the younger, son of the said William Probyn, Mr. Thomas James the younger, Mr. Thomas Baron the younger, son of Mr. Thomas Baron of Coleford, Herbert Rudhall Westfaling, of Rudhall in Herefordshire, Esq., John Clarke, of “The Hill,” in Herefordshire, Esq., Thomas Foley the elder, of “Stoke Eddy,” in the said shire, Esq., Thomas Foley the younger, of the same, Esq., John Symons, of the Mine, in the same county, Esq., Ion Yate, of Arlingham, Esq., William Lane, of “King’s Standley,” and Barrow Lawrence, of Bruen’s Lodge, Gent.

So full a list of persons of position and influence as this Order exhibits, lending their names to the Free Miners’ Society, indicates the existence of considerable importance in that body; and yet this was the last Court having forty-eight free miners on the jury whose proceedings have been preserved, the fact being that they failed to agree in their verdicts, and then gentlemen refused to attend, owing, it is said, to the violent quarrels and disputes which arose between foreigners possessed of capital, who now began to be admitted to the works, and the free miners.  It is also reported that the decisions of the court were seldom observed, no Act of Parliament having passed to render them valid.  The former protective distance between one mine and another was increased from 500 to 1000 yards of any levels, and enforced by a £5 penalty.  The order concludes with directing that

The Benefaction-Boards of the Gloucester Infirmary record, in reference to this period, the following particular:—“A gracious benefaction from his Majesty King George II. of 9,200 feet of rough oak timber from the Forest of Deane.”

Mr. John Pitt suggested 2,000 acres to be planted—The Forest surveyed—Great devastations and encroachments—The roads—Act of 1786, appointing a Commission of Inquiry—New plantations recommended—Messrs. Drivers employed to report on the Forest—Corn riots—Mitcheldean market.

Reverting to the state of the woods and timber in the Forest, it appears that ere this the old enclosures had been thrown open, the trees planted early in this century having attained to considerable size, and some parts so far cleared as to suggest the formation of new plantations.  In 1758 John Pitt, Esq., then Surveyor-General of Woods, &c., proposed to the Treasury that 2,000 acres should be enclosed, which was ordered to be done accordingly; but probably it was executed in part only, since Mr. Pitt was removed from his office five years afterwards, when a survey of the timber was made, and it was computed that there were 27,302 loads of timber fit for the navy, 16,851 loads of about sixty years’ growth, and 20,066 loads dotard and decaying.  To this period also belongs the first opening of the old Fire-engine colliery, or Orling Green coal-work, galed to “foreigners,” but subsequently conveyed by them at different times in shares to various persons, including the gaveller, by whom the first fire-engine was put up about 1777, a date also memorable as being the one on which the Court of Free Miners wholly ceased to act.

The attention of Parliament was directed at this time to the best means of increasing the supply of timber to the Royal dockyards.  A committee formed for investigating the matter produced the clearest evidence of decrease of navy timber throughout the kingdom, to the extent of at least two-thirds within the last forty years, according to the experience of thirty different dealers.  The annual amount of such timber supplied from Dean Forest is stated to have averaged at this time about 2,000 loads.  Probably the most correct view of the disposition of the woods, plantations, &c., and of the district in general, is afforded by Mr. Taylor’s map of the county of Gloucester, published in 1777.  It indicates the enclosures formed since the beginning of the century, as well as a considerable extent of woodland; indeed we know, from the return made to a Parliamentary survey taken in 1783, that the Forest contained 90,382 oak-trees, amounting to 95,043 loads, besides 17,982 beech-trees, in which were 16,492 loads; to protect which more effectually, Mr. Pitt instituted the place of “watch-man,” attaching to it a dwelling-house on Oaken Hill, and a small quantity of land, with a salary of £10, and any fines or rewards obtained on the conviction of timber stealers.

We obtain information on the subject of pit-timber from Mr. Hartland’s evidence before the Parliamentary Commissioners.  He says that “the sorts of wood or timber delivered to the miners were oak and beech, and none other; chiefly oak in the summer, more pits being sunk in the summer than in the winter, and the keepers having the bark; more beech is allowed in the winter than oak.  But oak timber is necessary, and is always allowed, for sinking the pits, and for making what the miners call the gateway, or gangway, from the body of coal to the pit, and also for the gutters in the levels, for draining off the water; but beech, birch, orle, holly, or any other kind of wood, would serve for the purpose of getting coal, and supporting the earth after the coal is taken away, but none is ever delivered to them but oak and beech.”  He goes on to say that “the evil of the colliers misapplying the timber served to them by the keepers could only be remedied by refusing it for the future to such parties as had been detected therein.  Fining them was found impracticable, owing to the difficulty of proving the timber to have been the King’s, without which proof the justices could hardly act.”

