Entering in the next place into a consideration of the actual claims of the free miners, the Commissioners declare their opinion as to how their claims are to be settled, suggesting at once the question “whether they can be now maintained with advantage to the miners themselves, or to the community,” connected as they are with a most defective system of working, productive of incessant disputes and expensive litigation, and occasioning constant disputes and never-ending jealousy; and they thus conclude—“Taking all the circumstances of the case into consideration, we are of opinion that the monopoly and customary workings are practically at an end, and that, if individual claims were bought up, the whole coal-field might then be let by the Crown as between landlord and tenant, defining the limits and regulating the working.”

The fifth and final Report of the Dean Forest Commissioners bore the same date as the preceding.  It contains the evidence produced before them as to “certain claims of common of pasture” made by the inhabitants of the following parishes bounding the Forest, and paying a small sum annually, called “herbage money,” to the lessee of the Crown of the manor and hundred of St. Briavel’s, and the manor of Newland, as annexed:—

It is highly probable that the above claims, and the payments for the ancient agistments, originated when the limits of the Forest comprehended the parishes by which they are made.  The earliest authentic trace of them occurs in the agreement made by Charles I. with Sir John Winter in 1640, according to which about 4,000 acres of Crown land was to be taken in and attached to the bordering parishes in lieu of their rights of commonage; and in conformity with the principle of this agreement, the Commissioners recommended “that these commonable rights should be comprised in some general arrangement for the purpose of a commutation.”

In bringing their labours to a close, the Commissioners urge the necessity of passing an Act for definitively settling the several particulars to which their inquiries had been directed, adding that it would be well to incorporate the offices of Constable of St. Briavel’s Castle, and Warden of the Forest, with the office of Woods, lest they should be found to interfere with its future administration, at that time under the charge of Lord Duncannon, B. C. Stephenson, Esq., and A. Milne, Esq.; and this was accordingly done in the following year.

We gather from Mr. Machen’s memoranda that the nurseries in the Forest at this time (1835) contained:—

and, moreover, that 276,054 trees of various kinds had been planted out during the previous winter.

The important Act by which these difficulties were to be removed, under the auspices of the three Commissioners above named, was framed in accordance with the suggestion thrown out in the fourth Report of the Dean Forest Commissioners, viz., that all subsisting mine-works should be released by compensation to the Crown, and the whole relet on a well-defined plan to such free miners as might make application for the same.  The Act (1 and 2 Vict. cap. 43) provides that all male persons born and abiding within the hundred of St. Briavel’s, being upwards of twenty-one years of age and having worked a year and a day in a coal or iron mine or stone-quarry within the said hundred, should alone have the right to hold or dispose of such works, a register of all such persons being kept as “free miners.”  It suppressed all claims to pit timber, with all “customs,” and assigned to the Commissioners under the Act the duty of fixing rents and royalties for twenty-one years, and to the gaveller power to limit and regulate as well as to enter and survey all works which might be re-awarded or galed.  No engines were to be erected nearer than sixty yards to any enclosure, within which only air-shafts might be opened, and all unnecessary buildings were to be removed.

On the 16th of August, 1838, the annual Report of the Commissioners of Woods was issued, signed by Lord Duncannon, B. C. Stephenson and A. Milne, Esqrs.  It mentions that a piece of land in the parish of English Bicknor had been granted for school purposes, and that the Severn and Wye Tramway Company obtained the licence of the Crown to lay down a branch from Brook Hall Ditches to Foxes Bridge.

The next annual Report bears date 29th July, 1840, and contains nothing calling for special notice.

The year 1841 is particularly important in the history of the Forest from its being the date of the present coal and iron mine awards, under the authority of the Mining Commissioners, the former being signed on the 8th of March, and the latter on the 20th of July.  By these awards no less than 104 collieries were defined and assigned, together with twenty iron-mines, and certain rules and regulations were laid down for working them.

The duties of the Mining Commissioners having now closed, it must have been highly gratifying to those gentlemen to receive from the Government the following expressions of commendation, communicated by Mr. A. Milne:—“I am to convey to you our entire approbation of the zeal, ability, and sound discretion which appear to have marked all your proceedings in the performance of the very important, difficult, and laborious duties which devolved upon you, and their belief that, while the result will be very beneficial to the interests of the Crown, it will be attended with equal advantage to the great body of mining adventurers in securing their titles to the property on very reasonable and moderate terms, and subject to the regulations and conditions which seem to be well calculated to protect them from that constant and expensive litigation which had so long existed.”

