Richard Whittington crushed by the fall of a bell (General)

by lesleyr , London, Saturday, April 03, 2010, 12:00 (5427 days ago) @ lesleyr

Many thanks for your help Andrew and Slowhands. That makes sense.
I know that in Somerset they had bell pits in the early mining days so I looked up bell pit in Wikipedia:
"A bell pit is a primitive method of mining coal where the coal lies near the surface on flat land. A shaft is sunk to reach the coal which is then excavated by miners transported in by means of a winch and removed by means of a bucket (much like a well). It gets its name because in cross section it resembles a bell."
I do not know whether bell pits were in evidence in the Forest of Dean, but even if they were I couldn't see how that could have contributed to Richard's death.
Lesley