New Fancy Pit - any photos?
Freeminers surname Preest - any photos?

New Fancy Pit - any photos?

http://www.forestprints.co.uk/parkend_new_fancy_colliery_v02.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Fancy

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Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>

Also a photo at www.sungreen.co.uk/Parkend-Glos/New_Fancy.html and some other mentions on that site if you put "new fancy" into its search facility.

Thanks peteressex & slowhands I have bought 2 copies of the photos of the colliery.
My grandfather surname Preest was an underground mine inspector at the colliery,
(1911 census return). The chap with the boater? I don't know either!

Another source to view and buy old photos is the relatively new and growing site of Neil Parkhouse (of Lightmoor Press fame). His site has a few hundred Dean photos with a few less well-known ones of New Fancy pit, but again the only person shown is our friend in the boater. New Fancy photos are near bottom of this page, click to enlarge them.
http://www.archive-images.co.uk/gallery/Archive-Images-of-the-Forest-of-Dean-Coalfield/...

Also from Neil is this great website for the history of individual Dean pits, in case you didn't know, New Fancy is particularly well-covered;
http://www.lightmoor.co.uk/forestcoal/CoalNewFancy.html
(Click on the Pithead logo to find the menus to other pits etc).

I read in one of the old FoD photos books that the aforementioned "man in the hat" is thought to be an assistant of this particular photographer. Don't forget in those days the wooden box camera, it's heavy tripod, case of photographic glass plates etc etc all took some lugging about, so a photographer would usually have an assistant especially if walking "off-road" as twere. This particular assistant was also included in the photos because it was (and still is) thought to add extra interest to a scene if living people (or better still people with animals) were included in the "composition". Certainly some of these photos have not just one but groups of obviously staged young men in their Sunday best, as if the local cricket team's been hired for the day's shooting !

Thanks Jeff, I remember reading about this and the photo. some time ago, thanks for the other info. too., members of our Preest family will be delighted. Most of my cousins and myself are the first generation possibly for a FEW hundred years to have been born outside of the Forest of Dean. Although the family has scattered, some of us still regard The Forest as home including me.