The same Report also notices the provisions now made for the relief of the poor, and for the abolition of the court and prison of the hundred of St. Briavel’s.  The Act for the relief of the poor is dated the 9th of July, and authorizes the introduction of the new Poor Law, dividing the Forest into the two townships of East and West Dean, by a line drawn in a diagonal direction from Lydbrook to Ayleford, being in fact almost the same boundary which separated the ancient divisions of “above and beneath the wood.”  The Act attached East Dean to the Westbury-upon-Severn Union, and West Dean to that of Monmouth.  It also united the Hudnalls, the Bearse, the Fence, and Mawkins Hazells to the parishes of St. Briavel’s and Hewelsfield, Mailscot and an adjoining tract to English Bicknor, and Walmore and Northwood’s Green to the parish of Westbury-upon-Severn, for the support of their own poor, by means of rates levied as their respective overseers for the relief of the poor should direct.

Messrs. Clutton’s, &c., Report on the Forest timber—Viscount Duncan’s Committee—Supply of 1,000 loads of timber to the Pembroke Dockyard resumed—Mr. Drummond’s Committee—Report of Mr. Brown—Messrs. Matthews’s Report.

By this time (1842) some of the enclosures made in 1814 were become fit for being thrown open, the young trees having grown up sufficiently, and the following Commissioners, viz., Lord Lincoln, A. Milne, C. Gore, Sir T. Crawley, J. Pyrke, M. Colchester, C. Bathurst, E. Machen, P. J. Ducarel, J. F. Brickdale, Esqrs., proceeded to authorize the laying open of 163 acres 2 roods 24 poles in Little Stapledge and Birchwood, directing that an equal quantity of land should be added to the Acorn Patch and the Bourts.

In the year 1843 Beechenhurst and Shutcastle Enclosures, comprising 467 acres 2 roods 31 poles, were disenclosed, an equal extent of land at the Delves, Harry Hill, Hangerberry, Old Croft, the Blind Meand, Cleverend Green, Clearwell Meand, and Birch Hill being taken in.  Upon the 22nd of this October a sale was effected to the Crown, for the sum of £1,260, of the eligible school premises at Cinderford, erected originally by Mr. Protheroe for his workpeople.  On the 22nd of October in the ensuing year, 1844, the church adjoining the school just named, to the erection of which Dr. Warneford and Charles Bathurst, Esq., largely contributed, was consecrated by Bishop Monk, the Crown endowing it with £150 per annum, making the total sum given by the Government to church endowments in the Forest upwards of £10,347.  The following year is almost a blank in the annals of the neighbourhood.  The Report of the Commissioners of Woods was issued on the 5th of August.

Mr. Machen’s Notes inform us that in the autumn of 1846 “there was the most abundant crop of Spanish chesnuts we have ever had, and they ripen well, but the people injure the trees to get them.  No acorns at all—there are some on the Turkey oaks.  The fruit of most kinds has failed this year, as well as the potatoes; but of some kinds, such as chesnuts, grapes, blackberries, the crop is abundant.  The spruce firs are looking very bad; many of them are nearly dead.”

Proceeding to the year 1848, the Report of the Commissioners of Woods, which appeared in September, informs us that upwards of 18,000 acres in the district of the Forest were covered with wood and timber.  Unfortunately blight again prevailed, of which in the month of June Mr. Machen’s MS. records:—“The oak-trees have been attacked for several years past by a small caterpillar which eats all the leaves, and this year the destruction has been greater than ever; the whole Forest has been almost leafless; the high ground and the low, the large timber and the young plantations, have all suffered alike.  The first time I noticed this blight was in 1830, when the High Meadow woods and many parts of the Forest suffered, but it was principally confined to the large timber.  It has continued more or less every year since, but this has been the worst year of any; yet it is remarkable that the High Meadow Woods are free from it and in fine foliage, but no part of the Forest has escaped.  The grub, a little black caterpillar, comes to life just as the oak is coming into leaf, and feeds upon the leaves.  It attacks no other tree; the beech, chesnut, &c., stand in full verdure surrounded by the brown and leafless oaks.  They envelop the tree in a web they spin about the end of May; they enclose themselves in a leaf curled up, and remain in a chrysalis state until the middle of June or July, when they change into a pale greenish small moth that flies about the trees in myriads, and lay their eggs in the bark of the trees for future mischief, and then die.  There seems to be no means of checking their ravages.  The rooks come in great numbers, and they and other birds destroy great quantities.  The trees put forth a second foliage at the midsummer shoot, but not full, and the shoot of the year and the growth of the trees must be injured.”

