I would like to add some facts and figures to Sarah Daly's informative article on Forest of Dean free mining in last week's paper.

Coal was recorded as being extensively mined in the Forest of Dean in the 12th Century, although it was secondary in importance to the iron industry. In the mid-12th Century the mining of coal was regulated by the Crown in the same way as iron mining.

During the 1240s, the Constable of St Briavels Castle and the woodwards of Blakeney and Staunton bailiwicks, shared payments from colliers working in those areas. Also, the woodward of Abenhall bailiwick received one penny for each horse-load of coal. In 1282, all coal found in the Bearse, Littledean, Mitcheldean and Staunton Bailiwicks, was taken or claimed by their respective woodwards.

Coal outcrops were mined by digging short drifts, levels and small pits. Methods that are still used by Dean's Free Miners today, albeit by using more sophisticated technology, although the pick and shovel are still essential equipment.

13th Century miners also worked in mines producing gold, silver, tin, copper and lead for the King's coffers; but mining in the British Isles goes back through time to the Neolithic period. Among the first mines in Britain were the Harrow Hill flint mines in West Sussex, dating from around 3,000BC.

The miners used deer antlers fashioned into picks to mine the flints underground. The site is managed by English Heritage. The nearby Cissbury neolithic flint mines were developed around the same period, following a rich seam of flint-bearing chalk. Flintstone axes from Cissbury have been found all over Europe as far as Italy, showing that there was an extensive trade in this most essential commodity. The mine complex lies under a much later Iron-age fort and is managed by the National Trust.

The oldest known verified mine in the world is the 'Lion Cave' mine in Swaziland, Southern Africa. This remarkable mine has been carbon-dated to be at least 43,000 years old. The Paleolithic people of that time mined mineral haematite or iron oxide, which was soft enough to grind into red pigment ochre.

It then took around 40,500 years for iron mining to reach the Forest of Dean, via the Celtic tribes who invaded then settled in our area west of the River Severn.

– John Belcher, researcher, the Gage Library, Dean Heritage Centre.