A BOOK that examines the tradition of freemining and the move to market capitalism in the Forest of Dean has been brought back into print, thanks to some serious detective work.

Chris Fisher’s book Custom, Work and Market Capitalism: The Forest of Dean Colliers, 1788-1888 was published in 1978 but soon fell out of print.

Forest of Dean Local History Society member, Ian Wright told the Review: “This is an excellent study of the Forest of Dean colliers at the time. Chris is an ex-Australian miner who studied in Britain and wrote the book as part of his doctorate here.

“When he’d written it he returned to Australia and I tried for fifteen years to track him down. I made one last attempt via some obscure Australian mining trade union contacts and then out of the blue received an e-mail from him from a sheep farm in the outback.”

Chair of the Forest of Dean Freeminers Association, Rich Daniels, has written a preface to the new edition of the book, which is back in print.

Rich said: “This most valuable little book has formed part of my personal collection of Forest reference books for over 20 years. [Chris has] captured the essence of the time to which the book relates. A time of great upheaval in freemining, commoning and the management and use of our Forest land.”

Custom, Work and Market Capitalism is available at Hopewell Colliery or at breviarystuff.org.uk.