Elton's Delight / Mystery gales => Paragon mine ? (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Saturday, September 28, 2013, 00:37 (4069 days ago) @ ChrisW

Excellent find indeed !, but still leaves a slight puzzle (I think - but very happy to be proven wrong!) as to where these pits were ?.
The Lightmoor site clearly states that in 1843 the Elton's Delight gale is within the Upper Bilson area of Lower Cinderford, just "70 yards from the Tormentor pit". So this indeed ties-in nicely with James Morse's PRs which suggest he lived in the Cinderford St John's Parish. Tormentor pit is shown on the Lightmoor site's 1894 Map, sadly Elton's Delight and Mystery are not (I think but happy to be proven wrong), but then only the bigger collieries are shown. The Lightmoor site doesn't clearly state a location for Mystery, indeed it's not even mentioned until 1922; I wonder if this is just another later name for the Elton's Delight pit, or an extension of it, ?. Or maybe it's part of the nearby Paragon pit which is regularly mentioned in the same references as Elton's Delight ?. I cannot find any other references whatsoever to Elton's Delight / Mystery within the usual FoD pit location websites or on the old OS maps ??

Paragon pit was not far east from Tormentor, it gave it's name to Parragate in Cinderford where I was born; as kids we played just below our house on Bilson Green & playing field which still bore the mine's scars, c1990 this was built-on to form Cedardean. The 1:2500 scale maps on the great Old Maps site clearly show these changes thro' the years, just search these co-ordinates 365222 / 214500.
However the older maps show several other "old shafts" nearby, any of which might have been Mystery ?
http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html

Interestingly the oldest Map on the site, 1878-1881, shows the Tormentor pit as Tarmeadow - both names seem quite plausible, but as Tormentor was used in the 1841 reference(Lightmoor site) it's likely that Tarmeadow is just an example of the map's surveyor misinterpreting a Vurrist dialect, "oh them bloomin vurrinners !" ;-)

Anyhow, given your better knowledge of James Morse's life and your reading of the Lightmoor site references I'd love to know your feelings as to where his pits were, please ?. Meanwhile thanks again for another interesting query.