Strip and At It & Trafalgar , Serridge / Brierly (General)

by slowhands , proud of his ancient Dean Forest roots, Monday, August 17, 2009, 15:39 (5656 days ago) @ neil

in the area of Serridge Green / South of the Swan Inn, Brierly, towards the Trafalgar Pit

http://www.old-maps.co.uk/
Approx Map ref
362365, 214580

STRIP AND AT IT
The site of the former Strip-and-at-it colliery has few visible remains apart from some concrete and stonework. Part of the tunnel between Trafalgar and Strip-and-at-it survives and its Trafalgar entrance is well preserved. Notice that the historic postcard is headed 'Trafalgar Colliery', which took over the workings.

The Strip-and-at-it gale was worked by John Harris from 1832. Two pumping engines were in use by 1841, and production was 11,502 tons in 1856. It worked the Rocky and Churchway Seams of the Supra-Pennant Group (top part of the Upper Coal Measures) through a 381 ft (in 1841) shaft, and was notorious for the thinness (20 ins) of its seams. Coal raising ceased in 1861, and the gale was surrendered to the Crown in 1864. It was then acquired by Corneleus and Francis Brain, owners of the nearby Trafalgar Colliery, who used the shaft for pumping (a 44-inch Cornish engine was working in 1880) and as an emergency exit. There was a spur to the Severn and Wye Railway's Churchward Branch by 1842, and this was connected by a short tunnel to Trafalgar Colliery in 1860, although the latter colliery soon had direct rail access to both the Great Western Railway's Forest of Dean Branch and the Severn and Wye Railway. Strip-and-at-it closed, along with Trafalgar Colliery, in 1925.

TRAFALGAR
There are remains of retaining walls of the screens, the tip and the tramway tunnel to Strip-and-at-it Colliery, all much overgrown. A pair of shafts is marked by two large rocks. Nearby Trafalgar House (still a dwelling) was the home of Sir Francis Brain.

The Trafalgar gale was granted to Corneleus Brain in 1842, but work does not appear to have begun until about 1860. After 1867 coal from the adjacent Rose-in-hand gale was also worked. There were two shafts, worked by the same winding engine, through the Upper Coal Measures (Supra-Pennant Group) down to the Churchway High Delf Seam at a depth of 586 ft. A narrow-gauge tramway (Brain's Tramway) was soon built to the Great Western Railway's Forest of Dean Branch at Bilson, but after 1872 there was also a connection with the Severn and Wye Railway. The colliery was unique in Dean in being lit by gas, and electric pumps were installed underground in 1882, the first recorded use of electric power in a mine. Trafalgar was one of the larger pits, employing 800 men and boys in 1870, and producing 88794 tons of coal in 1880 and about 500 tons/day in 1906. However, the main dip roadway was unexpectedly flooded in 1919, and the colliery was bought by the managements of Lightmoor and Foxes Bridge Collieries to protect their own workings. It closed in 1925.

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