The same reporters speak of “the existing plantations being in a very good state, having been judiciously and well planted, fully stocked, well managed, and sufficiently protected.  They are properly drained and amply thinned; so that there is upon the ground, in a state to proceed to maturity, as good a crop as can be found to exist in any part of England, taking extent and quality of soil into consideration.  The plantations reflect great credit upon all parties concerned in their management, the system of which we should strongly advise to be continued.  To remove the young trees with the view of converting the land into arable cultivation would involve a loss of £280,500, besides that of the increasing net annual profit, which official returns prove to be as follows:—

Mr. Isaiah Teague took the same view, and further supported the recommendation that greater facilities should be given, not only to the mineowners to build cottages for their men, but also that the operatives themselves should be enabled to buy small plots of land for the purpose, they being now frequently obliged to live far distant from their places of work, there being few, if any, houses situated near them.  These witnesses, as well as several others, agreed in stating that it was inexpedient to have deer in the Forest, as unsettling the habits of the people, and encouraging poaching.  They yet admitted, however, that the deer were highly ornamental.

It was also stated in evidence that the Forest was now fully planted; and whereas some of the witnesses recommended that the larger portion of the wood should be cut, and the remainder converted into arable or pasture land, it was shown by others that to do so would be like cutting a crop of wheat whilst green, and be defeating the original intention of the Government, which was to raise timber for the use of the navy, which the private woods of the kingdom could not supply.  Much, too, of the soil was said to be unsuited for farming purposes, being so precipitous in some parts, and stony in others, as to be unfit for ploughing.  Much of the timber was reported to be of the finest character, and the young trees, for the most part, doing very well.  No improvements in the management of the estate were suggested, and at the close of the inquiry the committee reported that the plantations were growing luxuriantly, having been well thinned, and did credit to all concerned in their management.

The Commissioners of Woods’ Report, dated the 27th of June this year, informs us that gales of coal had been granted, under the names of the Beaufort Engine, Oaken Hill, New Bridge, East Slade (lapsed), and the Injunction Iron Mine—paying a total rental of £54.  In November following this Forest contributed its quota of navy-timber, amounting to 388 loads 22 feet, towards the total of 1,000 loads levied upon the Royal Forests; which quantity was delivered at the Pembroke Dockyard at the cost of £992. 8s. for carriage.  It may also be mentioned that at the Gloucester Summer Assizes of this year the action of Lord Seymour, as Chief Commissioner of Woods, versus Morrell, for arrears of dead rent which accumulated to the amount of £1,291 1s. 2d., was tried before Lord Chief Justice Campbell and a special jury, when a verdict was found for the Crown, subject to the opinion of the Court of Queen’s Bench upon a special case, which proved, however, confirmatory of the original decision.

In the following year (1852) there were two grants of land for educational and ecclesiastical purposes; one piece was for the site of a school at the Hawthorns, and the other for a parsonage attached to the new church at Lydbrook, which was consecrated on the previous 4th of December by Dr. Ollivant, Lord Bishop of Llandaff, acting for Dr. Monk, who was unable to attend.

Accordingly the bark was this autumn dried on stages, and the number of keepers was reduced to three.  The whole of the timber in Russell’s Enclosure was felled, and the trees at Howler’s Slade, Church Hill, Park End, and on the side of the road to Blakeney were marked for being so, with the exception of any very large or picturesque ones.  At this time also the Lydbrook Deep Level Colliery, and the East Dean Deep Colliery, were awarded; and at the close of the year Mr. Machen resigned his office of Deputy-Gaveller, which was next held by Mr. Warington Smith.

In the spring of 1853 all the timber on Church Hill, at Howler’s Slade, and between the Blakeney Roads was cut down, forming what is now usually called “the great fall.”  The mode of management in the Forest was now rapidly changing, and Mr. Machen, the Deputy-Surveyor, decided this year to resign, after a service of well nigh half a century.  He was succeeded by Mr. Brown.  The flittern bark of this season was dried on stages, having been taken off the young oaks after they had been felled; but the process was not found to answer.

