I HAVE been reading with interest the 'Freeminers saga' and can only conclude that the traditionalists who quote laws from the 1800s about who is allowed into their elite little club actually want this tradition to die out.
Then they will blame everyone except themselves for the closures of the mines and the hospitals and so on, rather than being proactive.
To be allowed the right to be a freeminer you have to qualify under the criteria of being 'male, over 21 years of age, born and abiding within the said Hundred of St Briavels and have worked a year and a day in a quarry in the said Forest'.
It is not just the fact that there are no quarries in which to work in or hospitals in which to be born, but there is no work to keep people of working age living in the Forest or the fact that being a freeminer is hardly something that children see as a goal to aspire to!
In fact, I expect most children have no idea about what it even is. If the tradition is to continue then something needs to change and the easiest is to allow woman to become freeminers.
I doubt this will make a lot of difference and you will not have scores of woman queueing up to claim their rights but it is a step forward. I have two daughters of school age who were born at home, Coleford and Cinderford. While both have enjoyed school trips to Clearwell caves the mere mention of working down there has them scurrying back to their ipods and watching the X Factor.
Maybe there also needs to be a change in education and training that allows qualifying people to gain the work they need to qualify...it could be the new gap year!
Times have changed and it's time the law did too. – Kate Denley, by email.