Speaking of the Forest roads, on which £11,631 3s. 10d. had been expended within the preceding twenty-five years, Mr. Hartland stated that “the principal were the road from Mitcheldean to Monmouth, and from Little Dean to Coleford.  These two are public high roads, not necessary or useful to the Forest, but rather detrimental to it by affording the readier means to convey away the coal in waggons and carts, in which timber has sometimes been found concealed.  Besides the above, there are several roads leading from the Forest to Newland, Coleford, and St. Briavel’s, which have been kept in repair at the charge of the Forest, but are of no use to it—rather the contrary.  The only road now used for conveying the navy timber is the Purton Road, which is the most convenient for carriage to the water side from all parts of the Forest except the Chesnuts in Edge Hills, and the Lea Bailey; but there is no navy timber now in either of these places except the Lea Bailey.  If the repairing of the public roads at the charge of the Forest were to be discontinued, the public would be obliged to put up turnpike gates on the roads, and collect tolls for repairing them, as in other parts of the country.”

The detection of the various abuses which the above extracts exhibit constitutes the first fruit of the enactment of the 26th George III. (1786) for appointing commissioners to inquire into the state of the woods, forests, &c., of the Crown, and to report thereon, adding such observations as should occur to them for their future management and improvement.

Upwards of £2,000 worth of timber out of the Forest was granted, 26th of April, 1786, towards building a gaol in Gloucester, as well as a penitentiary house and houses of correction within the county, at a total cost of £30,000, upon the plea that the old castle, on the site of which the gaol was to be built, belonged to the King, and also that one of the houses of correction was to be erected within the Forest, whereby the rights of the Crown would be supported.  The execution of this grant required 1,690 trees.

The gentlemen appointed to act in the commission above named were, Sir Charles Middleton, John Call, Esq., and Arthur Holdsworth, Esq., who forthwith proceeded to collect information on the history and management of the Forest of Dean, as well as the claims and usages of the mining population.  Their report, being the third of the series, was published on the 3rd of June, 1788.  Commencing with an introduction respecting the Royal Forests generally, it proceeds to this Forest in particular, “as being in proportion to its extent by far the most valuable and the most proper for a nursery of naval timber,” and refers first to the origin and results of the important Act of the 20th Charles II.; then to the abuses which have since crept in, with their disastrous effects; and, thirdly, to the best way of settling the claims of commoners, and how to render this Forest a very valuable nursery of timber for the royal navy.

“The Great Enclosure, which contained 743 acres 35 poles, was begun to be made about twelve years ago, with post and rail; but before the whole was completed, a great part was taken away, and nothing now remains but the bank; there are no young trees of any kind.”

“Stonedge Enclosure was made about twelve years ago; it contained 125 acres 1 rood 10 poles, and was fenced with a dry stone wall, which is, for the most part, destroyed; there are a great many thorns and hollies, with some very fine large oaks, but no young timber of any kind coming up.”

“Coverham Enclosure, which contained 350 acres 2 roods 34 poles, was made about fifteen years ago, part with a dry stone wall, and part post and rails; nothing but the bank now remains.  There was a great quantity of young timber, particularly birch, in this enclosure, which is nearly all destroyed in consequence of the fences being pulled down.”

“Serridge Enclosure was made about twelve years ago.  It contained 409 acres 3 roods 20 poles, and was fenced with a dry stone wall, of which but little remains, being quite open in many parts; there are no young trees of any sort, and but few old trees.”

“Heywood Enclosure contained 715 acres 3 roods 38 poles, and was made about ten years ago, part with a dry stone wall, and part pales; very few traces remain, and in some parts none at all.  We have been informed that great part of the wall was pulled down, or fell, before the whole was completed, and the pales carried away by waggons, &c., soon after they were put up; and from its present appearance it is evident no advantage has been derived from this enclosure, as there are no young trees in any part of it.”

“Stapleage Enclosure, containing 183 acres 1 rood 3 poles, has been made about five years, part with dry stone wall, and part dead hedge; in general in good repair.  In some parts of it there are a few small oak and beech plants, and also a few large oaks and beeches.”

“Speech House Enclosure, containing 5 acres 6 poles, was made four years ago by the Deputy Surveyor, and planted with acorns which have produced some young oaks.”

