FORMER Forest colliery worker Maurice Bent has launched a bid to save the Northern United pithead site near Cinderford from total demolition.
Contracts for the sale of the site have been exchanged between The Forestry Commission and the South West Regional Development Agency. The project is being funded by money from the Coalfields Regeneration Fund.
As part of the deal the RDA must acquire within 12 months a similar area of land to be returned to forestry within the Statutory Forest.
It is the second pithead site to be sold off, despite a legal opinion it could be illegal to do so.
Mr Bent said the Northern United buildings were the last complete mining buildings in the Forest.
"It would be a tragedy if they were lost. They are a memorial to all the Forest pits and in particular to the seven miners who lost their lives there," he said.
"We are too quick to destroy these things. We should stop, look and think of the way ahead because once they are levelled they are gone forever," he said.
"This has happened in other former mining communities and my understanding is that now many of them regret what was allowed to take place in the name of progress. I would urge those involved to think very carefully about the future," he said.
Mr Bent said the Northern United site offered a unique opportunity to establish a museum specifically to Forest mining.
"The chance should not be lost. At the very least there should be the opportunity to discuss what should happen to these buildings," he said.
Northern United operated from 1933 until Christmas Eve 1965. It was the last of the Forest's deep pits to close.
Controversy over the sale of pithead sites resulted in the pressure group Dean Forest Voice seeking a legal opinion which stated no area of the Statutory Forest could be disposed of and that the pitheads should be returned to Forest waste.
It is understood the RDA is carrying out an assessment of the buildings as part of their study of the site.