FOREST Freeminer, Eric Morris of The Pludds, Lydbrook, died suddenly at the weekend, at the age of 80.

Eric was president of the Freeminers Association, a lifelong collier, who also owned Astonbridge Quarry – which entered his family's ownership when it was opened in 1841 by his great-great-grandfather.

His most recent public engagement had been to give an impassioned speech to the Lydbrook flooding emergency meeting, held at the Memorial Hall two weeks ago. There, before a rapt audience, he explained his own scheme for alleviating the floods, by using redundant mine workings to channel the water to the River Lyd, and thence to the estuary at Lydney.

Born into a mining family, all his uncles on his mother's side were freeminers.?He began work at the Waterloo colliery in 1950, and was proud that, after just a few months on the job, he overheard his father describe him to a colleague as "a good collier already". Eric said: "It was the proudest moment of my life".

Known as the 'happy pit' due to the camaraderie between the workers, Waterloo could yield 13 tons of coal per shift, and in some areas could generate16 tons.

In 1954, at the age of 21, Eric registered as a freeminer, and took his own gale in 1958. He worked the Reddings Colliery from then until the 1980s.

Since he retired, he has campaigned to protect the rights of the freeminers, while also helping to preserve the mining history in the local area. To this end, just three years ago, he managed to rescue an ancient beam engine, found at the site of the old Foxes Bridge Colliery, and saved it from being scrapped.

He died of a heart attack on Saturday morning, after leaving his wife, Audrey, in bed before setting off for his quarry at around 7.45am. Paramedics and a doctor were called when his car was seen in the woods, but they reported that there was nothing they could do to save him.