Miners at Lightmoor Colliery (General)

by JaneyH , Tunbridge Wells, Kent, Sunday, September 29, 2019, 15:36 (1875 days ago)

I've been sorting through some of my early research and I've noted down that some of my Bowdler ancestors worked at Lightmoor Colliery. My only reference is that someone on this site helped me to discover this. Frustratingly, this was when I was an over-enthusiastic, inexperienced researcher and didn't keep proper records!

Having spent the last 45 minutes searching through old posts on here I'm at a loss as to know where my assertion came from! I posted on 20 September 2014 to say that people here had helped me discover the information, but equally there's a much more recent thread from August this year saying that employment records for the collieries are very sparse.

The 1901 Census shows that four brothers all worked in the mines: Tom Edwin Bowdler (23, coal hewer), George Godwin Bowdler (21, coal labourer above ground), Oliver Willie Bowdler (19, coal pump attendant below ground) and Hubert Roy (16, coal pump attendant below ground). The family lived in the Forest at Blaize Bailey, a mile or so south of Littledean.

If anyone here can recall helping me, or alternatively tell me that I'm mistaken, then please put me out of my misery!

What I do know (and have properly documented) is that the boys' father (George Godwin senior) received a small bequest in the will of William Crawshay (owner of Lightmoor) as he had worked as a gamekeeper on his estate.