In the next year (1854) a select Committee of the House of Commons sat during the month of June, under the presidency of Mr. Henry Drummond, to collect information respecting “the management and condition of the Crown Forests.”  So far as related to the Forest of Dean, the inquiry seems to have arisen from its being supposed that the timber therein, of which 7,800 loads had been felled during the two previous years, might have been sold at higher prices, and that the mode of stripping and drying the bark was defective.  Yet it appeared in evidence that the price of the timber was about the same as such timber usually fetched in the neighbourhood, and that, upon the whole, the method of removing the bark from the trees whilst standing, and then setting it upright to dry, was as good as that of first felling the tree, and then stripping it and drying the bark on stages.  Moreover, the portable steam saw, which had been sent to the Forest with the design of cutting the timber, as recommended by Mr. Brown, was found to be too small for the purpose, although it was as large as could be conveniently moved from place to place, and hence it proved of little or no use.

Whilst the condition of the Forest of Dean was being thus canvassed, its management had been entrusted to Mr. Brown; but after a few months he was removed, and at the particular request of Government he was succeeded by Mr. Machen, until a permanent arrangement should be made, which was not, however, before the 11th of November, when the office was conferred on Sir James Campbell, Bart., heretofore Deputy-Surveyor of Bere and Parkhurst Forests, and now selected for the ability he had shown in their management.  The Treasury Letter announcing his appointment also states that “after the satisfactory opinion conveyed in the Report of Messrs. Matthews, Menzies, and Murton regarding the system of management heretofore followed in this Forest, the time has come when Mr. Machen may be honourably relieved from the charge which he so long ably fulfilled, and which he resumed at the request of this Board.”

During this year (1854) no less than 4,982 acres 1 rood 20 poles of plantation were thrown open, comprising the enclosures of Haywood, Edge Hills, Ruerdean Hill, and Aston Bridge.  The following licences were likewise granted:—To the Messrs. Kingsford for constructing a length of tramway connecting the Woodside Colliery with a terminus to be formed at Church-way; to Messrs. Allaway for making a tramroad from the Plumphill to their iron-mine at Wigpool; to Messrs. Davis, Cooper, and Roberts to open a brickyard, and to sink additional iron-pits at Cinderford, Clearwell, and Lamb’s Quay.

On the 31st of March in this year the Hon. James Kenneth Howard was appointed one of the Chief Commissioners to administer the affairs of the Royal Forests, the Hon. Charles Gore having for some time, after Mr. Kennedy’s retirement, been the sole Commissioner.

Three additional coal-mines, called Richard White’s Colliery, Hollow Meadow ditto, and Ruardean ditto, besides an iron-mine, called Maxwell and Brooklyn Mine, were now granted, besides six stone-quarries and another brickyard.  Licence was also granted to Messrs. Crawshay to connect their extensive colliery at Light Moore with the main line of railway near Cinderford, on the broad gauge principle, besides four other licences to connect various other works with the chief lines of traffic by short lengths of tramway.

It may be here remarked, that two years previously an inspector was appointed to view the timber intended to be felled for the navy before its being cut, and the following table exhibits the proportion of timber received at the Dockyard before and since the adoption of such a plan, showing its great utility:—

With the exception of a few decayed timber trees being felled in the course of the following year (1857), there is nothing requiring further notice, and I therefore here close the historical account of the Forest, and shall proceed in the following chapters with the other objects of inquiry which have been indicated.

The inhabitants of the Forest—Its Aborigines—Celtic indications in the names of persons and places—The forty-eight free miners’ names appended to their book of “Dennis,” contrasted with the present roll of free miners—Traces of Saxon and Norman influence—Early civilization indicated in the methodical character of their mine laws, and in miners being summoned to several sieges, qualified by their acts of plunder—Successive notices of the inhabitants during the last 150 years, with their present improved condition—Kitty Drew, the Forest poetess—Mining usages described—Order for pit timber—Miners’ Court and Jury—Richard Morse’s poem—Intelligence of the present race—Their superstitions, self-importance, defects of character—Occupations—Domestic animals—Beverage—Dress—Dwellings—Diversions—Dialect—Christian names—Former distribution of population—Present numbers.

The heading of this chapter refers to one of the most interesting circumstances connected with the Forest of Dean, namely, the origin, character, customs, and early condition of its people.

