I KNEW quite well what dinosaurs looked like, where they

lived and what they ate from the fossil record, but I had

no idea what they might sound like until I read the two

letters  'Bang up to date' and 'A load of old tosh'in the free

miner debate in your letter pages in the Review last week.

In 'Bang up to date' John Belcher  refers to Clearwell

Caves and Iron Ore Mine  solely as 'a tourist mine'

showing a complete ignorance of the major educational

role this mine has played in the country. As a  Geography

teacher at GCSE, GCE O and A level and as an

environmental management lecturer at BTEC National 

level and  at university over the past 35 years (albeit in

faraway, lowly, Dickensian, inner city establishments) I

have taken dozens of students to the mine. There they

were enlightened by Ray Wright on the underlying geology

and industrial history of the Forest. I have referred to it to

as a unique learning resource to hundreds of students.

Now the Clearwell Caves website makes a great

introduction to this information with worksheets and

geological diagrams accessible for students to begin their

essays.  No doubt other teachers and lecturers can echo

that, for thousands of students nationwide. No student

has  ever accused me of taking them to Disneyland or

Alton Towers after visiting Clearwell no matter what other

events are held there.

 In the post-industrial, globally-warming world,

education is perhaps the best role for free miners,

particularly colliers. Coal was really too precious as  a

complex hydrocarbon  to be burned profligately as fuel by

past generations. It's true it gave us our wealth and

defended the Empire but future generations will curse us,

I'm sure, for such waste of this unique fossil resource.

Elaine Morman is also mining a precious resource;

ochre pigment. Something truly natural from the Forest

that is of value to the post-industrial world. It may have

been of value to Renaissance artists in Italy, over five

centuries ago.

You only have to go now to the cafe  at Clearwell

Caves or to the Artist's Studio at the Taurus Crafts Centre,

Lydney to see the marvellous use of these pigments  by

our local artist Kathy Lewis. These are fabulous portraits

of free miners painted with these very pigments.

 Elaine Morman is not, as I.G. Ellis so insultingly calls

her in 'A Load of old Tosh'; "a woman....scraping a little

bit of coloured dirt  into a little plastic bag to sell to

tourists."    (Note the repetitive use of "little" – at least he

held off from calling her "the little woman".)  She is

meeting a clear need for this exceptional product as local

artists will testify.

The opposition to this woman's election as  a free

miner in the Forest of Dean is being fought with the 

animus and language recorded by D H Law­rence in his

novels reflecting both  the careless mine owners and the

brutalised colliers of the 19th and 20th century coalfields

of the East Midlands. If Foresters  don't want their

heritage to be trampled underfoot in the crude way that

mine was lost there, swamped by acres of city overspill

estates, multiple mini-roundabouts and then shot

through by the M42 motorway, they should welcome such

delicate initiatives and updating of their heritage that

Elaine Morman's election brings. Heritage is not a dirty

word or the preserve of a privileged few. It is for us all to

enjoy without losing its quality.

– Joseph Orton, Coalway, Coleford.