“Birchwood Enclosure, containing 135 acres 24 poles, has been made about five years, part with dead hedge and part dry stone wall, which in general is in good repair; there are but few young oaks coming up.”

“Buckholt Enclosure, which contains 352 acres 3 roods 20 poles, has been made about eighty years, the greatest part with a stone wall, the rest hedge and ditch.  The fences of this enclosure have of late years been kept in good repair.  There are some very fine large oaks in it, but in general it contains a great quantity of fine young beech.  There are also some oak-trees of about ten or fifteen years’ growth, and young oaks are coming up from acorns which have been set in vacant places.  A few Weymouth pines have also been planted in this enclosure, which grow very well.”

The total acreage of these enclosures was 3,220 acres 6 poles, and their position is shown pretty accurately by Mr. Taylor in his map of the county.  Messrs. Driver’s report also informs us that there were now 589 houses, 1,798 pieces of land encroached from the open Forest, comprising 1,385 acres 3 roods 21 poles, thus distributed in the six “walks:”—

Upwards of seventeen different Reports on the condition of “the Forest and Land Revenues of the Crown” were made to Parliament by the Commission of 1788, a fact which will partly explain the delay which took place in carrying out the plans recommended in the Commissioners’ Third Report with reference to the Forest of Dean.  The chief improvements effected were in the roads, under an Act passed in the year 1795, for mending, widening, and altering the existing roads, and making new ones through the Forest to places adjoining, in the parishes of Newland, Lydney, and Awre.  Mr. John Fordyce, now the Surveyor-General, alluding to the subject in his Report, dated 1797, says, that an arrangement had been made with the principal inhabitants in the neighbourhood, whereby the cost of keeping up the roads was to be met by means of turnpikes, the Crown constructing them in the first instance.

The following extracts from the contemporary numbers of ‘The Gloucester Journal’ minutely relate the acts of violence which ensued:—

Lord Nelson’s remarks on the Forest—Free miners endeavour to restore their Court of Mine Law—White Mead Park planted—Act of 1808, authorising the replanting of the Forest; six commissioners appointed for that purpose—Six enclosures formed in 1810—Mice—Inquiry as to the best mode of felling timber—Last of the enclosures formed 1816—First Forest church consecrated—High Meadow Woods purchased—General condition of the Forest—Unsuccessful efforts to restore the encroachments to the Crown—Plantations mended over—Ellwood and the Great Doward Estates purchased—The blight—Single trees planted out by the roads—Blight on the oaks.

Mr. Fordyce’s second report, as Surveyor-General of the Land Revenues of the Crown, appeared on the 14th of December, 1802; but neither this nor his third, dated the 4th of March, 1806, says anything about the Forest of Dean.  In 1807 the free miners of the district held a meeting, at which a resolution was passed, earnestly requesting the wardens of the Forest to hold a Court of Mine Law, as soon as possible, with the view of regulating the levels, pits, and engines.

With a prospective reference to the plantations shortly to be made, the most laudable pains were taken by Lord Glenbervie to ascertain the best mode of planting and raising the young trees.  He truly remarks that “the space of nearly 100 years must elapse before the success or failure of any plan adopted in the cultivation and management of oak timber for the navy can be clearly ascertained, during the whole of which time a persevering attention and uniformity of system in the execution of the plan adopted would be equally requisite, in fact through a succession perhaps of three or four generations.”  His Lordship made extensive inquiries whether acorns or plants should be first used, or rather some of each; what was the best age and size for transplanting; if plants or trees of any other kind should be set with them, or in places where oaks would not thrive; at what distance apart should they be planted; ought the soil to be cleared or dug, or how prepared; are the old trees to be removed, and the stumps of oak or beech suffered to remain?

On the 23rd of July, 1808, the general principle agreed upon in these respects was, “to plant an intermixture of acorns and oak-trees, with a very small proportion of Spanish chesnuts; so that, if either the acorns or young oaks should succeed, a sufficient crop might be expected, and to plant no trees of any other sorts, except in spots where it should be thought that oaks would not grow, and which it might be necessary to include, in order to avoid the expense of fencing, or for shelter in high and exposed situations.”  The first enclosures were planted agreeably to this method, only afterwards it was found necessary to set young oaks instead of acorns, few of these only coming up.

A. transplanted at 16 years of age }
B. transplanted at 23 years of age }  girth at 6 ft. from the ground.
C. not transplanted at all        }