The original occupiers of this part of the kingdom, according to Richard of Cirencester, a writer of the 14th century, were the Silures, an offshoot of the immense Celtic family by which the middle and western parts of Europe were overspread.  The numerous remains left in the district by the Romans indicate that there had been considerable intercourse between them and the inhabitants; but the chief influences of which any traces are left appear to have descended from the Welsh, with whom the foresters of the present day still seem closely to assimilate.  Hence their somewhat impulsive temperament, and the occurrence of Celtic or Silurian names, such as the following, indicative of the character of the places they designate:—

There are also many families bearing the Welsh names of Williams, Morgan, Pritchard, Watkins, Roberts, Gwilliam, Hughes, Jenkins, Griffiths, Lewellyn, &c.  The list of the forty-eight free miners constituting the jury who signed the Book of Mine Laws some 400 years ago, containing so few of those which are now most common in the neighbourhood, indicates a considerable change as having taken place in the population; they may be thus classed:

Not now to be found on the roll of free miners—Garone, Clarke, Wytt, Nortone, Mitchell, Lumbart, Ocle, Barton, Heynes, Arminger, Rogers, Hathen, Miller, Croudfell, Dull, Loofe, Forthey, Walker, Tinker, Witch, Delewger, Doles, Hinde, Tellow, Backstar, Lawrence, Dolet, Caloe, Holt; in place of which names the following now occur—Baldwin, Cook, Dobbs, Hale, Jenkins, Kear, Morgan, Philipps, Harper, Davis, Meek, Brain, Jones, Jordan, Robins, Rudge, James, Milnes, Marfell, Chivers, &c.  The names of Hathway, Skin, Baker, Holder, and Warr still appear in the Forest, although they no longer occur on the rolls of free miners.

Yet to be found on the rolls—Preeste, Smith, Addis, Burt, Hopkine, Tyler, Roberts, Parsons.

Similar traces of Saxon or Norman influence appear in the words Staunton, Newnham, Newland, Ayleford, Coleford, &c.; those of a Norman stamp being apparent in St. Briavel’s, Ruerdean (i.e. rivière Dean), Lea, Coverham (Covert), &c., or in the family names of Baldwin, Waldwin, Chivers, &c.  To which may be added the circumstance that in most of the ancient churches adjoining the Forest there are portions of Early Norman, viz., Newnham, Staunton, English Bicknor, Ruerdean, Woolaston, St. Briavel’s, &c.

Copy of a Warrant or Order for the Delivery of Timber to a Coal Miner in Dean Forest.

“[Forest of Dean.]  At the Court of Attachments, holden at the Speech House, the 25th day of Sep. 1784, came Phil. Hatton, and demanded Timber for himself and Verns, for the Use of their Coal Works called Young Colliers, in Ruerdean Walk, within the said Forest.

“Jno. Matthews, Steward.

“To Mr. John Bradley, Keeper of the said Walk.
                                          (by Certificate.)

“Some Timber to be delivered fit for sinking.
            Indorsed ‘4 Oaks.’

“The miner cuts the timber when assigned, and until within about the last ten years paid a fee of two shillings to the keeper, there being no limit to the amount of timber if applied for the use of the works.  If the gale-ground was situated within the hundred of St. Briavel’s, but belonged to private parties, the free miner still claimed his right to open the ground, the proprietor being let in as a partner, making a sixth, the only exception being churchyards, gardens, orchards, and Crown plantations.”

Their pastimes used to be dancing and foot-ball, to the great delight of people of all ages: indeed there are several spots yet called from the above circumstance “the dancing green.”  Wakes were likewise very popular, and also the game of fives, so that at Ruerdean one side of the church tower was whitewashed for the purpose, and resorted to even on Sundays.  Some of the provincialisms of the district occur in the following words—“yat” (gate), “tump” (hillock), “teart” (sharp), “spract” (lively), “twich” (touch), “near a anoust” (near the same), “anunt” (opposite).

At the close of the century, the Forest, as now bounded, comprised 589 houses, which in 1803 had increased to 696, the number of free miners being then 662.  Since that time the inhabitants of the Forest have gone on increasing as follows:—

In 1821 they were  5,525
In 1831  „  7,014
In 1841  „  10,674
In 1851  „  13,252

of whom about 1,789 have the right of voting for Members of Parliament.  The annual value of property existing in the Forest, not belonging to the Crown, was estimated in 1849 at £13,603 14s. 2d., and in 1856 at £18,492 17s. 7d.