Free
Miners are an intriguing and important group of Forest of Dean miners.
"All male persons born or hereafter to be born and abiding within the said Hundred of St Briavels, of the age of twenty one years and upwards, who shall have worked a year and a day in a coal or iron mine within the said Hundred of St Briavels, shall be deemed and taken to be Free Miners." extract from Dean Forest (Mines) Act 1838.
The official register of Free Miners is kept by the Deputy Gaveller, a Crown officer responsible for the administration of the Free Mining customs and collection of mineral royalties. The photograph above shows recent Deputy Gaveller Albert Howells, in his office at Coleford, inspecting a coal gale map book. Specific gales are granted to Free Miners at their request and defines the mineral and areas that can be worked.
Archaeological evidence has shown that iron working in the Forest of Dean was extensive by Roman times and that by Norman times, Dean iron was an important part of the nation’s economy. The Forest of Dean became the most prominent iron producing district in the British Isles. The iron miner and blacksmith became privileged and it is probably from this time that Free Mining customs were rationalised and recorded in the form they now exist.
The earliest known copy of the Dean Miners’ Laws and Privileges is from 1610 but the copy itself contains references to much earlier origins. The document contains 41 laws and privileges for the winning of Myne (iron ore) and Sea Cole (coal). The rights for access and the method of staking a claim, known as a gale are outlined. The duties of the King’s representative (the Gaveller) included the collection of royalties in cash or kind, whilst the court “that is called Myne Lawe” allowed the Dean Miners to be largely self governing. The exact date by which these privileges were operating is not known but it is recorded in 1244 that Free Miners already had the exclusive right to win ore in the Dean.
Royal Charter
There are many references to the medieval Free Miners, they were instrumental in recapturing Berwick upon Tweed several times (1296, 1305, 1315) as it passed between Scottish and English hands. Legend tells us that it was for their indispensable services, particularly during his Scottish campaigns, that Edward I granted the Dean Miners a Royal Charter, as he had with other mining districts such as Derbyshire. All the documents from the Mine Law Court were stolen at the end of the 18th century and not all of them were recovered. The ‘Miners’ Lawes And Privileges’ mentioned above, became known locally as the ‘Book of Dennis’ and has been thought to be a translation of an earlier miners’ charter as it contains ancient legal terms that hint at it having been translated from Latin or early French. No charter is known to exist today
French Campaigns
Free Miners were requested to fight in France and fought at the famous battles of Crecy (1346), Poitiers (1356) and Agincourt (1415). Miners were used as an essential part of the King’s armoury, they undermined fortifications, created earthworks, built timber structures etc. Dean Miners were also excellent archers, expert with the long bow, as well as being renowned for their mining skills, hardy nature, gritty determination and ferocity in battle.
Free Mining Sailors!
It may have been because of these unique qualities that in 1576 a dozen Free Miners were selected to be on board ship with one of England’s great sea captains - Martin Frobisher. They were part of a ultimately unsuccessful adventure to discover the elusive North-West Passage; a route around the North American continent.
19th Century
Towards
the end of the 18th century conflicting mining interests began to arise
in the Forest of Dean, particularly from the increased demand for iron
and coal created by the Industrial Revolution. Powerful outside interests
began to look towards the large untapped coal and iron reserves in the
Forest of Dean, they saw that it was reserved solely to the Free Miners
and they looked for a way in. The Free Miner's Mine Law Court that had
successfully regulated Free Mining for centuries, became bogged down with
disputes, also embroiled in the pressure to allow outside interests in
the operation and ownership of mines. Towards the end of the 18th century
the mine court records had been stolen by Crown Officials and the court
ceased to operate, despite demands by the miners that it should restart.
The Crown saw its opportunity and decided to rationalise the system to suit all interests. Deep coal and iron reserves could not be mined without substantial investment, and industrial interests from outside the Forest of Dean, particularly the Crawshay family from industrialised South Wales, were looking to exploit the district, hoping to create larger and deeper collieries than had ever been dug here before.
A Royal Commission was appointed in 1831 to inquire into the nature of the mineral interests and freemining customs in the Forest of Dean, five reports followed that culminated in the passing of the Dean Forest Mines Act 1838. This Public Act confirmed the Free Miners exclusive right to the minerals of the Forest of Dean; the Act made very few changes to the customs, but one very important change was that a Free Miner would now be allowed to sell his gale to a non Free Miner; this had broken the system wide open. The Act otherwise clarified the rules of working, placing the customs with little alteration into Parliamentary statute. The Dean Forest Mines Act is the basis for Free Mining today. The Schedules to the 1838 Act state strict rules for working gales within the Hundred of St Briavels; Free Mining is administered by the Deputy Gaveller, currently Mr John Harvey MBE, whose offices are at Bank House, Coleford.
To become a Free Miner
To become registered, a man must be born and living within the Hundred of St Briavels, be over the age of 21 years and to have worked for a year and a day in a mine within the Hundred. (Although its origins are obscure, a Hundred became a subdivision of a County which had its own court; it has been suggested that it was an area where the medieval king could demand the services of a hundred fighting men - in the case of the St Briavels Hundred, the king would demand the services of skilled miners). Today the area covered by the Hundred of St. Briavels consists of the statutory Forest of Dean and each parish touching the Forest boundary.
Once registered as a Free Miner by the Deputy Gaveller, a man may claim up to three gales from the Crown (if they are not already being worked) and may make applications for any gale he believes may become vacant. Once granted to him, he becomes the owner in fee simple of the underground area and can work the minerals defined in the gale; the galee may dispose of the gale as he wishes. Originally the King had the right to put in his own man to work with the Free Miner and share the profit of the mine. Since 1838, in lieu of the right to put in the King's Man (the fifth man) a share of the mineral produced from the gale is agreed at the outset and the royalty becomes payable to the Crown for each ton of mineral raised. If the gale is not worked, a 'dead rent' or minimum composition is still payable for continued ownership. The dead rent is equivalent to an agreed minimum tonnage output. If no royalty or dead rent is paid for the gale, it can become forfeited to the Crown; to be applied for and re-granted to other Free Miners. Once a mine is working again no dead rent is paid until the tonnage royalty exceeds the value of dead rent paid when the gale was idle.
Free Mining today
During the process of coal Nationalisation the Forest of Dean became exempted due to its unique form of ownership and history. The Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946 gave specific exemption for gales to allow this unique local privilege to continue intact. Some large colliery gales were subsequently compulsorily purchased from the galees by the National Coal Board and held under the Free Mining system, a royalty continued to be paid by the Board, to the Free Miners as a share of the minerals extracted until the last of the NCB Deep Gales finally closed in 1965.
There are around 150 Free Miners alive today. There are only a handful of collieries still operating, one iron mine (Clearwell Caves) and five small stone quarries within the statutory Forest. Free Mining has a long and proud history, most Forest families can tell a mining tale or two and will proudly claim a Free Mining ancestor or relative. Free mining is an important part of what makes the Forest of Dean unique.