Old Fire Engine Colliery (General)

by unknown, Saturday, August 06, 2011, 22:06 (4861 days ago) @ Jefff

Hi Jefff

Alec Pope was a Cinderford man

As to understanding the Forest Coalfield afraid it's quite complex and you won't get very far on the odd exchange here. But if you're really serious there are some good books you should be able to get from your local library.

For Geology - F.M. Trotter's - 'Geology of the Forest of Dean Coal and Iron-Ore Field'

For Law - James G Wood's - 'The Laws of the Dean Forest and Hundred of St. Briavels'

For History - Cyril Hart's 'The Free Miners of the Royal Forest of Dean and Hundred of St. Briavels'

The former is a HMSO publication and the later two have had recent updated second editions so I suggest you go for them.

In the meantime to get a brief insight the Forest Coalfield is roughly like two basins one in side the other - the inner is the House Coals and the outer the Steam Coals; so imagine standing in Brierly with your back to the Swan (pub) with two pudding basins in your hand tipped toward Lydney at about 15 - 20 degree - Brierly being the approx upper lip of the inner basin and that's essentially the Forest Coalfield apart from the seams lie at a steeper gradient on the eastern crops (Cinderford side) than on the west (Coleford side). - Generally all the seems run the width and breadth of the Basin although some are given different names on one side to that of the other - of course this is just a proximity it all becomes much more complex through geological faulting etc..

Your comments viz Ranks are coincidence because I worked there on the earthworks in 1969/70 for what was then to be called the IDC building - From memory about a million cubic m of muck-shift to create 30 acres of internal floor space and the present main entrance; car parks; etc.; and at that time Concorde regularly came over on test flights with a small jet flying virtually on its tail; similarly the Red Arrows often practiced overhead so we got grandstand views of this wonderful plane long before it went into production and the thrilling spectacle of close formation flying all completely free of charge.

However, I suggest we leave it at that for now Jefff - before someone gets fed up with us. Good luck with the reading - If as it seems your heart's still here in the Forest I'm sure you will enjoy. Let me know if you have any difficulty locating any of them

In the meantime apologies if I've bored anyone with this.

Cheers

Vurrister